Leiber and Stoller

NOTE: This blog originally appeared in July 2009

by Chad Campbell, senior producer

There are many memorable and successful song writing duos in the recent history of music — George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Lennon and McCartney, Gilbert and Sullivan, Lerner and Loewe are a few pairs of names that come to mind. But somewhere near the top of that list, you’d have to make room for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. I had only a vague idea of who they were and what they had done before I started producing Bob’s interview with them. Let’s just say it’s a good thing they have a full hour to discuss SOME of the songs they’ve written together since meeting in 1950. Leiber and Stoller are the men behind hits as disparate as “Kansas City”, “Stand By Me”, “On Broadway”, “Yakety Yak”, “I’m a Woman” and “Hound Dog.” They wrote that last one for blues singer Big Mama Thornton, she did okay with it, then Elvis Presley recorded it. Hound Dog is also the title of the autobiography co-written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Click here to purchase the paperback. And to further impress you, here is the list of their songs I used, in the order they appear in the interview:

Hard Times by Charles Brown

Stuck in the Middle by Stealers Wheel (produced by Leiber and Stoller)

Kansas City by Wilbert Harrison

Hound Dog by Big Mama Thornton

Hound Dog by Elvis Presley

Yakety Yak by The Coasters

Poison Ivy by The Coasters

Love Potion #9 by The Clovers

There Goes My Baby by The Drifters

On Broadway by The Drifters

Stand By Me by Ben E. King

Some Kind of Wonderful by The Drifters

Corrina, Corrina by Ray Peterson

Spanish Harlem by Ben E. King

I’m a Woman by Peggy Lee

Is That All There Is? by Peggy Lee

Smokey Joe’s Cafe by The Robins