Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the first hit makers of rock ’n’ roll, penning R&B hits for black artists such as Big Mama Thornton (“Hound Dog”) and the Coasters (“Yakety-Yak”), among others. When a white kid named Elvis Presley wanted to record “Hound Dog,” the songwriters were at first dismayed—they thought they were writing for cool black people, not white hillbillies—but the first royalty check changed their
