John Lennon - Stand By Me

In spite of having Lennon's name at the top, this post is meant to commemorate Jerry Leiber, who died on Tuesday. But I thought it would be good to use this recording as an example of the influence of Leiber and Stoller (joined as songwriters in this case by the original singer of this song, Ben E. King) -- after all, Lennon is singing this song because it had clearly burned itself into his memory when he was young. From the mid-fifties to mid-sixties, Leiber and Stoller were everywhere in pop music, but weren't noticed that much because they weren't performers, they were songwriters and producers. Their influence was huge, however, and everyone affected by the music of that era has been affected by them. RIP Jerome Leiber.