A Few Good Words

More than a few, actually, from the pen of the great Jerry Lieber:

You just put on your coat and hat,
and walk yourself to the laundromat.
And when you've finished doing that,
bring in the dog and put out the cat
Yakety yak! (Don't talk back)

Lieber, working with Mike Stoller, more or less built rock and roll during the 1950s. The duo wrote "Hound Dog," originally a hit for Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton and used by Elvis Presley to help secure his place at the top of the charts. They wrote several more hits for Elvis, including the title tracks to the only two good movies he made -- "King Creole" and the iconic "Jailhouse Rock."

They also wrote some of the biggest hits for The Coasters, a comic rock band that scored with songs like the above-quoted "Yakety Yak," "Poison Ivy" (You're gonna need an ocean/of calamine lotion/you'll be scratchin' like a hound/the minute you start to mess around/With poison ivy), "Love Potion No. 9" and a bunch of others. They wrote "Kansas City," a hit for Wilbur Harrison that is pretty much the town's theme song, and the awesome "Stand By Me" for Ben E. King.

Stoller was the musical composer and Lieber the lyricist. His pen was stilled today, but I imagine the musical selection in the afterlife has just perked up quite a bit.