The early influences, in many ways, were in Baltimore. I was passing open windows where there might be a radio playing something funky. In the summertime, sometimes there'd be a man sitting on a step, playing an acoustic guitar, playing… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
'Hound Dog' took like twelve minutes. That's not a complicated piece of work. But the rhyme scheme was difficult. Also the metric structure of the music was not easy. 'Kansas City' was maybe eight minutes, if that. Writing the early… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
Red-hot songs were born on the black streets of Baltimore, where I delivered five-gallon cans of kerosene and ten-pound bags of coal. — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
Elvis was incredibly cooperative. He would try anything. He wasn't a diva, no prima donna. When it came to work, he was a workhorse. — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
Elvis Presley, you can't define him in a couple of sentences, but he was a country boy and he was very respectful. — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
The Jewish background is not that far from the black groove. Blacks are downtrodden, Jews are downtrodden, therefore they have something in common in… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
Our songs did not transcend being R&B hits. They were R&B hits that white kids were attracted to. And if people bought it, it… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
Irving Berlin was the greatest songwriter of all time. I was in awe of him. But his music wasn't my music. My music was… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
And there's always one special element. In 'There Goes My Baby,' it's the out-of-tune timpani. 'Stand by Me,' it's the bass pattern. Of course,… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
Listen to any cantor, any good hazan, sing and you can hear a little bit of Ray Charles going on. — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
I felt black. I was as far as I was concerned. And I wanted to be black for lots of reasons. They were better… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
I was brought up in black neighborhoods in South Baltimore. And we really felt like we were very black. We acted black and we… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
It's self-effacing, it's hard-luck, the shtetl stories. All those Coasters things are an amalgam of Yiddish and black humor. — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
The first memory I have was my sisters dancing to the radio when they played records by Benny Goodman and Harry James and of… — Jerry Leiber Copy Share Image
