FOREFATHERS, EARLY IHFLUENCES AND NONPERFORMERS When rock and roll itself was still a dream with music that would still be the freshest productions o f top-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 sides followed 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. ’ ’ Atlantic Records soon signed Leiber and DanceforMe," “Up on the Roof,” “On called ‘ ‘K. C. Loving, ’ ’ Leiber and Stoller to one o f the industry’sfirst independent Broadway.” (Phil Spector, a young assistant of Stoller rapidly grew into one o f the most production deals. Their first Atlantic successes Leiber and Stoller, also worked on many o f prolific and creative teams in the were with the Coasters, a groupfeaturing two these records.) I m usic’s history. former members o f the Robins. In 1957, the first 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 ear for turn out a stream o fsongsfor Elvis Presley - group and established Leiber and Stoller as talent brought newcomers like Ellie Greenwich, 2“LoveMe,” “JailhouseRock,” “TreatMe maJor producers. In a sea o f doo-wop sound- Jeff Barry, Shadow Morton and Richard Perry Nice, ’ ’ ‘ 'You' re So Square (Baby 1 Don’t alikes, Coasters hits like “CharlieBrown,” into theRedBird nest. The company’s very first Care)’ ’ — Leiber and Stoller would rank among ‘ ‘Yakety Yak’ ’ and ‘ ‘Poison Ivy’ ’ stood out, a release, ‘ ‘Chapel o f Love, ’ ’ by the Dixie Cups, the most renowned composers o fthe rock and seamless blend o f rich 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’s first thirty singles, eighteen made the producer-arrangers o f timeless recordings by Jerry Leiber’s Jlair 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 f commercial success was many others - Leiber and Stoller not only sold In 1956, Elvis Presley’s Number One version equaled by the quality o f the music, including millions o f records 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 f wit and musical sophistication. the entire rock and roll era in three electrifying ‘ ‘Leader o f the 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 everyone from Muddy the title tunes fo r his film 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 f Elvis’s recording sessions (although Peggy Lee ( “Is That All There Is?”) and Leslie Baltimore’s black ghetto, where he was first Stoller played piano on several o f the songs). Uggams. In 1986, Ben E. King returned to the exposed to Jazz and rhythm and blues as a But ifthe work was not as satisfying as their own Top Ten with ‘ ‘Stand by Me, ’ ’ the song he wrote delivery boy for his widowed mother’s grocery. R&B productions, Presley’s sweeping success and recorded with Leiber and Stoller twenty-Jive In 1945, the family moved to Los Angeles; 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 be fully 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, he found the collaborator he’d on lead vocal. With its maJestic string artists—makers o f songs, makers o f records, been looking for, a Los Angeles City College arrangement and innovative rhythm, ‘ ‘There shapers o f our 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 f all time, not the least for 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. At fourteen, 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, his family 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. Lester Sill, then head o f salesfor Modem Records, gave Leiber and Stoller their first break in 1951 when he had their song ‘ ‘That’s What the Good Book Says’ ’ recorded by a black vocal group called the Robins. A year later, the team got a call from bandleader Johnny Otis, who needed a song fo r blues diva Big Mama Thornton. They came up with ' ‘Hound Dog, ’ ’ which they helped Otis produce. In 1953, Leiber, Stoller and Sill formed 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 riff camefrom 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 f its time. Born March 13th, 1933 ‘Riot’ created its own category, theLeiber- Belle Harbor, New York Stoller playlet.. .a kind o f three-minute audio.