Aaron Schroeder was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 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

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts is a high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, located near Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School in the Lincoln Center district of Manhattan, on Amsterdam Avenue...

 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

Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...

 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

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 including five that reached number one:

• A Big Hunk o' Love
  A Big Hunk o' Love
  "A Big Hunk o' Love" is a song co-written by Aaron Schroeder and originally recorded by American rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. The song was released as a single on June 23, 1959 by RCA Victor and later topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks....
  
  
• Good Luck Charm
  Good Luck Charm
  "Good Luck Charm" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley and published by Gladys Music, Elvis Presley's publishing company, that reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list in the week ending April 21, 1962. It remained at the top of the list for two weeks. The song was written by Aaron Schroeder...
  
  
• I Got Stung
  I Got Stung
  "I Got Stung" is a fast-paced, memorable rock & roll song written by Aaron Schroeder and David Hill and performed by Elvis Presley, which was recorded & released in 1958. Featuring one of Elvis' most rapid-fire vocals, the one minute, fifty-second song was the B-side of the U.K. #1 hit "One Night"...
  
  
• Stuck on You
• It's Now or Never
  It's Now or Never
  It's Now or Never was a UK Gameshow shown on ITV. Originally planned for a run of two episodes, only the first was aired before cancellation, it receiving just 1.7 million viewers in its Saturday night prime time slot...
  
  

It's Now or Never

It's Now or Never

It's Now or Never was a UK Gameshow shown on ITV. Originally planned for a run of two episodes, only the first was aired before cancellation, it receiving just 1.7 million viewers in its Saturday night prime time slot...

 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

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

, Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...

, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

, Perry Como

Perry Como

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...

 and Pat Boone

Pat Boone

Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...

. Schroeder made a cameo appearance in the 1957 Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 rock and roll movie Jamboree

Jamboree (1957 film)

Jamboree is the name of a black and white 1957 rock 'n' roll motion picture directed by Roy Lockwood that runs for 71 minutes in mono RCA sound...

 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

Gene Pitney

Eugene Francis Alan Pitney, known as Gene Pitney , was an American singer-songwriter, musician and sound engineer. Through the mid-1960s, he enjoyed success as a recording artist on both sides of the Atlantic and was among the group of early 1960s American acts who continued to enjoy hits after the...

 and produced the Academy Award Nominee for Best Song, Town Without Pity

Town Without Pity

Town Without Pity is a 1961 American, Austrian and West German international co-production film drama starring Kirk Douglas, directed by Gottfried Reinhardt. It was made by Mirisch Productions for United Artists....

. Other credits include his first album, The Child is Father to the Man for Blood, Sweat and Tears. With Hal David

Hal David

Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...

 and Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach

Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...

 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

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring James Stewart and John Wayne. The black-and-white film was released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a short story written by Dorothy M...

, Only Love Can Break a Heart

Only Love Can Break a Heart

"Only Love Can Break a Heart" is the title of a popular song from 1962 by the American singer-songwriter Gene Pitney. The song was written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach and appears on Pitney's second album Only Love Can Break a Heart.Pitney had enjoyed some success as a songwriter prior to...

 and 24 Hours from Tulsa.

Death

Aaron Schroeder died on December 2, 2009 in Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...

, 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

Primary progressive aphasia

Primary progressive aphasia is a type of dementia characterized most prominently by an insidious and progressive disorder of language and speech abilities...

, 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
  Harper's Bazaar
  Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
  
  , 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")