Legendary songwriter Jerry Leiber has passed away at the age of 78 following cardio-pulmonary failure.
Rock ‘n’ roll was not the invention of one musician – it took a generation of groundbreaking songwriters to give the genre any kind of form. However if rock ‘n’ roll can be accredited to one songwriting team, it would undoubtedly be Leiber and Stoller.
Meeting in a record store, the pair were two suburban white kids who fell in love with rhythm and blues. Writing their own material, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller quickly found success with Jimmy Wetherspoon recording their first hit in 1950.
However it is their association with Elvis Presley that sparked international fame. The pair wrote ‘Hound Dog’ for Big Mama Thornton in 1953, before Elvis the Pelvis shook up the Western world with his version in 1956.
The pair would write extensively for the King, producing hits such as ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘King Creole’ as well as the novelty Christmas hit ‘Santa Claus Is Back In Town’.
Yet Leiber and Stoller would not be limited to work with Elvis Presley. The pair notched up hit after hit, including the likes of ‘Poison Ivy’, ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Riot In Cell Block #9’ and many, many more.
Giving the young Phil Spector a studio apprenticeship, the pair would lose their golden touch as the 60s progressed. Yet the legacy of Leiber and Stoller remains, with the pair arguably responsible for bringing pop music and R&B together and helping to ignite the spark for rock ‘n’ roll.
Remaining in the music industry for the remainder of his life, Jerry Leiber passed away yesterday (August 22nd). Suffering cardio-pulmonary failure, the songwriter leaves behind him an almost incomparable legacy.
“When Jerry and I started to write, we were writing to amuse ourselves. It was done out of a love of doing it. We got very lucky in the sense that at some point what we wrote also amused a lot of other people.” (Mike Stoller to Rolling Stone)
