The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info The Great R&B Files PRESENTS (# 3 of 12) THOSE HOODLUM FRIENDS THE COASTERS Edited by Claus Röhnisch The True Story – The Biography – Quotes, Analysis & Presentations – The Members & Lineups Session Discography – Singles Discography & Lead Vocals – EPs, LPs & CDs – Ultimate CD Collection Timeline with Year by Year Re-Cap 1949-2008: 60 Years of R&B with The Coasters The Chart Hits – The Robins: Story & Discography - The Off-Shoot Coasters Groups There’s A Riot Goin’ On: The Coasters On Atco, the Definitive Box-Set - plus the Down Home CD Carl Gardner: Yakety Yak I Fought Back, My Life with The Coasters Please note that the known facts herein are only presented up to 2008 - see “The Clown Princes” for later updates! page 1 (120) Those Hoodlum Friends – The Coasters The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info 2008 The Coasters band members from left Ronnie Bright, Carl Gardner Jr., J.W. Lance and Alvin Morse perform during the ‘Rock, Pop and Doo-Wop’ concert at the Baton Rouge River Center Saturday afternoon (June 28, 2008). ADVOCATE STAFF PHOTO BY DENNY CULBERT. The Coasters, featuring Carl Gardner Jr., son of founding member Carl Gardner, hit the stage in cherry-red suits. The senior Gardner retired from performing in 2005 and now acts as the group’s official coach. The Coasters’ current lineup includes tenor vocalist and New Orleans native J.W. Lance, who left the stage to hug his mother in the audience. The high-spirited Coasters stayed true to the group’s classic mix of great vocal ensemble and comedy. After singing several hits (there are too many of them to fit in the allotted time), the guys dragged bass singer Ronnie Bright, who pretended to be fall off the stage drunk at the end of “Charlie Brown.” By JOHN WIRT, Music Critic, Published: June 29, 2008. From 2theAdvocate.com, Louisiana. 2 Those Hoodlum Friends – The R&B Pioneers, Volume Three of twelve THE COASTERS 1959 From "Hound Dog - The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography" (Simon & Schuster, 2009): "Leiber: Lester Sill... took us back to Modern and this time made sure we met the Bihari brothers, who also invited their ace singing group, the Robins, to hear our stuff. We let loose with something we had just written, a different take on the Bible than what I'd studied at Hebrew shool. ..The Robins dug our new creation myth and cut ' That's What The Good Book Says' a month later. It came out in early 1951. …A real record. Our very first, with our names on it, although misspelled. ..Stoller: We had our first record and, believe it or not, within a month we had our second (Jimmy Witherspoon's live recorded 'Real Ugly Woman'; ed.note). ..Stoller: Billy Guy was the comic. He had great timing and loved to play the country yokel. In real life, he was city-sharp and super-hip. Leiber: Carl Gardner,.. had an exquisite tenor voice.. Stoller: a great lead singer ... Dub had one of the great bass voices... Some bass singers have mer volume; but Dub had both resonance and subtlety. He was an artist... In 1958, we developed a new approach to the Coasters' records. A duet lead featuring Carl and Billy." Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (with David Ritz). Those Hoodlum Friends – The Coasters 3 The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info The Coasters on March 7, 1959 doing "Charlie Brown" (Gunter, Gardner, Guy, and Jones) 4 Those Hoodlum Friends – The R&B Pioneers, Volume Three of twelve THE COASTERS THOSE HOODLUM FRIENDS The Coasters in 2009: J.W. Lance, Carl Gardner Jr, Primotivo Candalera, Ronnie Bright. "Leiber & Stoller reached their early zeniths with the Coasters. They charted twenty-four times with their pet project, which personified the playlets - two-and-a-half-minute musical radio plays. The Coasters were a group of vaudevillians, tummlers, comedians to boot, and comedians receive sustenance in delicatessens. ‘Thay ate white food, pastrami sandwiches, never ribs and cornbread,' says Jerry (Leiber, ed.note). 