|
He is a songwriter born in Baltimore,
Maryland. He moved to Los Angeles and worked in a record store while
attending Fairfax High and this is where he met his long-time collaborator
Mike Stoller. The first recording of their work
was "Real Ugly Woman", released by Jimmy Witherspoon and their
first hit came in 1952 with Charles Brown singing "Hard Times". They were the extremely successful
throughout the 1950s and 1960s and saw success with hits such as "Searchin'", "Charlie Brown", "On Broadway", "Poison
Ivy" and "Yakety Yak". The saw major success when Elvis
Presley hit the charts in 1956 with "Hound Dog" and he would go
on to record many more of their songs such as "Jailhouse Rock"
and "Don't".
Phil Spector studied/trained with the two songwriters and often
played guitar on their sessions.
He and Mike Stoller founded Red Bird
Records and their artists include the Dixie Cups, the Shangri-Las who both
released their hit songs "Chapel of Love" and "Leader of
the Pack" on that label. They
sold the record company and continued to write and their later hit records
included the Grammy Award winning "Is That All There Is?" for Peggie Lee, "Stuck in the Middle With You"
by Stealer's Wheel and "Pearl's a Singer" for Elkie Brooks.
The
1995 Broadway musical Smokey Joe's Cafe is based on
their work and received seven Tony award nominations and won a Grammy award. They have been named as an influence
to several successful songwriters such as Carole King and Lennon and
McCartney and they each have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Patsy Brewer Recordings
Hound Dog (Jerry Lieber/Mike
Stoller)
Pilot Master, 8061-37A
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Leiber_and_Mike_Stoller
- http://www.geocities.com/spectropop/hleiberstoller.html
|
