Artist:The Coasters
Song:Charlie Brown
Album:50 Coastin' Classics
The Coasters were a standard doo wop group when the songwriting and production team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller got hold of them and wrote novelty songs like Charlie Brown. That was one of a string of top ten hits that are still beloved today. Bobby Nunn was the lead singer of the doo wop group The Robins. They were from San Francisco. They had some success. But they disagreed over staying in California or moving to New York. Lieber and Stoller had written and produced singles like Smokey Joe's Cafe for The Robins. Atlantic Records was going to sign Lieber and Stoller to a production deal to produce The Robins. But only Nunn and Carl Gardner were willing to move to New York. So they changed their name to The Coasters Billy Guy soon replaced Nunn and Will "Dub" Jones and Cornell Gunter were added. The partnership with Lieber and Stoller was an immediate success. The 1958 single Yakety Yak was The Coasters' only #1 pop hit. So they crossed over to pop unlike other black groups because radio stations had to play them. Charlie Brown was their next single and it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lieber says that after Yakety Yak, he was having trouble coming up with song ideas. Then the name Charlie Brown popped into his head followed by "He's a clown." And no, this has nothing to do with the Peanuts comic strip. The only reason Charlie Brown didn't top the chart is because of Frankie Avalon's Venus. King Curtis played the sax solo. Charlie Brown was only released as a single at first. But you can now get it on this 2CD comp from Rhino which includes some Robins songs. The Coasters scored six top ten hits with Poison Ivy being the final one in 1959. But by the early 60s, doo wop had faded and most doo wop groups including The Coasters became a nostalgia act. A version of The Coasters still tours the oldies circuit. Here's The Coasters performing Charlie Brown on the Dick Clark Beech-Nut Show Mar. 7, 1959.
No comments:
Post a Comment