Doc Pomus

Felder. Pomus stated that more often than not, he was the
only Caucasian in the clubs, but that as a Jew and a polio
victim, he felt a special underdog kinship with African
Americans, while in turn the audiences both respected his
courage and were impressed with his talent. Gigging at
various clubs in and around New York City, Pomus often
performed with the likes of Milt Jackson, Mickey Baker
and King Curtis. Pomus recorded approximately 40 sides
as a singer in the '40s and '50s for record companies such
as Chess, Apollo, Gotham and others.
In the early 1950s, Pomus started writing magazine articles as well as songwriting for artists such as Lavern
Baker, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner to
earn more money to support a family, after he had married Willi Burke, a Broadway actress. His rst big songwriting break came when he chanced upon the Coasters'
version of his "Young Blood" on a jukebox while on their
honeymoon. Pomus wrote the song, then gave it to Jerry
Leiber and Mike Stoller, who radically rewrote it. Still,
Doc had co-credit as author, and he soon received a royalty check for $1500.00, which convinced him that songwriting was a career direction worth pursuing. By 1957,
Pomus had given up performing for full-time songwriting. He collaborated with pianist Mort Shuman, whom
he met when Shuman was dating Docs younger cousin,
to write for Hill & Range Music Co./Rumbalero Music
at its oces in New York Citys Brill Building. Pomus
asked Shuman to write with him because Doc didn't then
know much about rock and roll, whereas Mort was familiar with many popular artists of the day. Their songwriting eorts had Pomus write the lyrics and Shuman
the melody, although often they worked on both. They
wrote the hit songs "A Teenager in Love", "Save The Last
Dance For Me", "Hushabye", "This Magic Moment",
"Turn Me Loose", "Sweets For My Sweet" (a hit for the
Drifters and then the Searchers), Go Jimmy Go, "Little
Sister", "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "Suspicion",
"Surrender" and "(Maries the Name) His Latest Flame".

Doc Pomus singing at the Pied Piper with Ue Bode, Sol Yaged,
John Levy and Rex William Stuart (1947)

Jerome Solon Felder (June 27, 1925 March 14, 1991),

known as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and
songwriter.[1] He is best known as the lyricist of many
rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1992,[2] the
Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992),[3] and the Blues Hall
of Fame (2012).[4]

Early life

Born Jerome Solon Felder in 1925 in Brooklyn, New

York, he was a son of Jewish immigrants.[5] Felder became a fan of the blues after hearing a Big Joe Turner
record. Having had polio as a boy, he walked with the
help of crutches. Later, due to post-polio syndrome, exacerbated by an accident, Felder eventually relied on a During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pomus wrote sevwheelchair.
eral songs with Phil Spector (Young Boy Blues"; Ecstasy"; What Am I To Do?"), Mike Stoller and Jerry
His brother is New York attorney Raoul Felder.
Leiber (Young Blood and Shes Not You), and other
Brill Building-era writers. Pomus also wrote "Lonely Avenue", a 1956 hit for Ray Charles.[6]
2 Career

In the 1970s and 1980s, in his eleventh-oor, two-room

apartment at the Westover Hotel at 253 West 72nd Street,
Pomus wrote songs with Dr. John, Ken Hirsch and Willy
DeVille for what he said were "...those people stumbling around in the night out there, uncertain or not al-

Using the stage name Doc Pomus, teenager Felder

began performing as a blues singer. His stage name
wasn't inspired by anyone in particular; he just thought
it sounded better for a blues singer than the name Jerry
1

ways so certain of exactly where they t in and where

they were headed. These later songs (There Must Be
A Better World, There Is Always One More Time,
That World Outside, You Just Keep Holding On, and
Something Beautiful Dying in particular)recorded by
Willy DeVille, B.B. King, Irma Thomas, Marianne Faithfull, Charlie Rich, Ruth Brown, Dr. John, James Booker,
and Johnny Adamsare considered by some, including writer Peter Guralnick, musician and songwriter Dr.
John, and producer Joel Dorn, to be signatures of his best
craft.
The documentary lm A.K.A. Doc Pomus (2012), conceived by Pomus daughter Sharyn Felder, directed by
lmmaker Peter Miller and Will Hechter, edited by Amy
Linton and produced by Felder, Hechter and Miller, details Pomus life.
Pomus died on March 14, 1991 from lung cancer, at the
age of 65 at NYU medical center in Manhattan.

