Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller helped create the type of rock and pop music that has ruled the airwaves for the past 70 years. Either as songwriters or producers (and often both), they infused black rhythm and blues with lush orchestration, radio-friendly production, and a general polish that music pre-Leiber and Stoller didn’t possess.
Today’s classic song of the day, the Drifters’ “There Goes My Baby,” was the first Leiber and Stoller production to truly embrace all of these rock, R&B, and pop elements. They didn’t write this one (that credit goes to singer Ben E. King, the Drifters’ producer George Treadwell, and the group’s road manager, Lover Patterson), but they produced it in a way that revolutionized pop and R&B music of the time.
“There Goes My Baby” was unique in the way it added strings on top of the rhythm section and vocals. R&B tracks typically were accompanied by a horn section, but Leiber and Stoller added strings instead, arranged by Stan Applebaum and played by a full orchestra, including timpani. (It wasn’t the first use of strings on a pop record, however; that honor went to Buddy Holly’s “True Love Ways” and “Raining in My Heart,” recorded a year earlier.)
The recording session itself was a little chaotic. Whomever they pulled in to play the timpani didn’t know how to change pitch (it’s that pedal on the bottom of the drum), so he played the same note throughout the whole song, even as the chords changed. Ben E. King came in a little early at the start of the tune, and the strings weren’t always perfectly in tempo. The mistakes stayed, however, as overdubbing really wasn’t a thing back in those primitive days of two- and four-track recording. The result was a sound totally unlike anything the Drifters had done before. In fact, it didn’t sound like anything anybody had ever recorded.
This new merging of musical genres didn’t immediately appeal to everyone, however. Jerry Wexler, head of Atlantic Records, was one of those not impressed. He took one listen to the track and told Leiber and Stoller:
“It’s dog meat. You’ve wasted our money on an overpriced production that sounds like a radio caught between two stations. It’s a goddamn awful mess!”
Wexler’s partner, Ahmet Ertegun, was less cutting in his criticism but still thought that the record was unreleasable. All that said, Leiber and Stoller had created a lot of hits (and made a lot of money) for the label, so Wexler and Ertegun let the duo remix the record and release it as a single.
That proved to be a good decision. Released as a single in April of 1959, “There Goes My Baby” stood out on the radio and went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard’s R&B chart. It also revolutionized the sound of pop music, with its fusion of R&B, rock, pop, and doo-wop elements. It was a groundbreaking record, one that still takes your breath away today.
“There Goes My Baby” also marked a new era for the Drifters. The group was formed back in 1953, with lead singer Clyde McPhatter, and had a string of R&B hits for Atlantic Records, including “Money Honey,” “Honey Love,” and “Adorable.” McPhatter left the group late in 1954, with his lead vocal duties assumed by first by David Baughan, then by Johnny Moore.
When McPhatter left the Drifters, he sold his share of the group to George Treadwell, the group’s manager, who took full control of the organization. After a few years of declining popularity, Treadwell fired the entire group and hired a new group of singers to assume the Drifters’ name. That new group, led by lead vocalist Ben E. King, had an amazing resurgence, racking up almost a dozen top twenty mainstream hits, including “Dance with Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “Save the Last Dance for Me” (#1), “I Count the Tears,” “Please Stay,” “Sweets for My Sweet,” “Up on the Roof,” “Under the Boardwalk,” “On Broadway,” and “Saturday Night at the Movies.” “There Goes My Baby” was the first single for the new Drifters, and King’s first time singing lead for the group.
What many of those hits for the new Drifters had in common were that they were produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Jerry and Mike had helped to take R&B music mainstream in the 1950s, writing and producing songs for the likes of Big Mama Thornton (“Hound Dog”), Ruth Brown (“I Want to Do More” and “Fools Fall in Love”), Big Joe Turner (“The Chicken and the Hawk”), and others. They even produced some tracks for the original Drifters, including “Ruby Baby.”
Leiber and Stoller had their biggest success, however with the Coasters and a fellow from Memphis named Elvis Presley. For the Coasters, Jerry and Mike wrote and produced a series of really big crossover hits, including “Searchin’,” “Young Blood,” “Yakety Yak” (#1), “Charlie Brown,” “Along Came Jones,” and “Poison Ivy.” For Elvis, the boys were responsible for “Loving You,” “Jailhouse Rock” (#1), “Treat Me Nice,” and “Don’t” (#1). That’s a hell of a legacy right there, and it leaves off a ton of other songs they produced for these and other artists.
Jerry and Mike continued to produce hits for many artists throughout the 1960s and beyond. They were responsible, in one way or another, for songs like Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” and “I (Who Have Nothing),” Elvis Presley’s “She’s Not You,” the Drifters’ “Dance with Me” and “On Broadway,” Jay and the Americans’ “Only in America,” the Exciters’ “Tell Him,” the Clovers’ “Love Potion #9,” the Shangra-Las’ “Leader of the Pack,” the Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love,” Peggy Lee’s “I’m a Woman” and “Is That All There Is?,” and Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You.” They never let up.
Leiber and Stoller’s contributions to the music we all know and love did not go unnoticed. They’ve been recognized and rewarded by the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ASCAP, BMI, the National Academy of Songwriters, and the Grammys. They even had a Broadway musical based on their work, 1995’s Smokey Joe’s Cafe, which was nominated for seven Tony Awards and became the longest-running musical revue in Broadway history. It would not be an overstatement to say that we wouldn’t have had rock ‘n’ roll as we know it without Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
Jerry Leiber passed away in 2011, 78 years of age. Mike Stoller is still with us, 92 years old and going strong.
