Saturday 3 December 2011

Hound Dog Composer Jerry Leiber Dies


Legendary songwriter Jerry Leiber has died of cardiopulmonary failure in Los Angeles at the age of 78. He was part of one of the best songwriting teams of the '50s and '60s when he teamed up with Mike Stoller. This team of two gave the world hits like 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Hound Dog', 'Yakety Yak', 'Loving You', 'Stand By Me', besides numerous others. As part of this hit songwriting team, Jerry Leiber wrote the lyrics, while Mike Stoller was in charge of composing the music. And the two went on to create some magic that mesmerized audiences the world over.

Jerry Leiber was from Baltimore, but he moved to Los Angeles, where he met and teamed up with Mike Stoller. And the duo simply never looked back once they came out with the number one hit of Elvis Presley - 'Hound Dog' in 1956, which was actually a reinvented rock and roll classic that Jerry had written for Willie Mae "Big Mamma" Thorton in 1953. Interestingly, though Elvis' version was a bigger hit, Jerry always maintained that he personally preferred Thorton's version. They also created some unforgettable music for the likes of Barbra Streisand, Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin and Jerry Lee Lewis. President of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Terry Stewart said, "The music world lost today one of its greatest poet laureates. Jerry not only wrote the words that everyone was singing, he led the way in how we verbalized our feelings about the societal changes we were living within post-World War II life. Appropriately, his vehicles of choice were the emerging populist musical genres of rhythm and blues and then rock and roll."

The duo were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985, the Producers Hall of Fame in 1986, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. With the passing away of Jerry Leiber, indeed, the world has today lost one of its greatest contributors to the music industry.

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