Lonely Avenue - by Alex Halberstadt Paperback

About the Book

Halberstadt offers the first biography of legendary songwriter Doc Pomus, author of such classics as "Lonely Avenue," "Save the Last Dance for Me," and "Viva Las Vegas." In 1991 Pomus became the first white person to be awarded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award.

Book Synopsis

One of the most original, influential, and commercially successful American songwriters, Jerome Felder, aka Doc Pomus (1925-1991), gave the world a dazzling legacy of musical hits during rock 'n' roll's first decade. A role model for generations of writers and performers, Doc was renowned for his mastery of virtually every popular style, from the gutbucket rhythm and blues of "Lonely Avenue" to the symphonic soul of "Save the Last Dance for Me" to the pure pop of "Viva Las Vegas." His songs-"This Magic Moment," "A Teenager in Love," "Hushabye," "Little Sister," "Turn Me Loose," and many others-have been recorded by everyone from Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, and B. B. King to Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and Bruce Springsteen, with sales exceeding 100 million. Doc was ready-made for literature. His collaborator Mort Shuman once described him as an "entire rollicking soul neighborhood rolled into one man." Garrulous, profane, hilarious, and Rabelaisian, Doc was never inhibited about offering his opinions and his friendship. His confidants, collaborators, and discoveries included Duke Ellington, John Lennon, Dr. John, Jimmy Scott, Bette Midler, and Lou Reed. In the words of renowned producer Jerry Wexler, "If the music industry had a heart, it would be Doc Pomus." Despite, or more likely because of, his successes, few acquaintances knew that this writer of jukebox hits led one of the most dramatic and unlikely lives of his time. Spanning extravagant wealth and desperate poverty, suburban domesticity and the depths of New York's underworld, worldwide fame and near-total obscurity, enduring love and persistent loneliness, Doc's story remains one of the great untold American lives. Its chapters comprise a back-room history of rock 'n' roll, touching on more than a half-century of American popular music-from the blues Doc performed with Lester Young to his collaborations with the luminaries of New York's punk scene, shot through with vivid portraits of virtually every major player. Lonely Avenueis the first biography of this American original, so elegantly rendered that it reads like a novel, and fortified by full, exclusive access to Doc Pomus's family, friends, voluminous journals, and archives.

Review Quotes

Praise for Lonely Avenue

Boston Globe, 10/26/14
"How one great artist converts feelings--love, jealousy, worry, willfulness--into a great song, resonates through Alex Halberstadt's Lonely Avenue."

Stereophile, May 2016
"A vivid, multidimensional, flesh-and-blood portrait...A lively chronicle of a singular musical figure who was as tough as he was tender."

About the Author

Alex Halberstadt's writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, GQ, Los Angeles Times, Salon, the Oxford American, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.