Today on the show, one of the defining creators of 20th century pop music and one half of the legendary songwriting team Leibran Stoller,

Mr Mike Stoller will talk to us about the writing of his greatest songs.

Sadly, Jerry Leber passed away in August of 2011, but we are extremely fortunate and actually

a little bit overwhelmed, I think, to be able to welcome the great Mike Stoller to the show today.

I couldn't agree more. What can you say about the music legacy like this one?

Libra and Stoller arrived on the music scene at a key juncture in history.

Their love for the blues and black American R&B music, combined with their extraordinary writing skills,

played an important part in bringing those sounds to the attention of the wider world of popular music.

That's right, they created enduring classics in rhythm and blues, jazz and even cabaret, not to mention

the expanding and mainly white interpretation of the music known as rock and roll.

If you're unfamiliar with the canon of pop music

written by a Libra and Stoller, then perhaps just knowing that they wrote the indelible

hits Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock for the King himself, Elvis Presley, will be enough to peak your interest.

That alone makes Mike Stola a formidable guest but that's not where the story ends.

With the coasters, Libra and Stoller wrote and produced songs like Yacck

searching, Charlie Brown, Young Blood, along

came Jones, Little Egypt and Poison Ivy, not to mention hits like Down in Mexico and Smoky Joe's

Cafe, the latter of which became the title of the five-year running Broadway review,

spotlighting the Libra and Stoler classics.

It did indeed. Both Libra and Stoler were born in 1933. The actual songwriting partnership commenced in 1950 when they were just 17 years old.

It was largely based on their mutual love for the Boogie-Wogie piano style and the blues.

Typically Mike Stoller wrote the music at the piano and Jerry Leibour developed the lyrics.

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