On August 22, 2011, Jerry Leiber, part of the great song-writing team with Mike Stoller, passed away at the age of 78 from cardiopulmonary failure.
Leiber’s impact on your life may be best summarized by this list of songs he co-wrote, mostly writing the lyrics while Stoller handled the music: Big Mama Thornton and Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” Elvis’s “Jailhouse Rock,” Dion’s “Ruby Baby,” The Drifters’ “There Goes My Baby,” The Coasters’ “Yakety Yak,” The Searchers’ “Love Potion No. 9,” Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?,” Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” (written w/ Ben E. King and also recorded by John Lennon), Ben E. King’s “Spanish Harlem” (Leiber and Phil Spector), George Benson’s “On Broadway,” and Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You.”
Take away Leiber’s work and you have to imagine Elvis without “Jailhouse Rock,” or the movie Stand By Me without the song — or Reservoir Dogs without “Stuck in the Middle With You” (not for the faint of heart).
Although many may not recognize the name, the above songs and others will be there for generations. Rolling Stone has a nice article about Leiber’s career. A career that included forming a partnership with Stoller that put them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Rest in peace Mr. Leiber, and thanks for the songs, including this advice from “Is That All There Is?”:
For I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you,
When that final moment comes and I’m breathing my last breath, I’ll be saying to myself,
Is that all there is, is that all there is?
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing;
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball,
If that’s all there is.
UPDATE (Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011): After the above story was posted, we learned that we lost another great songwriter. Nick Ashford died of cancer at the age of 69. Like Jerry Leiber, Ashford was famous for writing great songs with a partner, Valerie Simpson, who eventually became Ashford’s wife too. Their songs included Diana Ross’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Reach Out and Touch,” Ray Charles’s “Let’s Go Get Stoned” and “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (covered here by John Mayer and John Scofield), Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” (covered by Whitney Houston too), and one of my favorites, the Marvelette’s “Destination Anywhere,” which was featured in the movie The Commitments. Ashford & Simpson had success as performers too, including a hit with a song that has a title that described Ashford’s songwriting talent: “Solid (as a Rock).”
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