DOC POMUS

(1925–1991)

Doc Pomus wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and a pinstripe shirt, is holding a notebook or planner and a pen.

Doc Pomus (born Jerome Solon Felder) was a legendary American songwriter who began his career as a blues shouter. As a writer, his first hit was the now-classic “Lonely Avenue,” followed by “Youngblood” with Leiber and Stoller. Subsequently, writing from New York’s Brill Building primarily with Mort Shuman, he created enduring classics including “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “A Teenager in Love,” and “Viva Las Vegas.”  His later years were a rich, final phase of creativity, collaborating with Dr. John and others to produce a distinctive body of work. Peter Guralnick has observed that some of Doc's very best songs came in the last decade of his life. His songs of love, vulnerability, and resilience helped to shape the emotional core of early rock and roll and continue to resonate.

Black and white photo of a lively musical performance in a small venue, with a young Doc Pomus passionately singing at a microphone, surrounded by musicians playing instruments, and an audience member in the foreground watching the performance.
Black and white close-up photograph of Doc Pomus with long hair and a beard, holding a cigar near his mouth, wearing a striped shirt.
Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman smiling and looking at a sheet of music on a piano in a room decorated with holiday and greeting cards on the wall.
This image captures legendary blues singer and songwriter Doc Pomus in a wheelchair in a recording studio, during his collaboration with Dr. John at the piano in the late 1970s.
Black and white photo of Doc Pomus smoking a cigarette.

NEWS

aka doc pomus.jpg

AKA DOC POMUS

THE DOCUMENTARY

Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself first as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus, then emerged as a one of the most brilliant songwriters of the early rock and roll era, writing “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “A Teenager in Love,” “Viva Las Vegas,” and dozens of other hits.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

A CD box set titled 'Doc Pomus: You Can't Hip a Square' with multiple CDs in front, including blue, white, orange, red, and maroon discs, alongside a booklet with signatures and a black-and-white photo of Doc Pomus.

You Can't Hip A Square: The Doc Pomus Songwriting Demos Box Set

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Person holding a book titled 'Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus' with a black and white cover photo of Doc Pomus smoking a cigar.

Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus

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