Leiber and Stoller

US songwriters and record producers. They wrote a number of classic pop and rock songs of the 1950s and early 1960s, including hits for vocal group the Coasters (‘Riot in Cell Block Number Nine’ (1953), ‘Searchin'’ (1957), and ‘Poison Ivy’ (1959)) and songs for early Elvis Presley films such as ‘Jailhouse Rock’ (1957). Storytelling and tongue-in-cheek humour characterize their work, ranging from ‘Love Potion Number Nine’, a 1959 hit for vocal group the Clovers, to ‘Is That All There Is?’, a 1969 hit for jazz singer Peggy Lee.

Leiber and Stoller met in California in 1949 and began collaborating on rhythm-and-blues material, Leiber writing the lyrics and Stoller the music. Their ‘Hound Dog’, a hit for blues singer Big Mama Thornton (1926–1984) in 1953, was a bigger hit for Elvis Presley in 1956 and led to commissions for further songs for him (‘Treat Me Nice’, ‘King Creole’, ‘Trouble’). As early as 1952 Leiber and Stoller took over the production and arrangement of most of their songs, and continued to be influential as producers in the 1960s, especially in their work with vocal group the Drifters.