Hound Dog

In 1958, Jerry Leiber was boiling water in his kitchen while his songwriting partner, Mike Stoller, was fiddling around with a new tune on a nearby piano. “As soon as Jerry heard it, he yelled from the kitchen, ”˜Take out the papers and the trash!’” Stoller recalls in the duo’s new book, Hound Dog, co-written with David Ritz. “Just like that, I yelled back, ”˜Or you don’t get no spending cash!’” The Coasters took ”˜Yakety Yak’ to the top of the charts, and Leiber and Stoller ”“ two Jewish 25-year-olds who had been writing together since they were 17 ”“ became the hottest songwriting team in the country. Elvis Presley called them his “lucky charm”; their smash hits included ”˜Jailhouse Rock,’ ”˜There Goes My Baby,’ ”˜Smokey Joe’s Café’ and ”˜Stand by Me.’ Among the book’s many revelations is the real meaning of the Coasters’ 1959 hit ”˜Poison Ivy.’ “Pure and simple, ”˜Poison Ivy’ is a metaphor for a sexually transmitted disease ”“ or the clap,” writes Leiber. “Hardly a topic for a song that hit the Top Ten in the spring of 1959.” As their apprentice Phil Spector, the Beatles and others grabbed the spotlight, the pair’s hits dried up ”“ though they worked consistently through the 1970s. Today they are both 76 (“I’ve found myself schlepping from one doctor’s office to another,” writes Leiber); their remarkable story is long overdue.