Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Song Predictions For The Top 4: Leiber and Stoller Theme Night

American Idol Top 4

I know, I am a day early with my song predictions. I’m usually doing them the day of the performances. I have been on the ball lately about updating my blogs with new posts. I hope to continue to do so!!

Anyways, on to the post…

Before we get to the song predictions, here’s a primer for Leiber and Stoller:

Lyricist Jerome "Jerry" Leiber (born April 25, 1933) and composer Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) are among the most influential American songwriters and record producers in post-World War II popular music.

Their first successes were as the writers of such crossover hit songs as "Hound Dog" and "Kansas City." Later in the 1950s, particularly through their work with The Coasters, they created a string of ground-breaking hits that are some of the most entertaining in rock and roll, by using the humorous vernacular of the teenagers sung in a style that was openly theatrical rather than personal, songs that include "Young Blood," "Searchin'," and "Yakety Yak."[1] They were the first to surround black music with elaborate production values, enhancing its emotional power with The Drifters in "There Goes My Baby" and influencing Phil Spector who worked with them on recordings of The Drifters and Ben E. King. Leiber and Stoller went into the record business and, focusing on the "girl group" sound, released some of the greatest classics of the Brill Building period.[2]

They wrote hits including "Love Me," "Loving You," "Don't," "Jailhouse Rock," and "King Creole," among others for Elvis Presley.[3] They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.[4]

They currently live separately in Los Angeles, California.

Contestants will perform their songs on American Idol, on May 11.

Leiber came from Baltimore, Stoller from Long Island, but they met in Los Angeles in 1950, where Stoller was a freshman at Los Angeles City College while Leiber was a senior at Fairfax High. Stoller had graduated from Belmont High School. After school, Stoller played piano and Leiber worked in a record store and, when they met, they found they shared a love of blues and rhythm and blues. In 1950, Jimmy Witherspoonrecorded and performed their first commercial song, "Real Ugly Woman." Their first hit composition was "Hard Times," recorded by Charles Brown, which was a rhythm and blues hit in 1952. "Kansas City," which was also recorded in 1952 (as "K. C. Loving") by Little Willie Littlefield, became a No. 1 hit in 1959 for Wilbert Harrison. In 1952, they wrote "Hound Dog" for Big Mama Thornton, which became a hit for her in 1953; it became a much bigger hit for Elvis Presley in 1956, which was a takeoff version of the song that Presley picked up from Freddie Bell's lounge act in Las Vegas.[5] His showstopping mock-burlesque version of "Hound Dog," playfully bumping and grinding on the Milton Berle Show, created such public excitement that on the Steve Allen Show they slowed down his act, with an amused Presley in a tuxedo and blue suede shoes singing his hit to a basset hound. Allen pronounced Presley "a good sport"; and the Leiber-Stoller song would be forever linked to Presley. Their later songs often had lyrics more appropriate for pop music, and their combination of rhythm and blues with pop lyrics revolutionized pop, rock and roll and punk rock.

They formed Spark Records in 1953 with their mentor, Lester Sill. Their songs from this period include "Smokey Joe's Cafe" and "Riot in Cell Block #9," both recorded by The Robins.[6]

The label was later bought by Atlantic Records, which hired Leiber and Stoller in an innovative deal that allowed them to produce for other labels. This, in effect, made them the first independent record producers.[6] At Atlantic, they revitalized the careers of the Drifters and wrote a number of hits for The Coasters, a spin-off of The Robins. Their songs from this period include "Charlie Brown," "Searchin'," "Yakety Yak,"[7] "Stand By Me" (written with Ben E. King), and "On Broadway" (written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil). For the Coasters alone, they wrote twenty-four songs that appeared in the US charts.

In 1955, Leiber and Stoller produced a recording of their song, "Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots," with the white vocal group, The Cheers.[6] Soon after, the song was recorded by Édith Piaf in a French translation titled, "L'Homme à la Moto." The European royalties from another Cheers record, "Bazoom (I Need Your Lovin')," funded a 1956 trip to Europe for Stoller and his first wife, Meryl, on which they met Piaf. Their return to New York was aboard the ill-fated SS Andrea Doria, which was rammed and sunk by the Swedish liner MS Stockholm. The Stollers had to finish the journey to New York without the ship. After their rescue, Leiber greeted Stoller at the dock with the news that "Hound Dog" had become a hit for Elvis Presley.[5] Stoller's reply was, "Elvis who?" They would go on to write more hits for Presley, including the title songs for three of his movies—Loving You, Jailhouse Rock,[8] and King Creole—as well as the rock and roll Christmas song, "Santa Claus Is Back in Town," for Presley's first Christmas album.

