"Charlie Brown" | ||||
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Single by The Coasters | ||||
B-side | "Three Cool Cats" | |||
Released | January 1959 | |||
Recorded | December 11, 1958 | |||
Genre | Rhythm and blues[1] | |||
Length | 2:19 | |||
Label | Atco 6132 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | |||
Producer(s) | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | |||
The Coasters singles chronology | ||||
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"Charlie Brown" is a popular Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song that was a top-ten hit for the Coasters[2] in the spring of 1959 (released in January, coupled with "Three Cool Cats", Atco 6132).[3] It went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, while "Venus" by Frankie Avalon was at No. 1.[4] It did reach No. 1 in Canada.[5] It was the first of three top-ten hits for the Coasters that year. It is best known for the phrase, "Why's everybody always pickin' on me?"
According to Jerry Leiber, "After 'Yakety Yak', I thought we could write every Coasters song in ten minutes. Man, was I wrong! When we tried to write a follow-up, Mike had lots of musical ideas, but I was stuck. … After nearly a week of agonizing, a simple name came to mind. 'Charlie Brown.' Then, 'He's a clown, that Charlie Brown.' Mike already had a skip-along melodic template in place. He helped me with the story and suddenly a character, played by Dub Jones, stepped out on stage."[6]
Towards the end of the bridge of the song, the words "Yeah, You!" were recorded at half speed, so the voices would play back at a higher pitch. King Curtis plays the tenor saxophone during the instrumental and the fade out of the record. The best-known version is in mono. However, a stereo rendering (with slightly different vocals) was released on the LP Atlantic History of Rhythm & Blues, Vol. 4, along with several other rare stereo versions of late 1950s Atlantic hits.
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