Watching the hoary programs that Game Show Network broadcasts in the wee small hours, I'm struck by all sorts of realizations. One is that adults in the fifties and early sixties actually thought rock-and-roll music was an annoying fad that would be gone before long. The panelists on What's My Line? (GSN is currently airing shows from 1958) are forever making little parental mutterings about how what "the kids today" listen to isn't really music. The other night, Bennett Cerf congratulated a priest who was moonlighting as a disc jockey for never playing rock-and-roll.
Last week, the panel and host gave short shrift to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who came on as contestants — and not even celebrity contestants or anonymous contestants. They signed in under their own names even though by then, they'd had a number of hit records. (In case anyone reading this is unaware, Leiber and Stoller were for years the all-time champs when it came to writing Top Ten songs. The list includes "Charlie Brown," "Searchin'," "Ruby Baby," "I Keep Forgetting," "Love Potion No.9," "Neighborhood," "Poison Ivy," "Some Cats Know," "Framed," "Fools Fall In Love," "Love Me," "Riot In Cell Block No. 9," "I Who Have Nothing," "Spanish Harlem," "Stand By Me," "Kansas City," "Smokey Joe's Cafe," "That Is Rock n Roll," "Bossa Nova Baby," "Saved," "Trouble," "Pearl's A Singer," "Young Blood," "Don't," "I'm A Woman," "You Ain't Saying It," "Loving You," "Is That All There Is?," "Yakety Yak," "On Broadway," "Jailhouse Rock," "Little Egypt" and "Hound Dog.")
Elvis had recorded that last one two years earlier but the What's My Line? panel didn't recognize the songwriters' names and treated them like kids working at a burger stand. John Daly even said — thinking he was being nice, I guess — "Well, maybe someday you'll do something serious." Ouch.
Maybe Mr. Daly can be forgiven. No one then could have imagined that Leiber and Stoller — and others of their profession — were doing work that would endure if not forever then certainly through several generations. Recently when I saw a local production of Smokey Joe's Cafe — a revue of Leiber-Stoller material that ran on Broadway for five years — an entire auditorium of adults knew every word to many of the tunes. The fellow who runs the theater came out to introduce the show. To demonstrate the impact of Leiber and Stoller's work, he yelled out, "Yakety Yak" and the whole audience instantly responded with, "Don't talk back!" Bet you couldn't do that with anything John Daly ever thought of.