Jerry Leiber, 1933-2011

The video above, of the songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, from the game show “What’s My Line?,” will give you a good idea about just how much the world has changed since they started writing songs like “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock,” and how much their songs had to do with that change. “You’ve both won very great success,” says the show’s host, who moments earlier had called rock and roll a “fad in the country.” And: “Congratulations to you, I hope you have a chance to enjoy it and to go on and perhaps do more serious things in music.”

Leiber and Stoller would of course continue to write music, songs like “Yakety Yak,” “Love Potion No. 9,” “Fools Fall in Love,” “On Broadway” and “Stand By Me” — songs that have become a very important part of American culture. Jerry Leiber died yesterday in Los Angeles of heart failure; he was 78.