Jerome Solon Felder was born on June 27, 1925 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of British born Jewish immigrants.[5][6][7][8][9] Having contracted polio as a boy, he was in an iron lung for a year, and walked with the aid of crutches. Later, due to post-polio syndrome exacerbated by an accident, Felder relied on a wheelchair.[5][9] Felder became a fan of the blues after hearing a Big Joe Turner record, "Piney Brown Blues".[6][7] He attended Bushwick High School and then Brooklyn College, where he studied music and learned to play piano and saxophone,[9] from 1943 to 1945.
Using the stage name Doc Pomus, teenager Felder began performing as a blues singer.[11] His stage name was not inspired by anyone in particular; he just thought it sounded better for a blues singer than Jerry Felder, though it included a “nod” to blues singer Doctor Clayton.[12] He began going to Jazz clubs before working up the nerve to perform in front of mostly black audiences, doing his version of popular blues songs that were received with great enthusiasm.[11] The 18 year old Pomus debuted at George's Tavern in Greenwich Village.[13]
Pomus stated that more often than not, he was the only Caucasian in the clubs, but that as a Jew with polio, he felt a special underdog kinship with African Americans, while in turn the audiences respected his courage and were impressed by his talent. Pomus performed as a singer for 10 years around metropolitan New York (1944-1954), heading a band that included Mickey Baker and King Curtis.[13] Gigging at clubs in and around New York City, Pomus often performed with Milt Jackson, Baker, and Curtis. Pomus is reported to have recorded more than record fifty sides of music,[9] though others have reported the number at about forty sides,[citation needed] as a singer in the 1940s and 1950s for Chess,[13]Apollo, Dawn, Gotham, and other recording companies (such as Savoy, Atlantic and Coral[13]).
In 1946, Gatemouth Moore had recorded one of Pomus' own songs for National Records. In 1947, he became one of Atlantic Records original songwriters.[6][7]
In the early 1950s, Pomus began writing magazine articles, as well as songwriting for Lavern Baker, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, and Big Joe Turner (whose music had changed Pomus' life). The Charles 1956 recording of the R&B top ten song Lonely Avenue marked a national breakthrough for Pomus.[5] In 1957, he married an aspiring Broadway actress from Westville, Illinois, named Willi Burke.[14] (She later performed in the Broadway play "Fiorello.[9]) They were divorced in 1966.[14] His first songwriting break came when the Coasters recorded a hit with the song "Young Blood", although the melody had been radically changed by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Still, Pomus had co-credit as lyricist, and soon received a royalty check for $2,500 (US$27,121 in 2023 dollars[15]), an event that convinced him that songwriting was a career worth pursuing. By 1957, Pomus had given up performing in favor of songwriting.
Save the Last Dance for Me has been called his crowning achievement. The lyrics came to him at his wedding, watching his wife dance with others, Pomus being unable to dance because of polio's effects on his body.[11][9] It is said to be the last song Leonard Cohen ever performed on stage.[14]
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pomus wrote several songs with Phil Spector ("Young Boy Blues", "Ecstasy", "First Taste of Love" and "What Am I To Do?"), Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber ("Young Blood" and "She's Not You"), and other Brill Building-era writers. Pomus also wrote "Lonely Avenue", a 1956 hit for Ray Charles.[16]
In the 1970s and 1980s, in his eleventh-floor, two-room apartment at the Westover Hotel at 253 West 72nd Street, Pomus wrote songs with Dr. John, Ken Hirsch, and Willy DeVille for what he said were "... those people stumbling around in the night out there, uncertain or not always so certain of exactly where they fit in and where they were headed." These later songs ("There Must Be A Better World", "There Is Always One More Time", "That World Outside", "You Just Keep Holding On", and "Something Beautiful Dying")—recorded by Willy DeVille, B.B. King, Irma Thomas, Marianne Faithfull, Charlie Rich, Ruth Brown, Dr. John, James Booker, and Johnny Adams—are considered by some, including writer Peter Guralnick, musician and songwriter Dr. John, and producer Joel Dorn, to be signatures of Pomus's best craft. B. B King's recording of "There Must Be A Better World Somewhere" won a Grammy in 1981. He also played an important role with John Belushi in creating the back-up band for the Blues Brothers in the 1970s.[6][7][13][5]
The documentary film A.K.A. Doc Pomus (2012), conceived by Pomus's daughter Sharyn Felder, directed by filmmaker Peter Miller, edited by Amy Linton, and produced by Felder, Hechter, and Miller, presents Pomus's biography.[17]
Pomus died on March 14, 1991, of lung cancer at the age of 65 at NYU Medical Center in Manhattan.[5]
In 1991, he was the first non-African American recipient of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award.[19] Ray Charles presented the award via a pre-recorded message.
The funk band Cameo was heavily influenced by Pomus's song-writing style and frequently acknowledges his impact before performing their hit song "Word Up."
Longtime friend, jazz singer Jimmy Scott, performed at Pomus's funeral, a performance that resurrected his career. Other attendees included Seymour Stein, who subsequently signed Scott to Sire Records, and Lou Reed, who thereafter would regularly work with Scott until his death. Pomus had been imploring his friends to hear Scott sing for many years.[20]
The song "Doc's Blues"[21] was written as a tribute to Pomus by his close friend, Andrew Vachss. The lyrics originally appeared in Vachss's 1990 novel Blossom. "Doc's Blues" was recorded by bluesman Son Seals on Seals's last album, Lettin' Go.[22]
Responsible for Lou Reed's introduction to the music industry in the early 1960s, Pomus was one of two friends Reed memorialized on his 1992 album Magic and Loss.
In 2010, Ben Folds and Nick Hornby named their collaborative album on which the song "Doc Pomus" appeared Lonely Avenue. The lyrics referenced an excerpt from Pomus's unfinished memoir, February 21, 1984: "I was never one of those happy cripples who stumbled around smiling and shiny-eyed, trying to get the world to cluck its tongue and shake its head sadly in my direction. They'd never look at me and say, 'What a wonderful, courageous fellow.'" The album featured lyrics by British author Hornby, set to music by American performer Folds. It was released on September 28, 2010.
Songs written or co-written by Doc Pomus have been recorded by Joe Cocker, ZZ Top, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, The Beatles, Bad Company, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Buble, Dolly Parton, Emmy Lou Harris, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson, John Hiatt, The Beach Boys, B.B. King, The New York Dolls, Shawn Colvin, Los Lobos, Dion, and hundreds of others.
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