For a decade, from the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the most successful songwriting team in popular music, writing hits for R&B groups like
the Coasters and
the Drifters and giving
Elvis Presley some of his best material. The songs included "Kansas City," "Love Me," "Poison Ivy," "On Broadway," "Yakety Yak," "Loving You," "Hound Dog," "Love Potion #9," "Jailhouse Rock," "Spanish Harlem," and "Stand by Me." Smokey Joe's Cafe, a musical revue, which opened on Broadway in March 1995 and was still going strong a year later, contained all of those songs and more. The two-CD original Broadway cast album spanned the entire show's 38 songs. On-stage, hearing the songs again was refreshing. On record, the problem was the inevitable comparison with the original recordings. But Leiber and Stoller (who produced with
Arif Mardin) took different approaches on the
Presley material, not trying to copy him in most instances, and some of the most interesting performances came on the less-well-known songs, which allowed the singers more room for interpretation, such as Brenda Braxton's take on "Don Juan." With their comic narrative style, songs like "Charlie Brown" and "Shopping for Clothes" were naturally theatrical and work in any context. The only wonder is that it took so long for this revue to get to the stage. ~ William Ruhlmann