Legendary Songwriter Mike Stoller On Elvis And Unreleased Leiber And Stoller Songs

Ask most individuals the best songwriting duo of all time and the reply might be fairly straightforward — The Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney. If you have a look at what they completed and the indelible mark they left on music it is exhausting to argue that selection.

However there may be one duo that a minimum of belongs within the dialog with them — Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. For these unaware of their songwriting legacy it’s astonishing.

Most who do know the duo are accustomed to them due to their timeless classics for Elvis Presley. Even when that they had simply written “Jailhouse Rock” and “Hound Canine,” their place in popular culture can be safe. However in addition they wrote Presley’s “King Creole,” “Do not,” “Loving You” and extra.

Because of the present Baz Luhrmann hit Elvis, there’s a renewed curiosity of their work with “The King.” And that’s the reason I used to be provided the as soon as in a lifetime alternative to satisfy with Stoller at his lovely L.A. residence and sit down for an hour with the 89-year-old Stoller.

Nevertheless, his work with Presley is barely a small a part of the story. There are the classics he and Leiber wrote or co-wrote for others. The Coasters’ “Charlie Brown,” “Yakety Yak” and “Younger Blood,” The Drifters’ “On Broadway,” Michael McDonald’s “I Preserve Forgettin’ (Each Time You are Close to)” and arguably their biggest tune, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”

Stoller is nicely conscious folks wish to hear the tales behind these songs. For him although, as is the case with virtually all artists, he’s most excited speaking a few new album he’s engaged on, which is able to embrace a handful of beforehand unreleased Leiber and Stoller compositions. For music followers the considered unheard music from the legendary duo is an surprising present as Leiber handed in 2011.

However Stoller says it’s coming. I spoke with him in regards to the new music, why he was initially dissatisfied when Presley’s “Hound Canine” grew to become a success and rather more.

Steve Baltin: How lengthy you been right here?

Mike Stoller: Truly we have been on this property since ’89. Then we tore down the little home that we purchased. We purchased a view with a bit home hooked up after which after we determined unexpectedly that we like residing right here reasonably than in New York, we offered the condominium in New York and we constructed this one and we moved into this in 1991. So it is over 30 years.

Baltin: Do you miss New York?

Stoller: It is so bizarre that you simply requested me that. I want to go each from time to time. My daughter lives in New York. She works in theater, dialect teaching and dramaturgy. However no, I do not actually miss New York. I perhaps I miss the New York the way in which it was once a very long time in the past. Like after I was a child and I frolicked on 52nd avenue to listen to nice jazz musicians. After which my spouse and I had a spot in Italy that we beloved.

Baltin: The place in Italy?

Stoller: A city known as Bordighera, it is close to San Remo. It is in a spot known as Liguria that is a province and yeah, we beloved that, however ultimately we weren’t there usually sufficient. So we offered it after perhaps 5 years. Then we would return and keep in a bit resort there for per week after which transfer on to different locations in Italy that we lived.

Baltin: I’ve at all times been such a giant believer in how surroundings impacts writing. So once you look again at a number of the stuff you wrote over time, do you see or really feel quite a lot of New York in it? I really feel like stuff like for the Drifters and Coasters was very east coast?

Stoller: Nicely, quite a lot of the unique Coasters, the massive early hits had been written out right here and recorded out right here, like “Looking out” and “Younger Blood.” That was accomplished on Fairfax, the little studio on Fairfax. [chuckle]

Baltin: So though you got here up in New York, you probably did quite a lot of the writing and recording right here?

Stoller: Nicely, let’s put it this manner. We met in L.A. Although I am from New York initially and Jerry was from Baltimore, we met in Los Angeles again in 1950 after we had been 17. After which though we wrote a bunch of songs in New York, I ended up in New York after the Andrea Doria factor. And we stayed there for the remainder of ’56, like a half a yr. And we wrote a few songs there that, “Fools Fall in Love” that Amhet [Ertegun] and Jerry Wexler produced with The Drifters and one other tune we did with Ruth Brown, then we went and got here again right here and we did The Coasters. After which on the finish of ’57, we moved again to New York, like everlasting. That affect after all would occur.

Baltin: Clearly each worlds had such completely different cultures. It’s possible you’ll not have even observed the affect, however I am curious if wanting again you see it extra?