Legacy and inuence

Further information: List of songs written by Doc Pomus

and Mort Shuman
Together with Shuman and individually, Pomus was a
key gure in the development of popular music. They
co-wrote such hits as "Save the Last Dance for Me",
"This Magic Moment", "Sweets for My Sweet", "Viva
Las Vegas", Little Sister, Surrender, "Can't Get Used
to Losing You", "Suspicion", "Turn Me Loose" and A
Mess of Blues.[7]
Pomus was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame
and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1991 he was the rst non-African-American recipient of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award.[8] Ray Charles did the honors via a prerecorded message.
The funk band Cameo was heavily inuenced by
Doc Pomus song-writing style and frequently acknowledges his impact before performing their hit
song Word Up.
Longtime friend jazz singer Jimmy Scott performed
at Pomus funeral, which performance singularly
resurrected his career. Other attendees included
Seymour Stein, who subsequently signed Scott to
Sire Records, and Lou Reed, who thereafter would
regularly work with Scott until his death. Pomus had
been imploring his friends to see Scott play for many
years.[9]
The song Docs Blues
was written as a tribute to Pomus by his close friend, Andrew Vachss.
The lyrics originally appeared in Vachss 1990 novel
[10]

REFERENCES

Blossom. Docs Blues was recorded by bluesman

Son Seals, on Seals last album, Lettin Go.[11]
Responsible for Lou Reed's introduction to the music industry in the early 1960s, Pomus was one of
two friends Reed memorialized on his 1992 album
Magic and Loss (the other was Rotten Rita).
In 1995, Rhino Records released a tribute album to
Pomus entitled Till The Night Is Gone. Pomus songs
are performed by Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Dion,
Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Solomon Burke, John Hiatt, Shawn Colvin, Aaron Neville, Lou Reed, The
Band, B.B. King, Los Lobos and Rosanne Cash.
In 2010, Ben Folds and Nick Hornby named their
collaborative album Lonely Avenue, on which the
song Doc Pomus appeared. The lyrics referenced
an excerpt from Doc Pomuss uncompleted memoir,
February 21, 1984: I was never one of those happy
cripples who stumbled around smiling and shinyeyed, trying to get the world to cluck its tongue and
shake its head sadly in my direction. Theyd never
look at me and say, 'What a wonderful, courageous
fellow.'" The album featured lyrics written by British
author Hornby, set to music by American performer
Folds. It was released on September 28, 2010.
John Goodman's character in the Coen brothers'
2013 dramedy Inside Llewyn Davis was loosely inspired by Pomus.[12]

4 Further reading
Halberstadt, Alex (2007). Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life And Times Of Doc Pomus. New York: Da
Capo Press. ISBN 0306813009.

5 References
[1] Obituary Variety, March 18, 1991.
[2] Doc Pomus - Induction Year: 1992 - Induction Category:
Non-Performer. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved
2007-06-30.
[3] Doc Pomus. Songwriters Hall Of Fame. Retrieved
2008-03-27.
[4] Blues Foundation Announces 2012 Blues Hall of Fame
Inductees. confessingtheblues. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
[5] Tamarkini, Je (2007-04-03). Heart of the matter. The
Phoenix. Retrieved 2007-04-24.
[6] Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. www.history-of-rock.
Retrieved 2007-06-30.

[7] Doc Pomus - Biography.

2007-06-27.

Allmusic.com.

Retrieved

[8] Rhythm and Blues Foundation 1991 Pioneer Awards.

[9] Ritz, David (2002). Faith in Time: The Life of Jimmy
Scott. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Da Capo. p. 4.
ISBN 978-0-306-81229-3.
[10] Docs Blues. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
[11] Lettin' Go. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
[12] Evans, Greg (2013-10-01). Coens Evoke NY Folk
Scene; Hanks Battles Pirates: Movies. Bloomberg. Retrieved 2014-05-21.

External links
The Ocial Home Page Of Pomus Songs, Inc.
Doc Pomus at AllMusic
Doc Pomus Biography
Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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wikipedia/commons/9/91/Uffe_Bode%2C_Doc_Pomus%2C_Sol_Yaged%2C_John_Levy_and_Rex_William_Stuart_1947.jpg License:
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