Fun, Wit of Coasters’ Songs

The Coasters, the first group to be voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, made some of the most entertaining and imaginative records of the ‘50s--marvelously funny and often satirical looks at the world, mostly framed through a restless teen perspective.

In one of the group’s most inspired moments, the age-old debate between parent and teen was reduced to a classic, two-second burst of energy. A frustrated teen snaps in response to a parent’s orders about taking out the trash, “Yakety yak”; the growling parent responds, “Don’t talk back.”

That 1958 record, “Yakety Yak,” and 41 other Coasters recordings are included in “50 Coastin’ Classics,” an excellent two-disc retrospective just released by Rhino/Atlantic.

But the Coasters story began long before “Yakety Yak,” hence the other eight recordings in the package.

The starting place was when Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, two young Los Angeles-based songwriters with a love of blues and R&B;, started their own Spark record label in 1953 and signed the Robins, a local R&B; group.

Their first single together was “Riot in Cell Block 9,” a record that is now considered an R&B; classic, though it was apparently only a regional hit at the time. A mini-drama about a prison uprising, the bold exercise was typical of the ambition that would be reflected in many other Leiber and Stoller works.

“We didn’t write songs,” the pair declare in the booklet that is included in the new album. “We wrote records.”

Elsewhere in the booklet, Leiber speaks about “Riot” itself: “The influence for a lot of the early songs--and even some of the later ones--was the radio play. (In the case of “Riot”), the opening is really from (the old radio show) ‘Gangbusters.’ The show opened up with a burst of machine-gun fire, a siren, some spiel over some music, and then went into that day’s chapter.

“By the time I wanted to use it with the Robins, it had become kind of comical. I had outgrown the program. I wasn’t 11 years old any more. But some of the old effects were still in my head.”

It was that sense of lively storytelling that made Leiber and Stoller the first rock auteurs to realize that rock records could comment on life in America, a point stressed by rock historian Robert Palmer in the album’s liner notes.

Indeed, Palmer suggests that there was too much social protest--or simply teen rebellion--in “Riot” for it to get much airplay, a problem also faced by the Robins’ later recording of “Framed,” which Palmer describes as even more explicit in its account of a racist police and court system.

But the less rebellious, though no less inventive, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” in 1955 did become a national hit, reaching No. 10 on the R&B; charts. That record’s success caught the ear of Atlantic Records, which signed Leiber and Stoller as independent producers.

The writing-production team tried to bring along the Robins, but part of the group decided to stay with their manager at the time. The others--lead singer Carl Gardner and bass singer Bobby Nunn--went with Leiber and Stoller, who eventually moved their work base to New York. Joined by Billy Guy and Leon Hughes, Gardner and Nunn became the Coasters--the name reportedly a play on West Coast.

Leiber and Stoller would later write “Jailhouse Rock” and other rock gems for Elvis Presley, as well as write and/or produce outstanding records for artists ranging from the Drifters to Peggy Lee.

But their work with the Coasters remains some of the most satisfying and original ever in rock--hits ranging from “Searchin’ ” and “Young Blood” in 1957 to “Charlie Brown” and “Poison Ivy” in 1959. But some of the non-hits, notably “Shoppin’ for Clothes” in 1960, are also memorable. The latter is an exquisite tale of department store credit buying that revolves around a smooth, seductive sales pitch.

Adding to the fun in “50 Coastin’ Classics,” Leiber and Stoller reflect in the booklet on the making of various records. They explain, for instance, that “Yakety Yak” took only about 15 minutes to write.

Here’s their memory of the process:

“Jerry was boiling up some water to make some tea, and I was playing a rhythm (on the piano) that struck me as being funny--kind of in the mood of the Coasters,” notes Stoller.

“And I just started yelling, ‘Take out the papers and the trash!’--and he was right into it with the piano riff,” recalls Leiber.

“And then I yelled out, ‘Or you don’t get no spendin’ cash!’--and that was about it,” says Stoller.

“It was like automatic writing,” adds Leiber. “The song just wrote itself. . . . There’s nothing more perfect than those that come out that way.”

The record entered the national pop charts on June 2, 1958. Seven weeks later, it was No. 1.