Classic Pop Icons

A few years back there was a tribute to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the great rock ‘n’ roll songwriting team, on American Idol. Reviewing the show, my local arts critic wondered in print just who Leiber and Stoller were. According to the writer, such figures were too obscure for a full blown “Idol” tribute. Some would say that this was a sign that Jerry Leiber, who died August 22 of cardiac arrest, had outlived his fame. Maybe Leiber, the lyricist, in the songwriting duo, and his partner Stoller were never famous enough. They made their greatest impact in an age where the roles of songwriters and singers were often rigidly segregated and unlike the golden age of Tin Pan Alley, the media focused almost exclusively on the performers. The sheer number of classic titles though that they contributed to the rock ‘n’ soul pantheon- “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Kansas City,” “Ruby Baby,” “Drip Drop,” “Stand By Me,” “On Broadway,” “Yakety Yak” and on and on – made a lot of people find out who they were. Whether or not they were ever household names or whether some hack writer knew who they were in 2007, is not what’s important. The people who really care about pop music know Leiber and Stoller because they were unbelievably good at what they did and because what they did was so profound and helped create much of what was best about the pop world of the last half century. Leiber’s death does not change that.

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Legendary songwriter, Jerry Leiber, died today of cardiopulmonary failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 78.

During Leiber’s 60-year songwriting partnership with Mike Stoller, the pair penned some of the most timeless and popular songs in rock ‘n’ roll history, including “Hound Dog,” “Yakety Yak,” “Love Potion No. 9,” “On Broadway” and “Jailhouse Rock.”

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Lead singer of The Coasters, Carl Gardner, sadly died on Sunday, June 12 of heart failure and vascular dementia at at Port St. Lucie Hospice Home. He was 83.

Gardner was born on April 29, 1928 in Tyler, Texas, to a black father and Comanche Indian mother. He began singing as a young child and during high school had a regular spot singing on local radio before a racially-motivated sacking. After a brief spell in the army, he joined the group The Robins in the early 1950s. It was while a member of The Robins that what was to be a fruitful association with the legendary songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller began. The pair had penned several songs for The Robins, including “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” and this brought them to the attention of Atlantic Records who offered Leiber and Stoller a contract to produce the group at Atlantic. The group would become The Coasters, with an original line-up of Carl Gardner, Billy Guy, Leon Hughes and Bobby Nunn. The latter two were replaced by Cornell Gunter and Will “Dub” Jones in 1957 to form the classic Coasters’ line-up.

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