Light my candles in a daze 'cause...I'm late again....
One of the many highlights of my musical adventures over the past couple of years was discovering just how great this week's featured band was. I knew this week's featured tune and "Yakety Yak," but after finding their greatest hits for a dollar at one of our periodic library sales and listening to it for a couple of months, found that they had had many tunes that were downright fantastic throughout their heyday. Which just goes to show you're never too old to dig up some old-time rock and roll (so to speak)....
The Coasters formed in Los Angeles in 1955 originally as the Robins, but after a few changes in personnel ended up in New York (they went from the West Coast to the East Coast, hence The Coasters) and began a quite successful career. After teaming up with (now) legendary songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, The Coasters would have six consecutive top ten hits between 1957 and 1959. While the band would never quite repeat that success (their last single release was 1964, and their last album in 1972), they are still performing to this day (albeit with numerous changes in band members). For the record, the four Coasters who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were Carl Gardner, Billy Guy, Will "Dub" Jones, and Cornell Gunter (if they gave us so much joy, they most certainly deserve a little personal recognition). For their career, The Coasters released two studio albums, five compilations, and seventeen singles (all of which, except the first, charted, and with one #1). Sadly, none of the original Coasters are alive, but their music, as they say, lives with us forever.
Fun Fact: The Coasters were the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
"Charlie Brown" was released as a single in 1959 (the year I was born--coincidence? I think not). It would reach #2 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard 200. It hit #1 in Canada--so many cool kids north of the border!
Fun Fact #2: As one listen will tell you, "Charlie Brown" has no relation whatsoever to Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame.
How can you not love a song that opens with "Fee fee, fie fie, foe foe, fum..."? (I'm sure someone will tell me....) This one is all about the fun, chronicling a good-natured troublemaker in High School, U.S.A. During my half-assed research, as I listened to "Charlie Brown" umpteen times, I was struck by how solid the drums were, driven with the speed of a machine gun. There's plenty of saxophone to spread the good fun, and plenty of piano to accentuate the vocals. As one might expect from one of the progenitors of Doo-wop (though technically not a Doo-wop band), the harmonies are as pure as the morning dew, and one whole hell of a lot tastier--and with the added bonus of Dub Jones' perfectly played bass vocal lines. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Lieber and Stoller's music and lyrics--it's not easy turning a novelty song into a classic period piece. The last few years I've really begun to listen to and appreciate rock and roll's earliest days, and the Coasters "Charlie Brown" is a dreamy piece of cool cat pie from its beautiful beginnings. In a word, timeless.
Lyric Sheet: "Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow?/Who calls the English teacher Daddy-O?..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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