Format Details: Jewel Case
Release Date: 28 June 2004
Label: Ace Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667002028
Genres: Blues Rhythm and Blues Soul/R&B R&B
Description
Apologies to Holland/Dozier/Holland, Bacharach & David, Goffin & King, Pomus & Shuman, Lennon & McCartney et al, but if JERRY LEIBER and MIKE STOLLER ain't the greatest songwriting team of the modern era, it's hard to imagine who the heck are. As a pair of ultra-hip 17-year-olds, they began their creative partnership at the pre-dawn of the Rock'n'Roll era, eventually laying claim to over 100 hit copyrights. Covering the years 1951 through 1956, Hard Times: The Los Angeles Years" is the first volume of what will eventually be an ambitious three CD series that will, in the shape of 80 L & S compositions, tell chronologically the story of the glorious first two decades of their career. Messrs L & S themselves have been hands-on in the track selection department." Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were born within two months of each other in 1933. Leiber moved to Los Angeles from his hometown of Baltimore in 1945, and became hooked on R&B via radio exposure while part-timing as a busboy at a Filipino restaurant. By the decade's end he was working at a record store and writing blues lyrics on the side. Stoller grew up in a white neighbourhood of New York. It was while attending an integrated summer camp that he heard kids playing boogie-woogie on an old upright piano, sparking his love of black music. The Stollers moved to LA in 1949 and Mike soon began moonlighting in a Latino dance band. Our subjects first met each other in 1950. Their mutual admiration of black music and culture meant that it was inevitable that they would write together. And they did. Enter Lester Sill, salesman at Modern Records, who, impressed by their songs, took L & S around the local R&B labels. Their first compositions, Real Ugly Woman and That's What The Good Book Says, were released on Modern in 1951 by Jimmy Witherspoon and the Bobby Nunn & the Robbins (sic), respectively. Hard Times, a hit for Charles Brown early the following year, was followed by Willie Mae Big Mama" Thornton's Hound Dog, which spent seven weeks atop the R&B charts a few months later. But it took legal action to secure royalty payments for that chart-topper. The logical next step was for L & S to form their own label, Spark, which debuted in March 1954. Six cuts by the Robins and two-dozen others from the logo are contained on Ace's "The Spark Records Story" (CDCHD 801), released a couple of years back, but y'all knew that already, right? Whatever, included here are Willy & Ruth's Come A Little Bit Closer and the Honey Bears' It's A Miracle, both of which were excluded from that CD for reasons of space. Recordings like these grabbed the attention of Atlantic Records' prexy Ahmet Ertegun, who offered to buy out the Robins' contract and relocate the whole set-up to the East Coast. In short order the group had osmosed into the Coasters and L & S were in situ as in-house songwriters and producers at Atlantic in New York. Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots, a smash hit for the Cheers in 1956, marked
Tracklisting
The Champs
Richard Thompson
Little Richard
Various Artists
The Two Things In One
The Damned
Link Wray
Isaac Hayes
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
