(430) SONGWRITERS LEIBER AND STOLLER : OFFICIAL SITE

As they relate in their interesting book called HOUND DOG, songwriters Jerry Leiber (who passed away August 2011) and Mike Stoller had their beginnings in the rock and roll song writing business in New York, and over the years their songwriting included dozens of memorable hits that made it into the top 100, songs performed by Elvis Presley, The Coasters, The Drifters, Hank Snow, and so many others.

They were, like most American song-writers in the mid 1960's finding themselves in competition with British Invasion songwriters who also had bands. Over time they grew less interested in rock and roll and moved into writing other music.

Linking to their official site, which mentions that Mike's Music will be used at the Democratic National Convention.

(429) HOUND DOG : THE LEIBER and STOLLER AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Christine here!


I've been wanting to read this book for a long time and finished it over the Labor Day weekend. It was edited wonderfully so that the conversational - story-telling quality was preserved and so the story moved at a good pace.


Of interest to the readers of WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC is the material on Elvis Presley, the effects of the British Invasion on songwriters in the mid 1960's, and the Brill Building New York scene and their LA-New York bicoastal music business. Of course the title HOUND DOG is also the name of their song that was recorded by Big Mama Thornton but which Elvis Presley broke out with, and which put this song writing due into early fame.

An excerpt from the book from pages 93 and 94!


Leiber: ..."As for the amazing fact that Elvis had recorded "Hound Dog," well, I had different feelings. The first feeling is the one that washes over any songwriter when he learns he has a hit: He hears the cash register ring and the Sale! sign come up. That's a good feeling. But when I heard Elvis' version, I had a bad feeling. I didn't like the way he did it. Somebody changed the lyrics. I had written:


You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Quit snooping 'round my door
You can wag your tail,
But I ain't gonna feed you no more

But Elvis sang:

You ain't nothing but a hound dog
Crying all the time
You ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine


To this day I have no idea what the rabbit business is all about. The song is not about a dog; it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis's version makes no sense to me, and even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting our of what seemed to be a capricious chance of lyrics. But, lick for lick, there's no comparison between the Presley version and the Big Mama original. Elvis played with the song; Bib Mama nailed it."


HOUND DOG : THE LEIBER and STOLLER AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller with David Ritz Copyright 2009
Simon and Shuster Publishers

(310) DONALD IRWIN ROBERTSON INVENTOR OF THE SLIP NOTE FOR THE PIANO

The day that Rod Lauren was recording my song "Tender Love, I got to talking with Steve Shoals, the producer at RCA. We were walking up the street and I asked him if he had seen Don Robertson lately. Steve said, "No, but Wes, that guy is a genius."

Don invented the slip note for the piano. He was an amazing pianist and performed on Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret records.

Don was also known to be helpful. A couple years back my daughter Hollie, a singer with a three octave range and following in her dad's footsteps a bit as a songwriter, had a conversation with him on the phone for near an hour. She was looking through his music catalogue to see if she could find a song she'd like to record.

We're linking to Don's official site above as well as his page on the NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FOUNDATION below...


http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/p-s/don-robertson.aspx

(303) SHARON SHEELEY - SONGWRITER

We're linking to the ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME page for songwriter SHARON SHEELEY here. SHARON was Eddie Cockran's girlfriend at the time he was killed in the car accident in England and that is unfortunately, what she first became famous for. She and Gene Vincent survived the car crash. She was still dating Eddie when I first met her. I was with the Everly Brothers at the time. Sharon was great friends with Nan Morris, the agent I've blogged about - a friend of mine to this day. It was Nan who took a demo of "POOR LITTLE FOOL" to Rick Nelson. In fact the two women were near stalking Rick to get that song to him because they were so sure it was going to be a hit for him. And they were right.

Sharon Sheeley continued to write songs including in collaboration with Jackie DeShannon and Brenda Lee.

Now we've mentioned before (and on some of our Youtube postings) that many DEMOS were made that did not turn into records for the market and that on many of these DEMOS some artists performed who became famous in their own time.

Some of the Demo Makers included Glen Campbell and Leon Russel and David Gates. A few years ago demos of some of Sharon's compositions that featured these artists came out on the market. And one of the singers is P.J. Proby, another demo maker who became famous and continues to perform, and who remained a friend of Sharon's until her death a few years ago ...

(259) SO IF I WASN'T AT THE BEACH WHERE WAS I ?

at ELVIS' ! ... our friendship started in 1957 ... and would last until the day he died...

At the time I had a great house, three levels and on stilts in a canyon in the Hollywood Hills. It was woodsy and something out of story book. A house built by craftsmen.

Above me was a flying saucer house - of all things - me the guy who sang Tiny Spaceman!

The spaceship house had elevators that went straight up into it. You could see it perched on a mountain from the freeway and I think that house is still there.

I called mine "the Sugar Shack On the Hill." I bought it with songwriting residuals.

(21) ERSEL HICKEY - A GREAT GUY WITH A CLASSIC ROCK N ROLL POSE!

Ersel Hickey was a great friend of mine in New York. He had one of the most frequently screwed up names and was often called Edsel, like the Ford car. He taught our friend Johnny Rivers a few cords and Johnny helped Ersel get work around town. Ersel was very much a part of what was a united drive to succeed. He never stepped on anyone's toes.

We guys were always writing songs, presenting songs or demo records to other artists that we thought could do a song justice. WE WERE IN THE COVER TUNE ERA! Ersel's song "Crooked Little Man" was one of the first songs he ever sold.

ROCKIN COUNTRY STYLE DISCOGRAPHY - ERSEL HICKEY!

http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/artist.php?key=hick1000 new link!

ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME - ERSEL HICKEY link click on title above!

Ersel Hickey singing his famous "Blue Birds Over The Mountain"

Video updated January 20 2011