In 1950 a couple of rhythm and blues-loving teenagers named Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met for the first time. Leiber was looking for someone to help compose music for lyrics he"d written, and a friend recommended a piano player named Mike Stoller. They discovered their mutual affection for R&B, and, as Jerry and Mike put it in this fascinating autobiography, it was the beginning of an argument that has been going on for more than fifty years with no resolution in sight. Leiber and Stoller had their first success with a song called "Hard Times" that became an R&B hit in 1952. They followed it with the classic song "Kansas City," and then another bluesy composition, "Hound Dog," for the inimitable Big Mama Thornton. They were still in their teens and working with some of the pioneers of rock and roll. A few years later "Hound Dog" would become a 1 record for Elvis Presley, and Jerry and Mike became the King"s favorite songwriters. They wrote such early Elvis hits as "Jailhouse...