Doc Pomus

1
  • Year:
    1992
  • Inducted by:
    Phil Spector
  • Category:
    Ahmet Ertegun Award
Doc Pomus

Introduction

One of the beating hearts in the music industry from rock's golden era.

Doc Pomus was a bonafide hit machine: “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment” and “Viva Las Vegas” are just a small sample of the anthems he wrote.

Hall of Fame Essay

1992

Peter Galunick

Born Jerome Solon Felder in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on June 27, 1925, he became “Doc Pomus” both  as an identity and as a disguise.

At fifteen, he fell into the blues through the message embedded in Big Joe Turner’s “Piney Brown Blues”; as Doc frequently said, “It was the transformation of my life.”

At eighteen he started hanging out in Greenwich Village, listening to Frankie Newton’s  band at George's Tavern,  and when the proprietor wanted to throw him out one night for nursing a single beer the whole evening, Doc came up with the perfect alibi.

“I’m a blues singer,” he said. “I’m here to do a song.” The song he sang, without any further ado or prepara­tion, was, naturally, “Piney Brown Blues.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program Cover 1992
1 of 1
he was the light of my life.
Phil Spector

2

Gallery

Photography: Kevin Mazur, WireImage