[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leiber-stoller-2_7124.jpg]]

Authors of a large part of the soundtrack to TheFifties.

Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) met as teenagers in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles in 1950, found that they were both fans of {{Blues}} and Rhythm & Blues, and started writing songs together. Jerry wrote the lyrics; Mike wrote the music. Their first hit came in '52, an R&B song called "Hard Times" recorded by Charles Brown. They stayed in the R&B genre for a few more years, writing songs that would later become huge hits, including "Kansas City" and "Hound Dog".

In the mid-'50s, Creator/AtlanticRecords hired them as both songwriters and {{Record Producer}}s. They moved in a doo-wop direction, writing hits for The Drifters and The Coasters. Songs like "Charlie Brown" and "Yakety Yak" became famous for their sense of humor and understanding of '50s youth culture.

After Music/ElvisPresley made "Hound Dog" famous, they started writing for him, including "Loving You", "Jailhouse Rock", and "King Creole". Along with Elvis, they helped popularize black music in America, with R&B hits that crossed over into the mainstream. Unfortunately, however, the collaboration was largely short lived, as Elvis' manager, UsefulNotes/ColonelTomParker, was ticked off at the fact that the duo had a direct line to Elvis rather than going to him first.

In the early '60s, they left Atlantic for Creator/UnitedArtistsRecords, and then to their own label, Red Bird. At Red Bird, they had success with {{Girl Group}}s The Shangri-Las and The Dixie Cups. They sold Red Bird in the late '60s and became independent songwriter-producers.

They won a UsefulNotes/GrammyAward in 1969 for Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?", and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. A Broadway JukeboxMusical featuring their work, ''Smokey Joe's Cafe'', came out in 1995 and won them another Grammy.

[[http://www.leiberstoller.com/ Official site]]

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!!Famous songs, and the musicians who made the famous:
* “Along Came Jones”: The Coasters
* "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots": Edith Piaf (as "L’Homme à la Moto")
* "Charlie Brown": The Coasters
* "Don't": Music/ElvisPresley
* "Hound Dog": Music/ElvisPresley
* "I Keep Forgettin'": Chuck Jackson, Music/ProcolHarum, Music/RingoStarr, Music/DavidBowie
* "Is That All There Is?": Peggy Lee
* "Jailhouse Rock": Music/ElvisPresley
* "Kansas City": Wilbert Harrison
* "King Creole": Music/ElvisPresley
* "Love Me": Music/ElvisPresley
* "Love Potion #9": The Searchers
* "Loving You": Music/ElvisPresley
* "On Broadway": The Drifters (co-written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil)
* "Only in America": Jay and the Americans
* "Pearl's A Singer": Elkie Brooks (co-written with Ralph Dino and John Sembello)
* "Poison Ivy": The Coasters
* "Riot In Cell Block Nine": The Robins, Film/TheBluesBrothers
* "Ruby Baby": The Drifters, Dion
* "Searchin'": The Coasters
* "Smokey Joe's Cafe": The Robins
* "Spanish Harlem": Ben E. King (co-written with Music/PhilSpector)
* "Stand By Me": Ben E. King (co-written with King)
* "There Goes My Baby": The Drifters (co-written with Ben E. King, Lover Patterson, and George Treadwell)
* "Yakety Yak": The Coasters
* "Young Blood": The Coasters (co-written with Doc Pomus)
* "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care": Music/BuddyHolly, Music/ElvisPresley

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!!Leiber and Stoller provide examples of:
* AscendedExtra: Music/PhilSpector, who started out as an assistant.
* BreakupSong: Leiber's characters fell out of love at least as often as they [[SillyLoveSongs fell in love]].
* ChristmasSongs: A few.
* ClassClown: "Charlie Brown"
* CrazyJealousGuy: The title character in "Smokey Joe's Cafe", who threatens the narrator with a knife when he suspects him of flirting with his girlfriend.
* CulturalTranslation: Lee "Scratch" Perry did a 1970 CoverVersion of "Yakety Yak" that changes "You ain't gonna rock 'n' roll no more" to "You ain't gonna {{reggae}} reggae reggae no more."
* DanceSensation:
** "Jailhouse Rock"
** Parodied in "The Slime" by The Coasters, though the label made them change the title to "The Climb".
* DarkerAndEdgier: "Is That All There Is?" is this compared to most of their other songs.
* DooWopProgression: ''Very'' fond of this trope.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: "Pearl's a Singer," about a nightclub singer who failed to make the big time.
-->''She wanted to be Betty Grable\\
But now she sits there at that beer stained table\\
Dreaming of the things she never got to do\\
All those dreams that never came true''
* TheFifties
* TheFourChordsOfPop
* GirlGroup: They had some success producing these in TheSixties.
* HeavyMeta: "That Is Rock & Roll"
* {{Instrumentals}}: A handful.
* LoveIsADrug: Taken quite literally in "Love Potion #9".
* [[MoralityBallad Morality Doo-Wop]]: "Poison Ivy"
* MsFanservice: "Little Egypt," a song about a tantalizing stripper who eventually settles down.
* TheMusical / JukeboxMusical: ''Smokey Joe's Cafe''.
* TheNewRockAndRoll: "Yakety Yak" satirizes parental anxiety over teenage kids.
-->''If you don't scrub that kitchen floor\\
You ain't gonna rock and roll no more!''
* OneWomanSong: "Cordelia", "Fannie Lou", "Hello, Miss Simms", "Lola", "Suzanne, You Can"
* PopStarComposer: They wrote the songs for the bizarre 1970 film ''Film/ThePhynx'', with Stoller also doing the instrumental score.
* RecordProducer
* RedOniBlueOni: Leiber (red) was the outgoing one, Stoller (blue) was quiet and introspective.
* {{Pop}}
* SillyLoveSongs: By the dozen.
* SomethingBlues: "Back Door Blues", "Blues for Me", "Heavenly Blues", "King Solomon's Blues"
* SouthOfTheBorder: "Down in Mexico", which even uses the exact phrase, though it eschews the usual stereotypes and just focuses on a seedy honky-tonk.
* StepUpToTheMicrophone [=/=] DescendedCreator: Jerry Leiber himself handles the lead vocal for the obscure Coasters song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi3-2gY0lng "Shake 'Em Up and Let 'Em Roll"]].
* SubduedSection: "Hound Dog", "Charlie Brown", and others.
* TranslatedCoverVersion: Music/EdithPiaf's French version of "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots".
* WholePlotReference: "Is That All There Is?" is largely based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann Thomas Mann's]] short story "Disillusionment".
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