AKA Doc Pomus is the unlikely story of a rotund, polio-stricken Brooklyn Jew behind several of the catchiest and most heart-stirring tunes (âLonely Avenue,â âSave the Last Dance for Me,â âThis Magic Momentâ) ever penned. Pomusâborn Jerome Felder in 1925âreinvented himself as a blues singer who became one of the most prolific, popular composers during rock and rollâs first blush. He wrote more than a thousand songs for performers like Ray Charles, Dion, Elvis Presley, and the Drifters. Fellow composer Gerry Goffin accurately called Doc âthe professor of soulful pop music.â Written out of profound misfortune, Pomusâs songs especially resonated with the downtrodden. This documentary traces Pomusâs brash rise as one of the few Caucasians to succeed in blues to his tenure as a font of Brill Building chart-dwellers to his descent into gambling addiction, divorce, and health problems to his comeback with surprising co-conspirators like Dr. John and Bob Dylan to his death from lung cancer at 65. AKA Doc Pomus is as moving as its subjectâs work and does his improbable life justice.