2 great songwriters died today - Nick Ashford and Jerry Lieber

Danny Tse

Nick Ashford of Ashford and Simpson fame....composer of such classics such "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "I'm Every Woman", and his own #1 song "Solid" (with his wife, Valerie Simpson)

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=14359825

Jerry Lieber, of Lieber/Stoller fame, composer of such classics like "Stand By Me," "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Young Blood," "On Broadway," "Yakety-Yak", etc.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/source-songwriter-jerry-leiber-dies-at-78-20110822

RIP

mhardy6647

yup.

I was surprised to hear that Jerry Lieber was only 78 years old. He wrote Hound Dog, for cryin' out loud! :-)

Nick Ashford died of throat cancer (or complications pertaining thereto) - they didn't say on the news how old he was (not terribly, I presume).

EDIT: heh :-)

i]From the RS article on Jerry Leiber's death[/i Leiber was extremely irritated by the changes that Presley made to the original lyrics [to Hound Dog]. "To this day I have no idea what that rabbit business is about," he said in 2009. "The song is not about a dog; it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis' version makes no sense to me, and, even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting out of what seemed to be a capricious change of lyrics."

Joe08867

RIP guys, True songwriters are hard to come by. They will be missed.

mhardy6647

Rick88 wrote: »

Nick Ashford was 69 according to some reports, others say he was 70. According to Wikipedia (May 4, 1942 ? August 22, 2011) he was 69.

Close enough for Government work. Thanks for supplying the info I was too lazy to look up!