FOREFATHERS, EARLY IHFLUENCES AND NONPERFORMERS

When rock and roll itselfwas still a dream with music that would still be thefreshest productions o ftop-drawer materialfrom Doc \ baby, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller sound on the airwaves years later. ’ ’ Pomus andMort Shuman, Gerry Goffin and were among its youthful prodigies. More Robins sidesfollowed on Spark, Carole King, and Barry Mann and Cynthia Beginning with their 1952 including “Framed” and “Smokey Joe’s Weil: “This Magic Moment,” “Save the Last breakthrough, a catchy blues romp Cafe. ’ ’ soon signed Leiber and DanceforMe," “Up on the Roof,” “On called ‘ ‘K. C. Loving, ’ ’ Leiber and Stoller to one o fthe industry’sfirst independent Broadway.” (, a young assistant of Stoller rapidly grew into one o fthe most production deals. Theirfirst Atlantic successes Leiber and Stoller, also worked on many o f prolific and creative teams in the were with , a groupfeaturing two these records.) I m usic’s history. former members o fthe Robins. In 1957, thefirst Red Bird Records was Leiber and Stoller’s Coasters smash appeared, ‘ ‘Searchin’, ’ ’ final and most successful attempt at running H ad they done nothing more than backed with ‘ ‘Young Blood’ ’; it both broke the their own record label. Their unerring earfor turn out a stream o fsongsfor Elvis Presley - group and established Leiber and Stoller as talent brought newcomers like , 2“LoveMe,” “JailhouseRock,” “TreatMe major producers. In a sea o fdoo-wop sound- JeffBarry, and Richard Perry Nice, ’ ’ ‘ 'You' re So Square (Baby 1 Don’t alikes, Coasters hits like “CharlieBrown,” into theRedBird nest. The company’s veryfirst Care)’ ’ — Leiber and Stoller would rank among ‘ ‘’ ’ and ‘ ‘Poison Ivy’ ’ stood out, a release, ‘ ‘Chapel o fLove, ’ ’ by , the most renowned composers o fthe rock and seamless blend o frich black vocal harmony, shot to Number One in the spring o f1964. O f roll era. But as pop auteurs—the w riter- Mike Stoller’s melodies and arrangements and Red Bird’sfirst thirty singles, eighteen made the producer-arrangers o ftimeless recordings by Jerry Leiber’sjlair for pop-culture references charts, and eleven made the Top Forty. This the Coasters, the Drifters, BenE. King and so and black and teenage slang. enviable rate o fcommercial success was many others - Leiber and Stoller not only sold In 1956, Elvis Presley’s Number One version equaled by the quality o fthe music, including millions o frecords but advanced rock and roll to o f ‘ ‘Hound Dog’ ’ seem ed to sum up the spirit o f such girl-group classics as the Shangri-Las’ new heights o fwit and musical sophistication. the entire rock and roll era in three electrifying ‘ ‘Leader o fthe Pack’ ’ and ‘ ‘Remember ( ‘ ‘K. C. Loving, ’ ’ by the way, was later retitled minutes. Soon, Leiber and Stoller were turning (Walkin’ in the Sand). ’ ’ ‘ ‘Kansas City. ’ ’ It became a rock-R&B out one Presley song after another, including Leiber and Stoller made a graceful transition standard recorded by everyonefrom Muddy the title tunesfo r hisfilm s King Creole, Loving into the album-rock era. As producers, they Waters to Ann-Margret.) You and Jailhouse Rock. All were written to worked equally well with bands like Stealers Jerome Leiber, the son o fJewish immigrants order, and the team had little control over the Wheel and Procol Harum and song stylists like from Poland, grew up on the edge o f outcome o fElvis’s recording sessions (although Peggy Lee ( “Is That All There Is?”) and Leslie Baltimore’s black ghetto, where he wasfirst Stoller played piano on several o fthe songs). Uggams. In 1986, Ben E. King returned to the exposed to jazz and as a But ifthe work was not as satisfying as their own Top Ten with ‘ ‘Stand by Me, ’ ’ the song he wrote delivery boyfor his widowed mother’s grocery. R&B productions, Presley’s sweeping success and recorded with Leiber and Stoller twenty-jive In 1945, thefamily moved to ; at age brought Leiber and Stoller’s music to a wider years before. sixteen Jerry began clerking in a record shop. audience than they’d ever dreamed possible. ‘ ‘Leiber and Stoller can’t befully understood Although he’d briefly studied piano in In 1959, Leiber and Stoller had one oftheir or appreciated simply as rock and roll B altim ore, Jerry couldn’t read music; his real biggest hits with their production o f the Drifters’ tunesmiths, ’ ’ wrote Robert Palmer in 1980. interest was in words—poetry, drama, song ‘ ‘There Goes My Baby, ’ ’ featuring Ben E. King “It’sb est... tothihkof them as American lyrics. In 1950, hefound the collaborator he’d on lead vocal. With its majestic string artists—makers o fsongs, makers o frecords, been lookingfor, a Los Angeles City College arrangement and innovative rhythm, ‘ ‘There shapers o four environments, our dreams, our freshman named Mike Stoller. Goes My Baby’ ’ was one o fthe most influential imagination. Only America could have Stoller, who grew up in Queens, New York, R&B records o fall time, not the leastfor its produced them, and through the many picked up the basics o fblues and boogie-woogie immediate crossover appeal. The Drifters’ hot exceptional voices they’ve worked with, it’s at age sevenfrom the black kids with whom he streak continued with Leiber-Stoller America that they sing. ’ ’ attended summer camp; he later studied with the great stride pianist and composer James P ■ Johnson. Atfourteen, Mike was digging the nascent be-bop scene on New York’sfam ed Fifty-second Street, soaking up the sounds o f Bird and Diz. In 1949, hisfamily relocated to Los Angeles, moving into a small apartment in a largely Chicano section ofHollywood. Mike tqok up classical theory and composition while continuing to sit in with pickup dance bands and jazz combos. , then head o fsalesfor Modem Records, gave Leiber and Stoller theirfirst break in 1951 when he had their song ‘ ‘That’s What the Good Book Says’ ’ recorded by a black vocal group called . A year later, the team got a callfrom bandleader , who needed a songfo r blues diva Big Mama Thornton. They came up with ' ‘Hound Dog, ’ ’ which they helped Otis produce. In 1953, Leiber, Stoller and Sillformed Spark Records and went back to work with the Robins LEIBER AND STOLLER on a song called ‘ 'R iot in Cell Block #9. ” The Charlie Brown „«a Music by W m r n m Jerome Leiber basic riffcamefrom Muddy Waters’s ‘ ‘Hoochie MIKE STOLLER Coochie Man, ’ ’ but as Robert Palmer noted in Born April 25th, 1933 his 1978 book Baby, That Is Rock & Roll: The Medium BrigW Rock Baltimore, Maryland Legendary Leiber & Stoller, ‘ ‘Everything else Michael Stoller about [the record] was years ahead o fits time. Born March 13th, 1933 ‘Riot’ created its own category, theLeiber- Belle Harbor, New York Stoller playlet.. .a kind o fthree-minute audio