Rock and Roll lost one of its greatest tunesmiths yesterday when Jerry Leiber, one half of the songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, passed away at the age of 78 yesterday.
Leiber's lyrics helped keep the "fun" in rock and roll. Classic early rock hits like "Charlie Brown", "Yakety Yak" and "Poison Ivy" kept The Coasters near the top of the charts in the '50's. When they took themselves a bit more seriously, Leiber and Stoller turned out beautiful '60's classics like "On Broadway", "Spanish Harlem" and "Stand By Me".
They also played a hand in some of Elvis' biggest hits like "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock" and "Love Me". Their music became the basis for the Broadway Musical "Smokey Joe's Cafe" a few years back ... and even last year's American Idol Contenders paid tribute to this prolific songwriting team during one of their "theme weeks" last season.
According to Fred Bronson's book "Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits", Leiber and Stoller first met and started writing songs together at the age of 16. (Mike Stoller, who is less than a month older than his partner, is still alive and living in Los Angeles.) A mutual friend hooked the two aspiring songwriters up and created one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in music history. (Both men were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame back in 1987.)
Bronson's book lists The Top Ten Leiber and Stoller Hits as follows:
#1 - HOUND DOG - Elvis Presley
#2 - JAILHOUSE ROCK - Elvis Presley
(They also penned this record's charting B-Side, "Treat Me Nice")
#3 - LOVING YOU - Elvis Presley
#4 - DON'T - Elvis Presley
#5 - SEARCHIN' / YOUNG BLOOD - The Coasters (Leiber and Stoller wrote both sides of THIS hit, too!)
#6 - KANSAS CITY - Wilbert Harrison
#7 - CHARLIE BROWN - The Coasters
#8 - YAKETY YAK - The Coasters
#9 - RUBY BABY - Dion
#10 - STAND BY ME - Ben E. King
Again, his music will live on forever ... these are timeless, feel good tunes that we have all spent a lifetime enjoying and singing along to. We'll miss you, Jerry! (kk)
Got this from FH Reader Tom Cuddy:
Got this from FH Reader Tom Cuddy:
Jerry Leiber, Lyricist Behind "Jailhouse Rock" and "Chapel of Love," Dies
In partnership with songwriter Mike Stoller, Leiber penned hits such as
"There Goes My Baby" and "Hound Dog."
(Marc Schneider)
Pop music lyricist Jerry Leiber, whose partnership with Mike Stoller created such timeless hits as "Jailhouse Rock" and "There Goes My Baby," helping to shape the identity and commercial potential of early rock and roll, died Tuesday of cardio pulmonary failure, Rolling Stone is reporting. He was 78.
A dual member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Baltimore native helped create the "crossover" phenomenon with mainstream hits for black artists like The Coasters ("Young Blood," "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown") and Ben E. King ("Stand By Me").
Other definitive songs include "Love Potion No. 9," "Kansas City" and a pair of songs that became eternally tied to Elvis Presley. In 1956, Presley snatched up their track "Hound Dog," written four years earlier for Big Mama Thornton. A year later, Presley growled to "Jailhouse Rock," a genre-defining song released alongside the film of the same name.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing acquired the Leiber-Stoller catalogue in April 2007. The firm's Chairman and CEO Martin N. Bandier said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, "The songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller remains one of the greatest and most prolific partnerships of all time. Jerry was a special part of our Sony/ATV family and it was a relationship that ranks among the very best and most sincere in my entire career. Like the lyrics in his iconic songs, Jerry was humorous, insightful and always memorable. He will be missed by everyone who knew him, but lucky for all of us his songs will live on for generations.”
The 1960s were kind to Leiber/Stoller with a continued parade of hits including the Drifters' "On Broadway," the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" and the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love."
In 1969, they produced Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?"
Their songs are pop music standards and are regularly covered by other artists and featured on television shows such as American Idol, which dedicated an entire episode in season 10 to their catalog.
Their legacy was further cemented in 1995 when Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller opened on Broadway. The show comprised of 40 songs from the duo and was nominated for seven Tony Awards before closing five years later.
Born less than a month before Leiber in 1933, Stoller still resides in Los Angeles.
Lyricist Jerry Leiber, who -- along with his partner Mike Stoller -- gave us such legendary tunes as "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Kansas City," "Charlie Brown" and "Love Potion #9," died Monday (August 22) in a Los Angeles hospital from cardiopulmonary failure. He was 78.
Born in Baltimore, Jerry's family moved to Los Angeles and he hooked up with Mike while still a high school student (Mike was enrolled at Los Angeles City College). Despite being white and Jewish, the two shared a love of rhythm-and blues music that soon extended into a songwriting collaboration. Their first commercial success came with Jimmy Witherspoon's recording of "Real Ugly Women" in 1950. They formed Spark Records in 1953 and produced the Robins (later to morph into the Coasters) for the label. Spark was bought by Atlantic Records and Jerry and Mike went on to produce hits for the Coasters, as well as the Drifters, Ben E. King and Jay & the Americans. They later started Red Birds Records, which gave us the Shangri-Las and Dixie Cups. A list of all the tunes written or produced by the duo could fill an encyclopedia, but they include "There Goes My Baby," "Young Blood," "Searchin'" "Spanish Harlem," "Ruby Baby," "Yakety Yak," "Black Denim Trousers," "Hard Headed Woman," "On Broadway," "Only In America" and "Is That All There Is." A revue of their songs, "Smokey Joe's Café," opened on Broadway in 1995 and was nominated for seven Tony awards. The songwriters' dual autobiography was published in 2009. They were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, two years after being named to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
From Artie Wayne, who shares some of his personal memories of Jerry Leiber ...
KENT ...
HOW YA' DOIN'?
HERE'S MY TRIBUTE IN MEMORY OF MY PAL FROM THE PAST, JERRY LEIBER ("HOUND DOG", "IS THAT ALL THERE IS?") WHOSE EFFECT ON MODERN MUSIC IS IMMEASURABLE!
Artie also shared this piece of sad news:
IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT MY FRIEND NICK ASHFORD "AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH" JUST PASSED AWAY AS WELL. I BROUGHT NICK AND VALARIE SIMPSON TO MOTOWN IN THE SIXTIES AND HELPED THEM ESCAPE IN THE SEVENTIES!
IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT MY FRIEND NICK ASHFORD "AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH" JUST PASSED AWAY AS WELL. I BROUGHT NICK AND VALARIE SIMPSON TO MOTOWN IN THE SIXTIES AND HELPED THEM ESCAPE IN THE SEVENTIES!
ARTIE
When you think of Leiber and Stoller, this probably isn't one of the tunes you think of ... but hey, isn't that exactly what Forgotten Hits is supposed to be all about?!?!?
Back in 1968, The Monkees recorded "D.W. Washburn" ... and it became their very last National Top Ten Hit.
