Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticIf there were an award to bestow for the most accomplished living American pop songwriter who never doubled as a recording artist, the frontrunner would almost definitely be Mike Stoller, 89, half of one of the most famous writing duos of all time, Leiber & Stoller.

Even if the memory of Elvis Presley were completely wiped away, like the Beatles’ in that “Yesterday” movie, this pairing would still be in the history books and collective consciousness for “Stand by Me,” “On Broadway,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Young Blood,” “Kansas City,” “Love Potion #9,” “Yakety Yak,” “Charlie Brown,” “I’m a Woman,” “Ruby Baby,” “Is That All There Is?” and other numbers deeply embedded in pop culture from the mid-‘50s forward.

But we do remember Elvis — and are remembering him more universally than we have since his 1977 death, thanks to Baz Luhrmann’s new “Elvis” biopic.

So it’s a perfect chance to catch up with Stoller, who wrote the music to Jerry Leiber’s lyrics on two dozen Presley songs, including the classics “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Trouble,” “Treat Me Nice,” “Love Me,” “Loving You,” “Santa Claus Is Back in Town,” “Bossa Nova Baby” and “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care.” No other writers are so closely associated with the King, even if their run of collaborations with Elvis was ultimately cut short by… want to hazard a guess?

Songwriter Mike Stoller on How He and Jerry Leiber Wrote Two Dozen Classics for Elvis — Before the Colonel Cut Them Off From the King

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