Leiber, Jerry

Leiber, Jerry

(born April 25, 1933, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) U.S. songwriter and producer. His family settled in Los Angeles, where he met Mike Stoller (b. 1933), who had moved there from New York. In 1950, while still in their teens, Leiber and Stoller became a songwriting and production team, among the first to produce recordings that combined pop music with rhythm and blues. Their first successful collaboration came with “Hound Dog,” recorded by Big Mama Thornton (1952) and later by Elvis Presley, who would record more than 20 of their songs. They wrote numerous songs for the Coasters, including “Yakety Yak.” Other hits include “There Goes My Baby,” “Stand by Me,” and “Love Potion Number Nine.” Their songs were recorded by the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Ben E. King, among many others.

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Leiber, Jerry (1933–  ) lyricist, producer; born in Baltimore, Md.; and Stoller, Mike (1933–  ) composer, producer; born in Belle Harbor, N.Y. They met as teenagers, shared an affinity for African-American music, and began writing popular rock classics of the 1950s and 1960s such as "Kansas City" (1951) and "Stand By Me" (1961). They also wrote the music and title songs for several Elvis Presley films including Jailhouse Rock (1957). As producers they were instrumental in fusing traditional black rhythm-and-blues with popular music styles and using Latin percussion and strings.