Aaron Schroeder - Biography

Aaron Schroeder (September 7, 1926 – December 2, 2009) was an American songwriter and music publisher.

Biography

Born Aaron Harold Schroder (or Aaron Harold Schröder), he 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's first success, At a Sidewalk Penny Arcade was 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 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 Magazines top 100 songs on their 100th anniversary "Greatest Hits Chart". He had more than 500 song recordings to his credit, including major records by dozens of artists such as Roy Orbison, Duane Eddy, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Pat Boone. Schroeder made a cameo appearance in the 1957 Warner Bros. rock and roll movie Jamboree as a songwriter.

Record producer

Schroeder was founder and president of Musicor Records (1960–1965), a front runner of the independent labels to be distributed by a major company worldwide. He discovered, managed and directed the career of Gene Pitney and produced the Academy Award Nominee for Best Song, Town Without Pity. Other credits include his first album, The Child is Father to the Man for Blood, Sweat and Tears. With Hal David and Burt Bacharach he conceived the marriage of the Pitney sound with David and Bacharach's songs, producing a string of record successes like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Only Love Can Break a Heart and 24 Hours from Tulsa.

Death

Aaron Schroeder died on December 2, 2009 in Englewood, New Jersey, 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 comes after a long battle with primary progressive aphasia, a rare form of dementia.

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, 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")