Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller; (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as "Hound Dog" (1952) and "Kansas City" (1952). Later in the 1950s, particularly through their work with The Coasters, they created a string of ground-breaking hits—including "Young Blood" (1957), "Searchin'" (1957), and "Yakety Yak" (1958)—that used the humorous vernacular of teenagers sung in a style that was openly theatrical rather than personal. They were the first to surround black
Son of a Preacher Man in mono. "Son of a Preacher Man" was to be the last Top Ten chart hit for Springfield for almost 20 years, till she teamed up with Pet Shop Boys for the single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in 1987. In 1967, while working at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, songwriters John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, who had recently had a hit with "Love of the Common People", were asked by Jerry Wexler to write a song for Aretha Franklin. Remembering the fact that Franklin's father was a preacher, as Wilkins's grandfather had been, Hurley and Wilkins quickly came up