Classic Favorites ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ Serves Up Some Familiar Tunes From Some Not-So-Familiar Song Writers

Some people say they’ve never heard of Leiber and Stoller.

Maybe not. But, trust us, if you’re an American and you’ve got ears, you’ve heard Leiber and Stoller.

In fact, most Americans know multiple Leiber and Stoller songs, some of them by heart. This is especially true if you were alive in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but it’s also true for subsequent generations.

Is there anybody alive who doesn’t know “Hound Dog”? “On Broadway”? “Stand By Me”?

The national tour of “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” the hit Broadway revue full of nothing but Leiber and Stoller songs, arrives at the Spokane Opera House on Wednesday for a five-show run. Those in the audience will never again be able to forget the contributions made to pop music by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

“Smokey Joe’s Cafe” is still running on Broadway after nearly four years; still running in London after nearly two years; and still on tour nationally after 18 months.

Stoller, reached by phone in L.A., admitted that when he, Leiber and director Jerry Zaks first put “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” together in 1995, he had high hopes for it. But not this high. He would have been pleased if it had lasted one year on Broadway.

“It’s interesting, because we had the same feeling about our songs when we first wrote them,” said Stoller. “Which was, if we had a hit, it would be remembered for six months and then forgotten. We thought they were for the moment.”

Not only was pop music overall considered a throwaway art, but they were working in probably the least respected field of popular music: rhythm and blues. It was relegated to second-class status in those days (1950), rarely breaking onto mainstream radio.

In fact, Stoller said he never thought that a partnership with the young Lieber would work (they were both 17 when they hooked up in 1950), because he didn’t think anybody else liked the same music he liked.

“You didn’t find too many white kids who were into that kind of music,” said Stoller, who had taken stride piano lessons from the legendary James P. Johnson. “I thought he would be writing that ‘let me take you in my arms and thrill to all your charms’ drivel. But he was writing great story songs, and I could tell from the structure of his lyrics that it was 12-bar blues.”

So the two young men dived right into the R&B world, and soon were writing hits for Charles Brown, Johnny Otis, Ray Charles and “Big Mama” Thornton. Their song for Big Mama was a jumping little number called “Hound Dog,” a hit on the R&B charts.

Three years later, Elvis Presley made it into a smash hit, and Leiber and Stoller hit the mainstream of pop music. Soon, they were writing songs for Ben E. King (“Spanish Harlem”), the Drifters (“There Goes My Baby”), and Wilbert Harrison (“Kansas City”) as well as more songs for Elvis (“Jailhouse Rock”). During this incredibly productive period, they were also writing and producing all of the Top 10 hits of the Coasters (“Yakety Yak,” “Charlie Brown,” “Poison Ivy,” to name just a few).

“We don’t write songs, we write records,” they were quoted as saying at the time.

They continued their flurry of productivity into the mid-1960s - they even wrote a hit for the Monkees, “D.W. Washburn” - but then they made an abrupt shift into more mature cabaret songs. The most famous of these: Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?”

That’s one Leiber and Stoller song you won’t find in “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.”

“It’s the only one we told them they could not do, even though it’s one of our favorites,” said Stoller. “We just didn’t feel it would work in this particular show. It’s on a different level. It’s contemplative, which is not really what the rest of the show is.”

The rest of the show is exuberant and full of humor and energy. The 40 songs in it include most of Leiber and Stoller’s hits, as well as a few that were overlooked at the time they were written (“Don Juan” and “Pearl the Singer”).

Besides basking in the success of this show, and accepting the accolades of their peers (Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters’ Hall of Fame), these two men continue to create new music. Stoller is working on an album of instrumentals with a Brazilian band. And they still write songs together.

“Of course we do!” said Stoller, as if there could be no doubt. “We’ve been partners and friends and collaborators for 48 years, pretty much non-stop.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. ON STAGE “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” will be staged at the Spokane Opera House on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 20 at 8 p.m., and Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets range from $37 to $43, available at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.

2. HIT PARADE A selection of the Leiber and Stoller hits in “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”: “Young Blood” “Searchin’ ” “Kansas City” “Poison Ivy” “On Broadway” “Yakety Yak” “Charlie Brown” “Hound Dog” “There Goes My Baby” “Love Potion No. 9” “Jailhouse Rock” “Spanish Harlem” “Stand By Me”