Stoller: I began my highschool in New York. I used to be a participant in Forest Hills Excessive Faculty. And you understand I made a few mates who had been into music, however mainly it was boring culturally. It was like virtually fully white, center class. I bear in mind going to the junior promenade and I introduced a girlfriend who was black and he or she was the one black individual in your entire faculty. Nicely, she simply went to the dance with me. Once I moved with my of us after I was 16 to L.A., I went out to UCLA and I did not have sufficient correct credit or no matter I needed to go. They mentioned, “Go to LA Metropolis Faculty. You want six months of U.S. historical past after which we’ll settle for you.” However they would not settle for me at LA Metropolis Faculty. Nicely, they did however then they received despatched me a postcard earlier than faculty began saying, “We uncared for that you simply’re not 18 and you do not have a highschool commencement.” So I went to a highschool out right here which was half a block from the place I used to be residing known as Belmont Excessive Faculty. Belmont was about 50 % Chicano, very closely Asian Pacific Island, some black, few Jews, only a few. Anyway it was nice. I beloved it. And I beloved the tradition, the music, all the pieces. I used to hang around and hearken to Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk and Allen Keen and every kind of musicians. It was an excellent place, 52nd avenue was.

Baltin: I discuss chemistry with folks on a regular basis. If you met Jerry, was it one thing that you simply guys knew instantly?

Stoller: Form of, nevertheless it was unusual as a result of Jerry was keen to write down songs. I used to be not. I used to be a jazz fan however I initially received into my love of jazz by Boogie-woogie. I went to an interracial summer time camp in 1940 after I was seven. And I went there each summer time for eight years or one thing like that. So by the Boogie-woogie which I discovered to play by the point I used to be eight I might then purchase Boogie-woogie data that had blues on the opposite aspect, vocals. So I used to be accustomed to what that seemed like. Then I received closely into, initially New Orleans Jazz. After which I heard Charlie Parker on a ’78 report “Billy’s Bounce.” and “Now’s The Time.” And I used to be gone with that. That was all the pieces. After I completed one semester at Belmont I graduated, went to LA Metropolis Faculty and I met a man there who was a fairly good piano participant. I by no means thought-about myself a superb piano participant. And he had a gig that paid $3 and he received one which paid 5. So he mentioned, “You wish to?” I mentioned, “Sure, $3 are you kidding?” The drummer on the day took my cellphone quantity and I believed, “I am selecting that up?” I believed that I might get some extra gigs that paid $3 as an alternative. He was going to Fairfax highschool and he was a good friend of Jerry Leiber’s and he gave him my cellphone quantity and I received a name from Jerry sooner or later. We met on a cellphone. He known as me and he quizzed me first. He mentioned, “Your identify is Mike Stoller? And did you play a dance in East Los Angeles? Every week in the past or no matter? Are you able to write notes on paper?” I mentioned, Yeah, I may try this.” And at last he mentioned, “Nicely, my identify is Jerome Leiber. And I write lyrics. How would you want to write down songs with me?” I mentioned, “No. I do not just like the songs I hear on the radio. I am speaking about center of the dial Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Patti Web page. I mentioned, I like “Bartok, Stravinsky, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk.” And he mentioned, “Nicely, nonetheless, I believe we ought to satisfy and discuss this.” I mentioned, “Okay, you wish to come over, come over.” And I opened the door and there was this child and I forgot to ask him in. I used to be simply looking at him ‘trigger he has one blue eye and one brown eye and the solar was coming in and it illuminated that. And I might by no means seen that earlier than. He had a speckled pocket book. I mentioned, “Are these your lyrics in there? Let me see them.” I used to be being aggressive. And I opened it up and I noticed a line of lyrics. The road of ditto marks, a rhyming line. I mentioned, “Hey, there is a 12 bar blues. I did not know you had been writing the blues.” So I went to the piano and began taking part in little blues. He began singing alongside and we shook arms and mentioned we’ll be companions. That occurred the primary day that we met. And we had been companions for 61 years.

Baltin: Was there one tune early on that you simply guys wrote collectively that you simply realized this was going to work?

Stoller: We met in ’50 and he needed to get began instantly. And I mentioned, “I can not, I received a job for the summer time.” I used to be a usher and doorman on the theater downtown. However I received fired. So we began working in the summertime. So then we truly began writing, I do not know which tune. It was songs like “Kansas Metropolis” the place we form of knew, that we had one thing collectively. ‘Trigger I wrote a melody and he was writing phrases. I imply, it was spontaneous combustion actually. That is the way in which we labored. It was all accomplished on the similar time. I used to be on the piano, he was strolling across the room.

Baltin: How did you see the Elvis film?

