Word: leiber
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...explained the short, intense young man, "and there was something nasty in the music. I just blurted out, 'You ain't nuthin' but a hound dog,' and there it was." Hound Dog, as bawled by Elvis Presley, sold 5,000,000 records, enthroned Tunesmiths Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as kings of the state of annoyance called rock 'n' roll. In all, their raucous inspirations have since sold 27 million records, and last week their latest, Charlie Brown, made its first million...
...youthful (both are 25) writing pals are now living in Manhattan brownstones on incomes of about $75,000 a year (cash), but to hear them tell it, they are laboring on a Jailhouse rock. "At least 60% of our stuff is rock 'n' roll," laments Leiber, "and we're sick of it. But consumers dictate the market: kids nine to 14 make up our market, and this is the stuff they want." In massive doses, this is just what the pair has been giving them: Love Me (2,000,000 copies sold), Loving...
...Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller began their career as amateur songwriters at Los Angeles City College, earned less than $2,000 apiece their first two years. Then, in 1952, they whelped Hound Dog in 20 minutes flat. "Originally, it was folk blues," says Leiber. "When Presley, shall we say, performed it, there was a misunderstanding of the original lyrics-it was designed to be sung by a girl." Adds Leiber: "The thing to remember is you're not writing a song but a record. What you gotta do is get these kids to identify. That...
...offered us a decent book." In the meantime, Jerry and Mike go on helping the kids to identify. "Who's always writin' on the wall?/ Who's always goofin' in the hall?/ Who's always throwin' spitball?" Why, Charlie Brown, of course. Says Leiber: "If Cole Porter were starting out today, he'd have a tough time...
...cannot see!" It was a stroke. The Pope fought back. His vision restored, he summoned his substitute Secretary of State, Angelo Dell'Acqua, and sharply demanded: "Why have the audiences been canceled?" He received Holy Communion and Extreme Unction from his German Jesuit secretary, Father Robert Leiber, but he peeked at the thermometer when his temperature was being taken and said "non é grave" when he saw it was only 99°. That night he drank a glass of red wine and called for a recording of Beethoven's First Symphony. At 7:30 the next morning...