Aaron Harold Schroeder (September 7, 1926 – December 2, 2009) was an American songwriter and music publisher.
Early years
Born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, Schroeder graduated from the school now known as the
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City.
Songwriter
Having become an
ASCAP member in 1948, Schroeder had his first success with "At a Sidewalk Penny Arcade", one of the songs to introduce
Rosemary Clooney as a solo recording artist. He proceeded to write more than 1500 songs seeking the varied talent of many collaborators. His chart record in the United Kingdom, as a writer, is 27 hits, 3 number ones, 9 top tens and 225 weeks on the chart.
He wrote seventeen songs for
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
including five that reached number one:
*"
A Big Hunk o' Love"
*"
Good Luck Charm"
*"
I Got Stung"
*"
Stuck on You"
*"
It's Now or Never"
"
It's Now or Never" as recorded by Presley was selected as number 75 in
Billboard Magazine
''Billboard'' (stylized in lowercase since 2013) is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to th ...
's top 100 songs on their 100th-anniversary "Greatest Hits Chart". In an interview with
Jan-Erik Kjeseth he said that he was in fact present when Elvis recorded the song. He was very impressed with Presley's attitude: "Elvis wanted everything to be right; almost to the point of having tears in his eyes because he—Elvis—felt himself to be struggling to get the result that he envisaged in his head." Schroeder had more than 500 song recordings to his credit, including major records by dozens of artists such as
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...
,
Duane Eddy,
Sammy Davis Jr.,
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...
,
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...
and
Pat Boone
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films.
Boone ...
. In the above-mentioned interview Schroeder said that he had in fact also participated in finalizing the hit song "
It's My Party
"It's My Party" is a song recorded by American singer Lesley Gore on her debut studio album '' I'll Cry If I Want To'' (1963). It was released as a single on April 5, 1963, by Mercury Records. The song was written by Herb Wiener, John Gluck Jr. ...
" (
Lesley Gore
Lesley Gore (born Lesley Sue Goldstein, May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. At the age of 16, she recorded her first hit song " It's My Party", a US number one in 1963. She follow ...
). Together with his regular partner at the time,
Wally Gold
Wally Gold (May 15, 1928 – June 7, 1998) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and music business executive from Teaneck, New Jersey.
Personal life
Gold was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Gold moved to ...
, he made corrections to an unfinished piece of material that another writer had brought in. When the work was done, Gold and Schroeder tossed a coin as to whose name should be listed among the credits. Schroeder "lost". Schroeder made a cameo appearance in the 1957
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
rock and roll movie, ''
Jamboree'', as a songwriter. Schroeder also once appeared on the
CBS television game show ''
To Tell The Truth
''To Tell the Truth'' is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual ...
'' along with two imposters during the show's fifth season.
Record producer
In the early 1960s, Schroeder was founder and president of
Musicor Records
Musicor Records was a New York City-based record label, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The label was founded by songwriter Aaron Schroeder and distributed by United Artists Records. In 1965, UA employee and A&R man Arthur Talmadge (a co-fo ...
. He discovered, managed and directed the career of
Gene Pitney
Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician.
Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 h ...
and produced "
Town Without Pity", a nominee for the
Academy Award for Best Song of 1961. With
Hal David
Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick.
Early life
David was born and raised in New ...
and
Burt Bacharach
Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. Start ...
he conceived the marriage of the Pitney sound with David and Bacharach's songs, producing a string of record successes including "
(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance", "
Only Love Can Break a Heart" and "
24 Hours from Tulsa".
He and his wife Abby, discovered, guided and developed careers of many other performers and composers through their agency, including
Barry White,
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is known for his non-rhotic Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early America ...
,
Al Kooper,
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is an American jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. BS&T has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and ...
, and
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
.
Personal life
Schroeder married record company representative Abby Steinberg on October 31, 1967. Abby was the sister of
PR Newswire
PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, ...
president
David Steinberg.
Aaron Schroeder died on December 2, 2009, in
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...
, aged 83. For the last five years, he was a resident of the
Lillian Booth Actors' Home of the
Actors Fund in Englewood. His death came after a long battle with
primary progressive aphasia
In neurology, primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a type of neurological syndrome in which language capabilities slowly and progressively become impaired. As with other types of aphasia, the symptoms that accompany PPA depend on what parts of ...
, a rare form of dementia.
Songwriter Aaron Schroeder dead at 83
upi.com, December 6, 2009.
References
Sources
* ''Untold Gold (The Stories Behind Elvis's #1 Hits)'', by Ace Collins (2005; Chicago Review Press Inc.)
* ''Writing for the King, by Ken Sharp'' (2006), Follow That Dream Records and Sony/BMG of Denmark
* ''Elvis - his Life from A to Z'', by Fred Worth and Steve Tamerius, Wings Books
* ''Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
'', April 1961 issue
* ''Berkshire Magazine Spring'', 1993 issue
* ''Billboard's 100th Anniversary Edition'', published in 1994
* ''Billboard's 50th Anniversary of The Hot 100 Edition'', published in 2008
* ''Billboard'' September 24, 1977, issue ("Schroeder Firms Go To Interworld")
* ''Record World'', May 8, 1976, issue ("Schroeder Celebrates 28th Industry Anniversary")
* ''Cash Box'', October 1, 1977, issue ("Interworld buys A. Schroeder Publisher")
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schroeder, Aaron
1926 births
2009 deaths
American publishers (people)
Songwriters from New York (state)
Deaths from dementia in New Jersey
Musicians from Brooklyn
Jewish American musicians
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
Deaths from primary progressive aphasia
20th-century American songwriters