Jerry Leiber who, along with songwriting partner Mike Stoller created a selection of classic tracks for some of rock n roll’s earliest stars, has passed away at the age of 78.
Leiber died yesterday (August 22nd) in Los Angeles. Elvis Presley‘s rock n roll re-working of ‘Hound Dog‘, and his enduring 1957 single ‘Jailhouse Rock‘ were borne from the Leiber-Stoller stable, while the pair also provided tunes for the likes of The Drifters and The Coasters. Ben E King‘s ‘Stand By Me‘, one of the most influential songs of the early rock era, was also written by the pair.
“The music world lost today one of its greatest poet laureates,” Terry Stewart, president of the Hall of Fame and Museum, told the Press Association.
“Jerry not only wrote the words that everyone was singing, he led the way in how we verbalised our feelings about the societal changes we were living with in 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.”
Leiber and Stoller were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987.
