Doc Pomus [1925-1991]
"I didn't want to be "The Crippled Songwriter" or "The Crippled Singer". I wanted to be the singer or the songwriter who was crippled. I wanted to be larger than life...."
He was the only white guy in the place. He was a short, chubby Jew who walked with crutches due to a childhood bout with polio. In a music genre that was filled with people with the colorful sobriquets of T-Bone, Tampa Red, Memphis Slim, and Barbecue Bob, he was known as…Jerry.
When he hauled himself to the microphone to sing, a number of people were…