Jerry Leiber Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: More than a hit song, “Stand by Me,” by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and Ben E. King, has transcended the notion of a “standard” — it’s been recorded more than 1,000 times and has made more appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 chart than any other song.

EXCLUSIVE: More than a hit song, “Stand By Me,” by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, and Ben E. King, has transcended the notion of a “standard”—it’s been recorded more than 1,000 times and has made more appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 chart than any other song.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Jazz Foundation of America has set performers and honorees for its annual “A Great Night in Harlem” benefit, with multiple Grammy winner Jon Batiste among the talent coming to the Apollo Theater and legendary songwriter Mike Stoller among those being honored for a lifetime of work. The concert portions of the March 30 event will be overseen, as always, by drumming great Steve Jordan as the night’s musical director. Batiste will be joined in the performance lineup by a cast that includes Bettye LaVette, Monty Alexander, Ray Parker Jr., Kenny Barron and Robert Cray. Stoller has come back into the pop consciousness in a big way in the past year due to the number of Leiber and Stoller songs featured on the “Elvis” film soundtrack, with the writing due that included Jerry Leiber having been responsible for such career milestones as “Hound Dog” (originally recorded by R&B artist Big Mama Thornton), “Jailhouse Rock,” “Trouble” and many others. (Read Variety‘s 2022 interview with Stoller here.)

Jon Burlingame editor Does Doja Cat’s hit song “Vegas” qualify to be an Oscar Best Song nominee? The short answer is: Maybe. But the tune from Baz Luhrmann’s biopic “Elvis” faces more challenges than the average new movie song. The three-and-a-half-minute, commercially released version of “Vegas,” a portion of which is heard during the first half-hour of the film, interpolates the 1950s classic “Hound Dog,” although more in its repeated use of a famous lyrical phrase (“you ain’t nothin’ but a…”) than any musical element. Because of that, original “Hound Dog” songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are co-credited as writers on “Vegas” along with Doja Cat (under her real name, Amala Zandile Dlamini), David Sprecher and Roget Lufti Chahayed, the latter two of whom are the credited producers.

Ellise Shafer Shonka Dukureh, the singer and actor who portrayed Big Mama Thornton in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” was found dead in her Nashville, Tenn. apartment on Thursday, police confirmed. She was 44.According to a tweet from the Metro Nashville Police Department, no foul play is evident in Dukureh’s death.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticIf there were an award to bestow for the most accomplished living American pop songwriter who never doubled as a recording artist, the frontrunner would almost definitely be Mike Stoller, 89, half of one of the most famous writing duos of all time, Leiber & Stoller. Even if the memory of Elvis Presley were completely wiped away, like the Beatles’ in that “Yesterday” movie, this pairing would still be in the history books and collective consciousness for “Stand by Me,” “On Broadway,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Young Blood,” “Kansas City,” “Love Potion #9,” “Yakety Yak,” “Charlie Brown,” “I’m a Woman,” “Ruby Baby,” “Is That All There Is?” and other numbers deeply embedded in pop culture from the mid-‘50s forward.

Orville Peck has teamed up with Trixie Mattel for a cover of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s ‘Jackson’ – listen to it below.Taken from Mattel’s latest EP ‘Full Coverage Vol.1’, the new duet comes with a video that sees  Peck and the drag performer, who wears a Dolly Parton-inspired outfit, perform the song alongside their band onstage at an old-school theatre.Originally written by Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber, ‘Jackson’ was first recorded in 1963 by Wheeler himself.

Seymour Stein was recently virtually presented the 2020 A2IM Lifetime Achievement Award for his trailblazing co-founding of Sire Records, where he signed such acts as the Talking Heads, the Ramones, the Pretenders, and Depeche Mode before going on to sign artists like Madonna and Ice-T when he was affiliated with Warner Music.Earlier in his career, he worked at such legendary indie labels as Syd Nathan’s King Records, which put out James Brown’s first records; as well as Jerry Leiber, Mike