1. Little Egypt 2. Shoppin' for Clothes 3. Searchin' 4. Charlie Brown 5. Down in Mexico 6. Girls! Girls! Girls! - The Coasters, The Coasters 7. Yakety Yak - The Coasters 8. Run Red Run 9. Poison Ivy 10. Young Blood 11. That Is Rock & Roll - The Coasters, The Coasters 12. Along Came Jones 13. Three Cool Cats 14. Riot in Cell Block #9 15. Shadow Knows - The Coasters, The Coasters 16. I Must Be Dreamin' 17. Smokey Joe's Cafe 18. Framed 19. Bad Blood 20. Idol With the Golden Head
Whatever happened to the Coasters? I haven't heard any of their music played over the airwaves for at least the last two decades. Evidently, they're one of the early rock 'n' roll acts to fade into the music archives and history books.
In the late 50s and early 60s Coasters' music seemed to be everywhere. They graced both the R 'n' R and R&B charts with song after song. It was hard to find a juke box without a few Coasters' songs on it. Every pop radio station seemed to play their music. And they had some great songs, too. Who would ever forget Charlie Brown, Yakety Yak, Poison Ivy, Along Came Jones, or Smokey Joe's Cafe? Well, almost all of their songs were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Lieber and Stroller also produced the records and even acted as musicians, arrangers and vocalists on the recordings. The four vocalists who fronted as the Coasters were variable from time to time. Actually, the Coasters were not really an authentic R & B act, but were a Lieber/Stoller concoction that supplied R & B/R 'n' R music to a hungry audience. Well, that's OK. There were a lot of groups like that in early Rock 'n' Roll. What about the Monkees? In any case, the music was upbeat and enjoyable. It was fun listening and could be very humorous in places.
"The Ultimate Coasters" is a CD which brings much of the Coasters back to your stereo and can provide fun listening. Anyone wanting a library of early Rock 'n' Roll should have this disc as a component. It has most, but not all, of the essential Coaster recordings and the reproduction is of good quality. Of course, the recording is out of print but a good quantity of used discs are available. I find that listening to the whole CD, song after song, is just too much to bear, but I enjoy the individual songs. I like to put early Rock 'n' Roll programs together and play them on shuffle mode on my iPod. What could be more characteristic of an early Rock 'n' Roll mix than the Coasters?
Gary Peterson
Not Quite "Ultimate" Submitted on: 2007-09-10
This CD, first issued in 1986 by Warner Special Products, has no liner notes at all and omits too many Coasters hits to be regarded as "ultimate." Still, it's not a bad find, especially at the price being asked.
Elements of this group, always leaning heavily to the comic side of things, began their careers as The Robins in 1950 on the Savoy label. Ty Terrell, Billy Richards, Roy Richards, and Bobby Nunn had their first hit that January with If It's So Baby, a # 10 R&B b/w If I Didn't Love You So. A few months later they joined The Johnny Otis Quintette and Little Esther for the smash # 1 R&B [nine weeks] Double Crossing Blues b/w Back Alley Blues.
That was it for charted hits, even though, in 1954, they added two more voices in Carl Gardner and Grady Chapman. By 1955 they had moved to the Spark label owned by the famous team of Leiber and Stoller where several cuts, although not national charters, did quite well locally. These included Riot In Cell Block # 9, and Framed [found here in their original format at tracks 14 and 18]. Then they hit national success with Smokey Joe's Cafe [track 17] which attracted enough interest from Atlantic for them to continue distribution on their Atco subsidiary. The record ultimately reach # 10 R&B/# 79 Billboard Pop Top 100 in late 1955 b/w Just Like A Fool.
After Atlantic signed Gardner and Nunn, and retained Lieber & Stoller as the creative force, they added Billy Guy and Leon Hughes and became The Coasters prior to their first release early in 1956, Down In Mexico [# 8 R&B b/w Turtle Dovin', which also charted as a # 8 R&B "follow-along" but is not included here. Nor is their next release, One Kiss Led To Another, which made it to # 11 R&B and # 73 Top 100 in September 1956 b/w Brazil.
Their first in 1957 is here, however, and what a hit. Searchin' went to # 1 R&B and stayed there for 12 weeks, also going to # 3 Top 100 early that summer, while the B-side, the hilarious Young Blood, also made it to # 1 R&B and # 8 Top 100. The follow-up Idol With The Golden Head didn't fare nearly as well, settling for # 64 Top 100 and being shut out on the R&B charts, b/w (When She Wants Good Lovin') My Baby Comes To Me.
