Elvis Presley songwriter Jerry Leiber dies at 78 Skip to main content

Elvis Presley songwriter Jerry Leiber dies at 78


Click to play
Watch an archive interview with Jerry Leiber from 1980 where he talks about writing songs for Elvis Presley.
Jerry Leiber, the songwriter who penned such classic rock and roll hits as Elvis Presley's Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock, has died at the age of 78.
Leiber earned his reputation alongside co-writer Mike Stoller, penning tunes for The Drifters, The Coasters and Ben E King as well as Presley.
Leiber and Stoller infused their songs with influences from their blues and jazz backgrounds.
Leiber died of cardiopulmonary failure in Los Angeles, a spokesman said.
Leiber's career began in 1953 when Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton became the first artist to record Hound Dog.
Then a rhythm and blues number, the track went to the top of the charts.
The song would later become an even more successful hit record for Presley, who reinvented it as a rock and roll standard.
The pair also crafted the enduring Ben E King hit Stand By Me, seen by critics as one of their most influential and enduring songs.
Leiber and Stoller's work as a songwriting duo earned them 15 number one hits and secured them both entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1987.
"The music world lost today one of its greatest poet laureates," said Terry Stewart, president of the Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cleveland, Ohio.
"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," he told the Associated Press.
Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy in the US, also paid tribute in a statement published on the organisation's website.
"With a career that spanned musicals to R&B and rock and roll, Leiber's lyrical talent along with Stoller's composing skill helped shape the music of the '50s and '60s," he said.
"Together, they were an extraordinary team that generated a rich and diverse musical catalogue that leaves an indelible imprint on our cultural history."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14625642
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more