In the early 1960s, Phil Spector served an apprenticeship of sorts with Leiber and Stoller in New York, developing his record producer's craft while assisting and playing guitar on their sessions, including "On Broadway."

After leaving the employ of Atlantic Records, where they produced, and often wrote, many classic recordings by The Drifters and Ben E. King, they produced a series of records for United Artists' record wing. They produced hits by Jay and the Americans ("She Cried"), The Exciters ("Tell Him"), and The Clovers ("Love Potion #9," also written by Leiber and Stoller.)

In the 1960s, Leiber and Stoller founded and briefly owned Red Bird Records, which issued the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" and the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love." After selling Red Bird, they continued working as independent producers and writing songs. Their best known song from this period is "Is That All There Is?" recorded by Peggy Lee in 1969; earlier in the decade, they had had a minor hit with Lee with "I'm a Woman." Their last major hit production was "Stuck In the Middle With You," by Stealers Wheel in 1972. In 1975, they recorded an album of art songs with Peggy Lee, entitled Mirrors. A remixed and expanded version of this album was released in 2005 as Peggy Lee Sings Leiber & Stoller.

In the late seventies, A&M Records recruited Leiber & Stoller to write and produce an album for Elkie Brooks. The album Two Days Away (1977) proved a success in the UK and most of Europe. Their composition "Pearl's A Singer" (written with Ralph Dino & John Sembello) became a hit for Brooks, and remains her signature tune. They produced another album for her, Live and Learn, in 1979.

Mezzo-soprano Joan Morris and her pianist-composer husband William Bolcom have recorded an album, Other Songs by Leiber and Stoller, featuring a number of their more unusual (and satiric) works (including "Let's Bring Back World War I," written specifically for them, and "Humphrey Bogart," a tongue-in-cheek song about obsession with the actor.)

In 1982, Donald Fagen recorded their song, "Ruby Baby," on his album, The Nightfly. Coincidentally that same year, former Steely Dan member Michael McDonald released I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near), adapted from Leiber & Stoller's I Keep Forgettin'.

With collaborator Artie Butler, Stoller wrote the music to the musical The People in the Picture, with book and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart. Stoller and Butler's music received a 2011 Drama Desk Award nomination.

They won Grammy awards for "Is That All There Is?" in 1969, and for the cast album of Smokey Joe's Cafe, a 1995 Broadway musical revue based on their work. Smokey Joe's Cafe was also nominated for sevenTony awards, and became the longest-running musical revue in Broadway history.

Other awards include:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Leiber_and_Mike_Stoller

Signature Songs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Leiber_and_Mike_Stoller

Song Predictions For The Top 4

1) Scotty McCreery-Either “Jailhouse Rock,” “King Creole,” or “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley

  • With Scotty being an Elvis impersonator in his younger years, his baritone voice will be excellent for any Elvis song written by Leiber and Stoller. Any of the three choices above would showcase the reason why America loves him: his voice!!
  • However, if he chooses an off-the-cuff choice, he is in for a wild ride, possibly going home! As you remember with Pia, no person is safe on this show!! Please vote for your favorites!!!

Jailhouse Rock

King Creole

Love Me Tender

 

2) James Durbin-“Love Potion No. 9” by The Searchers

  • With James being the metal rocker type, one of the songs I wish he would sing from the Leiber/Stoller songbook is this one, originally by The Searchers. It has been recorded by over twenty different performers from various kinds of music, and I am thrilled at the possibility of James singing this song.
  • If James sings this song, he will have another moment!

Love Potion No. 9

 

3) Lauren Alaina-“I (Who Have Nothing) by Shirley Bassey

  • Lauren desperately needs to have a moment, that one moment during the season where everyone knows who is really in it to win it. I believe Lauren has the pipes to belt out this song, and if she completely lays it all out there for the viewers to hear, then her moment will finally come with this song!
  • However, if she doesn’t give it her all, on any song, mind you, she will be in complete danger of going home this week. That would be a shame, considering that Lauren has one of the best voices I have heard in American Idol history.

I (Who Have Nothing)

 

4) Haley Reinhart-“Is That All There Is?” by Peggy Lee

  • This song suits Haley’s vocal talents, she has that Adele/Amy Winehouse vibe, that jazzy soulful vibe. If she does this song, she will have another moment. She is quickly going past Lauren as the female contestant who has grown the most on this show. Never would I have imagined that she would be in the Final 4 on American Idol.

Is That All There Is? (I Apologize For The Song Being Cut Short)

Have a great night, and check back with me tomorrow to see if my predictions were correct!!

D-RIZZ OUT!!!

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