Stoller: Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling invited me and my spouse to a non-public screening a few weeks in the past, at one of many huge studios out within the Valley. It was a full display. It was smaller viewers. I appreciated it, I laughed at quite a lot of it. I laughed ‘trigger Baz Luhrmann like Colonel Parker, they’re each a bit excessive. However I appreciated the way in which they handled my songs.

Baltin: On the finish of day is that basically what it comes all the way down to for you, in the event that they deal with the songs the precise manner, with reverence and respect?

Stoller: Yeah, I believe so. There are songs used within the opening titles and the tip titles the place they’ve rappers, in a single case rapping over Huge Mama’s report and within the different it is Eminem rapping over the monitor of “Jailhouse Rock,” the monitor from Elvis’s model. Inside the physique of the movie, the makes use of of “Hound Canine,” I believed had been good. They’ve someone doing it like Huge Mama model. I used to be pleased with the truth that they did have Huge Mama doing that tune, as a result of to not have it in would’ve been form of a misinform Elvis’s complete journey. And Jerry Schilling at all times says to me, “Hey, with out you guys there would not actually be an Elvis.” Which may be excessive additionally, nevertheless it’s good to listen to.

Baltin: What was your response when “Hound Canine” grew to become a success?

Stoller: It was disappointing. I knew it was a success as a result of Jerry informed me, after I got here off the boat and the very first thing he mentioned was, “Mike, we gotta smash. ‘Hound Canine.’ I mentioned, “Huge Mama Thornton?” He mentioned, “No, some white child named Elvis Presley.” The subsequent day I heard the report on the radio. It was very disappointing as a result of I like Huge Mama’s report. And that was, as I mentioned, the report we made with Huge Mama and he or she was good and all the pieces with Pete Lewis on guitar was unbelievable. And Jon Hills play drums fantastically. [But] most individuals up till pretty not too long ago, by no means heard of Huge Mama’s model. They thought Elvis both wrote it or he was the unique singer. She did not fare as nicely sadly, and by the point folks actually received into her report she was gone.

Baltin: How usually do you write now?

Stoller: I am simply ending two issues. I am engaged on a present that isn’t rock and roll in any manner. I am additionally doing an album of songs. They’re all mine, however eight of them are Leiber Stoller songs of which perhaps two or three had been recorded and launched earlier than by different artists. The remainder of them, a few of them had by no means been recorded commercially apart from a demo. And the one tune I wrote with Marilyn and Alan Bergman, she simply handed sadly. And one which I wrote, phrases and music. I am very excited in regards to the album. I do not know if it will promote in any respect, however I am very enthusiastic about it ‘trigger it is coming alongside actual nicely and it includes a vocalist, Brendan McCreary. And all of it took place due to an curiosity in interviewing me by Cole Porter’s nephew. He interviewed, I believe Diane Warren, he interviewed Dick Sherman from Sherman brothers. He interviewed me and he mentioned you indicated that one of many songs you wrote for Elvis was form of Irving Berlin tune. And I mentioned, “Yeah, that was ‘Loving You.'” And he mentioned, we ever do something that was influenced or perhaps in a roundabout way or different relative to Cole Porter? And I mentioned, yeah, there truly is one which’s by no means been recorded. Anyway, I despatched him a demo and he flipped over it and he made a factor about Cole Porter and Leiber and Stoller and even did a video of a recording of the tune, after which the fellows mentioned, “Why do not we do an album?” I believed, “Hey, how about half Cole Porter half Leiber and Stoller?”

Baltin: Have you learnt when it is supposed to come back out?

Stoller: No, I do not even know the way it’s gonna come out. It is a courageous new world for me. Streaming and all of that. I do know I am affected by it, and I am affected by it on the usage of my songs in something. However I am from the old-fashioned you understand.

Baltin: However on the finish of the day, an excellent tune continues to be an excellent tune.

Stoller: That is what I am hoping that someone in some discipline, it will not be down the center of the street for pop. However hopefully in a roundabout way others is perhaps hopefully picked up by different singers, cabaret singers, no matter, simply to maintain it going. It could be good if one of many songs within the new album takes off in any discipline, so I can say,” Hey, I wrote that one.” [laughter]

Baltin: Are there one or two songs for you that you simply really feel like are kind of the signature Leiber and Stoller songs?

Stoller: In a manner there are two data. And even when Jerry was nonetheless right here, we used to, having been requested such questions, Huge Mama’s report of “Hound Canine” and Peggy Lee’s recording of “Is That All There Is.” As a result of it is widespread. And I have to say that the orchestration and association on “Is That All There Is” was by Randy Newman. And it is completely fabulous. It is sensible.