Strangely, only one hit emerged in 1958, but that too was a smash with the immortal Yakety Yak going to # 1 on both charts, and spending seven weeks at the top R&B position, featuring King Curtis on sax. The flip was the old standard Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart.
1959 was, however, a banner year as Charlie Brown hit the # 2 position in March on both charts, again featuring Curtis, b/w the comical Three Cool Cats. Continuing in that vein, Along Came Jones reached # 9 Billboard Pop Hot 100 and # 14 R&B in early summer b/w That Is Rock & Roll. Later that summer they were back with the double-sided hit Poison Ivy, a # 1 R&B (4 weeks) and # 7 Hot 100 b/w I'm A Hog For You [# 38 Hot 100 and not included here], and before the year was out they produced yet one more two-sided hit: Run Red Run, # 29 R &B/# 36 Hot 100 b/w What About Us? [# 17 R&B and # 47 Hot 100. amd not included here.
In 1960 they dipped into the oldies bag for Besame Mucho [both sides], taking Part 1 to # 70 Hot 100 in May. This is also missing from this set. So too is Wake Me, Shake Me which hit # 14 R&B and # 51 Ht 100 in July b/w Stewball. But the funny Shopping For Clothes is here, which made it to # 83 Hot 100 in October b/w the equally-funny The Snake And The Book Worm.
1961's first hit Wait A Minute [# 37 Hot 100 b/w Thumbin' A Ride], written for them by Bobby Darin and Don Kirshner, is another omission, but Little Egypt (Ying-Yang), which reached # 16 R&B and # 23 Hot 100 b/w Keep On Rolling) leads this volume off. Then came Girls, Girls, Girls Part 1 which peaked at # 96 Hot 100 in August b/w Part 2, and which found greater success a year later when recorded by Elvis.
After a long drought, and now with Earl "Speedo" Carroll, formerly of The Cadillacs, on board, they had a # 64 Hot 100/R&B hit in 1964 with T'ain't Nothin' To Me b/w Speedo's Back In Town [neither included]. Also omitted is their last charter, a 1971 re-make of The Clovers old hit, Love Potion # 9, which hit # 76 Hot 100 b/w the delightful D. W. Washburn.
While other songs in this collection [The Shadow Knows, I Must Be Dreamin', and Bad Blood] are equally fine examples of the successful partnership between the group and Leiber & Stoller, they did not chart, and so it would have been a truly "ultimate" collection had they, and a couple of the uncharted B-sides, been omitted in favour of some of the missing hits.
Even so, if you can get your hands on a copy you won't be disappointed, either by the contents - ALL ORIGINAL analog recordings digitally remastered - or the sound quality. The limited liner notes take the form of details about the recording of each track, including musicians involved.
Nice budget sampler Submitted on: 2005-05-29
I respectfully disagree with the previous review, this is the best sounding Coasters disc you can get. "Yakety Yak," "Young Blood," and "That Is Rock & Roll" could sound better, but the remaining tracks sound just fine. Later CD's issued by Rhino have an unneeded treble boost and are a pretty harsh and thin in comparison. This was actually the first CD ever issued on the Coasters, yet the sound holds up after all these years.
This is a nice sampler, covering most of their major singles. There are a few rarities here, including genuine stereo mixes of "Bad Blood," "Little Egypt," "Run, Red, Run," and "Girls, Girls, Girls Part I" (this is the only place to find "Girls, Girls, Girls Part I" on CD - Rhino's 50 COASTIN' CLASSICS uses "Part II"). There is little artwork, but all the tracks have been annotated with songwriting and personnel credits, as well as recording dates.
Unfortunately, this CD is out-of-print, but these were budget CD's, and many were pressed, so it's not hard to find. $30+ is WAY to steep, you shouldn't have to pay more than $12 at most (and that's after taxes + shipping).
This is not the definitive collection, but it's a nice place to start, and if you're not a huge Coasters fan, it may be all you need.
Baby, that is rock and roll Submitted on: 2004-11-03
This CD features 20 great songs by the Coasters. But this CD was created in the very early days of digital technology, so the sound is not the best. It's okay, but there are later Coasters CDs with better sound quality. I would recommend 50 Coastin' Classics over this one, but if you want a Coasters CD with less songs on it, this is a decent one to get.
Yakety Yak!
Nice budget sampler