Doc Pomus

Though he began his remarkable career singing in all-black clubs as a straight blues shouter, Doc Pomus left his most indelible mark on pop music as a songwriter. A victim of the child polio epidemic, Pomus was in braces for nearly his entire life. He wrote (with partner Mort Shuman) such towering rock-&-roll-era classics as "This Magic Moment," "Lonely Avenue," "Viva Las Vegas," and "Save the Last Dance for Me," his masterpiece. Pomus's own recordings as a singer are sparse and worth the search, but it's the recordings by the wonderful assortment of artists for whom he wrote (the Drifters, Ray Charles, Dion, Elvis, and Mink DeVille among them) that truly do his legacy justice.