The Man Who Wrote The Soundtrack For The 1950’s Dies

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Today’s Los Angeles Times is reporting that Jerry Leiber, the lyricist of the team of Leiber and Stoller’s, died yesterday in Los Angeles. Leiber and Stoller wrote most of the songs we remember from the 1950’s. Their songs were recorded by Elvis, the Coasters, Peggy Lee, the Drifters, the Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Barbra Streisand, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and others.

The most recorded Leiber and Stoller song is “Kansas City.” The story of Leiber and Stoller is the story of the early days of rock ‘n roll.

The article reports:

Besides 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.

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. 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.

Please follow the link to the article and read the story of Elvis Presley’s recording of “Hound Dog.” It captures the essence of the time.

We have lost half of the duo that wrote the soundtrack of the life of anyone over the age of 60.

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