The songs Doc Pomus penned with Mort Shuman in the late ’50s and early ’60s helped shape pop, R&B and rock ’n’ roll. Tunes like The Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “This Magic Moment” combined elegant, romantic lyrics with suavely syncopated, Latin-influenced grooves for a sound that would be endlessly emulated. Pomus wrote alone, too, as with Ray Charles’ 1956 track “Lonely Avenue”, one of the era’s most visceral heartbreak hits.