Leiber and Stoller: The Songwriters Behind Elvis Presley

Introduction

I decided to choose the songwriting duo: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as my songwriter profile because I feel as though these two were the most influential in writing and composing 50’s Rock/Blues songs. I mainly listen to the Hard Rock and even Metal genres; however, I greatly appreciate the influences and roots of Rock and Blues. In my opinion, I think Elvis Presley is certainly one of those roots and influences behind the Hard Rock genre. He has the well-deserved title: “King of Rock N’ Roll”. With that being said, another reason I decided to pick this duo was for the fact that, they didn’t only write songs for Presley; they also wrote music for: Ben E. King, Big Mama Thornton and The Coasters; as well as many other famous 50’s-60’s musicians. Not to mention, the great success they had over the years and the amount of hit songs they wrote over the course of their career.

Elvis Presley's Songwriters: Leiber and Stoller

Throughout Elvis Presley’s successful musical career, he had numerous amounts of songwriters that would produce and make “his” music. Over the course of his career he had well over 10 different songwriters; to name a few: Jerry Reed, Otis Blackwell and Mac Davis. Another pair of his songwriters were a duo; Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Leiber was the Lyricist and Stoller was the composer. They wrote a total of 14 songs, which either were for Presley, or he had covered throughout his career. Together they would go on to create some of the most famous for Presley; Including: “Hound Dog” – Originally composed for Big Mama Thornton, “Jailhouse Rock” and “Santa Claus Is Back in Town”. Not only did they write well-known songs for Presley, but they also composed two successful songs for Ben E. King. Those include: “I (Who Have Nothing)” and “Stand by Me”.

Leiber was born on April 25th, 1933 in Baltimore, Maryland. Stoller was born on March 13th, 1933 in Long Island, New York. The two met when they were in school in Los Angeles and found out they both had a love and interest for Rock and Blues music. Together they first created “Real Ugly Women”, however, this song was not a popular song. Their first real big hit song was: “Hard Times” which was recorded for Charles Brown in 1952. From there on, they went to write multiple hit songs and became a very successful songwriting duo. Together they have many awards and have been internationally praised for their contributions to the Rock and Blues music genre. They have over 15 awards spanning from 1969 to as recent as 2017. They won their first award for: 'Is That All There Is?' in 1969. Their next award would be in 1985, when they were both inducted into the song writer’s Hall of fame and later in 1987, they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, Leiber is no longer with us as he had passed on August 22nd, 2011; from cardiopulmonary failure at the age of 78. Stoller is currently still alive and well at 86 years old.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would assume it’s safe to say that this music duo made an astoundingly great couple in terms of musical style and it definitely shows in the number of hit songs they were able to produce throughout the 50’s and 60’s. In terms of musical style, I feel as though it’s unmatched in the originality of the lyrics as well as the structures of the songs. In my opinion, I wish they had written more music for Presley to perform because a lot of the songs they wrote are household-known songs, even for the new generation, everyone knows the song: “Hound Dog”, and “Stand by Me”.