The restless Leiber was the big talker.Ītlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler, writing in his 1993 autobiography, described Leiber as “Mr. Stoller, the trained musician, was the quieter one.
They were, however, very different from each other.
Yes, they bickered over a line in a song or whether a note should at one point go up or down, but they were buddies to the end, able to crack each other up and finish each other’s sentences. Theirs was an unusually long and compatible musical partnership. It was only when Presley covered “Hound Dog” in 1956 that their music began crossing over into the mainstream, paving the way for rock ‘n’ roll to dominate the youth culture.
Graham in his book on the duo points out that radio was mostly regional and TV had just started coming into American living rooms when Leiber and Stoller started writing for Ray Charles, Joe Turner and other black artists.
In 1995, a musical based on Leiber and Stoller songs, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” opened on Broadway and ran for more than 2,000 performances.īesides writing and producing their own songs, the duo produced other artists’ music on Leiber-Stoller labels - Spark (with Lester Sill), Red Bird and others - and broke ground by becoming the first independent record producers at a major label, Atlantic Records. Lovin’”) and Wilbert Harrison, whose 1959 hit with it is probably the best-known. The songwriters’ most oft-recorded tune is the laid-back, bluesy “Kansas City,” which has been sung by such varied artists as Little Willie Littlefield in 1952 (as “K.C. “Dancing and laughing, we came of age to their songs.”ĭozens of other artists have recorded Leiber and Stoller songs: the Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Barbra Streisand, Edith Piaf, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and more. “They corrupted us with pleasure,” critic and author John Lahr wrote of the songwriters in the introduction to Graham’s “Baby, That Was Rock & Roll: The Legendary Leiber and Stoller” (1978). With their sassy lyrics and playful melodies, the songs liberated American teenagers to enjoy their youth and poke fun at their elders. 9") and, especially, a Robins’ spinoff group that Leiber and Stoller helped create, the Coasters (“Searchin’,” “Yakety Yak,” “Poison Ivy,” “Charlie Brown,” “Down in Mexico,” “Little Egypt”).Īs Leiber-Stoller biographer Robert Graham wrote, the Coasters’ songs “were arguably the most enduring and hands-down funniest records of the rock ‘n’ roll era.” 9"), the Drifters (“Ruby Baby”) the Cheers (“Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots”), the Robins (“Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” “Riot in Cell Block No. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, Leiber and his lifelong writing partner, Stoller, wrote hits that included Elvis Presley’s rat-a-tat-tat rendition of “Hound Dog” in 1956 and Peggy Lee’s 1969 recording of the jaded “Is That All There Is?”īut they may be best remembered for the ebullient, impudent hits written for black groups like the Clovers (“Love Potion No. Leiber, the words half of the duo, died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of cardiopulmonary failure, said Randy Poe, president of the songwriters’ music publishing company.
Jerry Leiber, who with his songwriting partner, Mike Stoller, created a songbook that infused the rock ‘n’ roll scene of the 1950s and early ‘60s with energy and mischievous humor, has died.