Doc Pomus

Jerome Solon Felder (June 27, 1925 – March 14, 1991), known professionally as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1991, the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), and the Blues Hall of Fame (2012).
Early life.
Born Jerome Solon Felder in 1925 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, he was the son of Jewish immigrants. He attended Brooklyn College from 1943 to 1945. Felder became a fan of the blues after hearing a Big Joe Turner record, "Piney Brown Blues." Having contracted polio as a boy, he walked with the aid of crutches. Later, due to post-polio syndrome exacerbated by an accident, Felder relied on a wheelchair.
His brother is New York attorney Raoul Felder.
Career.
Using the stage name Doc Pomus, teenager Felder began performing as a blues singer. His stage name was not inspired by anyone in particular; he just thought it sounded better for a blues singer than Jerry 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 respected his courage and were impressed by his talent. Gigging at clubs in and around New York City, Pomus often performed with Milt Jackson, Mickey Baker, and King Curtis. Pomus recorded about forty sides as a singer in the '40s and '50s for Chess, Apollo, Dawn, Gotham, and other recording companies.
In the early 1950s, Pomus began writing magazine articles, as well as songwriting for Lavern Baker, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, and Big Joe Turner. In 1957 he married an aspiring Broadway actress from Westville, Illinois, named Willi Burke. They were divorced in 1966. His first songwriting break came when the Coasters recorded a hit with the song "Young Blood", although the melody had been radically changed by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Still, Pomus had co-credit as lyricist, and soon received a royalty check for $2,500 (US$ in dollars), an event that convinced him that songwriting was a career worth pursuing. By 1957, Pomus had given up performing in favor of songwriting.
Pomus collaborated with pianist Mort Shuman, whom he met when Shuman was dating Pomus's younger cousin. Songwriter Otis Blackwell inroduced the duo to Hill & Range Music Co./Rumbalero Music at its offices in New York City's Brill Building. Pomus asked Shuman to write with him because Pomus did not know much about contemporary rock and roll, whereas Shuman was acquainted with popular artists of the day. For the most part, Pomus wrote the lyrics while Shuman composed the melodies, but they often collaborated on both aspects of their songs. Together they wrote "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 later The Searchers), "Go, Jimmy, Go", "Little Sister", "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "Suspicion", "Surrender", and "(Marie's the Name of) His Latest Flame".
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pomus wrote several songs with Phil Spector ("Young Boy Blues", "Ecstasy", "First Taste of Love" and "What Am I To Do?"), Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber ("Young Blood" and "She's Not You"), and other Brill Building-era writers. Pomus also wrote "Lonely Avenue", a 1956 hit for Ray Charles.
In the 1970s and 1980s, in his eleventh-floor, 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 always so certain of exactly where they fit 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")—recorded by Willy DeVille, B.B. King, Irma Thomas, Marianne Faithfull, Charlie Rich, Ruth Brown, Dr. John, James Booker, and Johnny Adams—are considered by some, including writer Peter Guralnick, musician and songwriter Dr. John, and producer Joel Dorn, to be signatures of Pomus's best craft.
The documentary film "A.K.A. Doc Pomus" (2012), conceived by Pomus's daughter Sharyn Felder, directed by filmmaker Peter Miller, edited by Amy Linton, and produced by Felder, Hechter, and Miller, presents Pomus's biography.
Pomus died on March 14, 1991 of lung cancer at the age of 65 at NYU Medical Center in Manhattan. He is survived by two children, Sharyn Felder and Geoffrey J Felder.
On June 25, 2019, "The New York Times Magazine" listed Doc Pomus among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
Legacy and influence.
Together with Shuman, and individually, Pomus was a key figure in the development of popular music. The duo 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". 