Apologies to Holland/Dozier/Holland, Bacharach & David, Goffin & King, Pomus & Shuman, Lennon & McCartney et al, but if JERRY LEIBER and MIKE STOLLER ain't the greatest songwriting team of the modern era, it's hard to imagine who the heck are. As a pair of ultra-hip 17-year-olds, they began their creative partnership at the pre-dawn of the Rock 'n' Roll era, eventually laying claim to over 100 hit copyrights. Covering the years 1951 through 1956, Hard Times: The Los Angeles Years is the first volume of an ambitious three CD series that, in the shape of 80 L & S compositions, tell chronologically the story of the glorious first two decades of their career. Messrs L & S themselves have been hands-on in the track selection department.
This volume deals with their early years as (predominantly) R&B songwriters in L.A., starting with their first recorded compositions by Jimmy Witherspoon and The Robbins and ending just prior to the start of their great successes with the Coasters and Elvis Presley. It also includes the first of their earliest national and international pop successes with The Cheers, Vicki Young and Edith Piaf! Several of the tracks are featured in previously unreleased alternate versions, while many others are being digitized for the first time here.
