Jerry Leiber and Nickolas Ashford: remember them this way

2011/aug/23 -> guardian.co.uk

It's a sad day for anyone who loves classic pop and soul songwriting as two great practitioners of the art have died. Jerry Leiber, who passed away aged 78 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles of cardiopulmonary failure, made an indelible mark on pop with songs he created with his writing partner Mike Stoller in the late-50s and early-60s.

Nick Ashford, who died aged 70 in New York of throat cancer, wrote songs with his wife Valerie Simpson that similarly defined an era – the late-60s and early-70s. Here are some of their finest moments: please share your own below. Full obituaries will follow shortly.

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+ More about Jerry Leiber:

Beach Boys songcredits on YouKiwi: ©Jerry Leiber (Lyr)

(& Smokey Joe's Cafe was also a fave of The Beach Boys)

Most important: The team Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller wrote 90% of the music of The Coasters!

The Coasters (Robins) - Smokey Joe's Cafe

1955

Lucilla Galeazzi & L'Arpeggiata - Sogna fiore mio

2001
All the music of the cd were it is taken from is great, and it can also be heard in the 2011 movie "Tous Les Soleils"



+ website arpeggiata.com

Time Of The Session (repost)

Apr 8 2004 -> laweekly.com

From the LA weekly

APRIL 9 -15, 2004

Time of the Session
When the music was fast, and the players anonymous
by Robert Lloyd

Most of the music you will ever hear will be played by people you will never see and whose names you will neither know nor think to ask. It will be recorded in windowless rooms, witnessed sometimes only by an engineer or producer, the now-ancient technology of the overdub making the presence even of other musicians unnecessary. For every superstar singer or guitar heroine whose name adorns a T-shirt or tattoo, there are hundreds whose work is done anonymously, or as good as. Who play their part, collect their pay and go home.