mobilee records

Jerome Leiber and Michael Stoller wrote some of the defining crossover records of 1950s American popular music, from “Hound Dog” and “Kansas City” to a run of sharply comic hits for the Coasters. Leiber, the lyricist, and Stoller, the composer, formed an American songwriting and record-production partnership whose work moved between R&B, pop and Broadway.

After finding early success with “Hound Dog” and “Kansas City,” both written in 1952, the pair developed a particularly distinctive body of work with the Coasters. Songs including “Young Blood,” “Searchin’,” “Yakety Yak,” “Poison Ivy” and “Charlie Brown” used teenage vernacular and theatrical humor, giving the group a series of records that were playful, narrative-driven and built for performance as much as confession.

Leiber and Stoller also wrote extensively for Elvis Presley, including “Love Me,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Loving You,” “Don’t” and “King Creole.” Their collaborations reached beyond their own partnership: “On Broadway” was written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; “Stand By Me” with Ben E. King; “Young Blood” with Doc Pomus; and “Spanish Harlem” with Phil Spector. Some songs were credited to the pseudonym Elmo Glick.

In 1964, Leiber and Stoller joined George Goldner to launch Red Bird Records. With its focus on the girl-group sound, the label released notable recordings of the Brill Building period. Across their career, Leiber and Stoller wrote or co-wrote more than 70 chart hits. They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.