'In fact, ordering pastrami was the secret of their success'. Fifty years later, the following songs are still on the tip of everyones tounge: 'Charlie Brown', 'Yakety Yak', 'Little Egypt', 'Poison Ivy', 'Along Came Jones', 'Searchin' ', and 'Young Blood'. Even though the brilliant 'Down Home Girl' and 'D.W. Washburn' were covered by the Stones and the Monkees, respectively, it's the lesser-known tracks that are the most fascinating today: 'Shopping for Clothes', 'The Slime', ‘Idol with the Golden Head', 'Run Red Run', 'The Shadow Knows', 'Three Cool Cats', 'Bad Blood', ' Wake Me, Shake Me', 'Down in Mexico', 'Turtle Dovin' ', and 'Soul Pad' ". Josh Alan Friedman - interviewing Jerry Leiber in 2007 ("Tell The Truth Until They Bleed", Backbeat Books 2008). Those Hoodlum Friends – The Coasters 5 The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info Carl Gardner: Yakety Yak I Fought Back – My life with the Coasters. Author: Veta Gardner. Publisher: AuthorHouse, June 2007. The Rhino Handmade 4-set CD “The Coasters On Atco” and the “Down Home” CD on Varèse Sarabande (covering a total of 125 Atco and Date/King recordings 1954-1972). Bookings for The Coasters: VETA GARDNER MANAGEMENT Phone 772-380-9607 e-mail: [email protected] ”Those Hoodlum Friends” is an edited transscript from The Coasters Web Site, published by Claus Röhnisch, 2007-2011. 6 Those Hoodlum Friends – The R&B Pioneers, Volume Three of twelve THE COASTERS THOSE HOODLUM FRIENDS THE COASTERS May 1, 2011 edition (revised and partly updated in May 2018) For a supplement and new addings – see The Clown Princes of Rock and Roll at The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info Those Hoodlum Friends – The Coasters 7 The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info Top: Will “Dub” Jones, Carl Gardner, Cornell Gunter, and Billy Guy on August 16, 1958. The first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - individual awards in 1987 to the four singers on top image. Bottom: The Coasters on November 16, 2008 - Ronnie Bright, Carl Gardner Jr, J.W. Lance, and Primotivo Candelaria. 8 Those Hoodlum Friends – The R&B Pioneers, Volume Three of twelve The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info For the Memories of Bobby Nunn 1925 – 1986 Cornell Gunter 1936 – 1990 Will ”Dub” Jones 1928 – 2000 Billy Guy 1936 – 2002 Those Hoodlum Friends – The Coasters The Great R&B-files Created by Claus Röhnisch: http://www.rhythm-and-blues.info Dedicated to Carl Gardner – the true Coaster. Carl Gardner in 1960. 10 Those Hoodlum Friends – The R&B Pioneers, Volume Three of twelve THE COASTERS PRESENTS THOSE HOODLUM FRIENDS THE COASTERS Edited by Claus Röhnisch Introduction During the summer of 2007 Veta Gardner, manager of the Coasters (the first vocal group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), published the Carl Gardner autobiography “Yakety Yak I Fought Back – My Life with the Coasters” (AuthorHouse). Abreast, fate decided that two CD packages, featuring chronological compiled definitive CDs with the legendary group, would be issued within a span of three to four months - in fact these compilations would turn out to comprise almost all of the total recorded works of the group from 1954 - 1973. I became involved in all three projects - in collaboration with Veta Gardner, with James Ritz, and with Cary Mansfield (two of the most serious and dedicated re-issue producers I have come across). Well – 2007 became a truly great year for the Coasters - more than 50 years after their forming. In late 2008 Veta Gardner announced that Carl Gardner's and the Coasters' story is to become a movie. Shooting will commence within the next 8-10 months, as soon as all the actors and all the people that will be in the show are recruited. The film will be produced by Treasure Coast Films with award winning director Jose Garofalo. According to Charlie Gillett: "The Sound of the City" (1971, 1983), the Coasters occupy the sixth position of rock´n´roll acts with most records in the U.S. Pop Top 10, 1955-59 (one hit record could muster two hit titles - but Gillett counts a double-sided hit as one hit record); only surpassed by Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Rick Nelson, the Everly Brothers, and Pat Boone; and with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Lloyd Price among the ten best scorers (note the difference between a hit record and a hit title). The Coasters are one of only six R&B acts, who during the ´50s scored more than three Pop Top 10 hits (hit titles) - the other five are the Platters, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. In Stuart Colman´s wonderful R´n´R publication "They Kept on Rockin´ - The Giants of Rock ´n´ Roll" (1982), the following legends are presented: Bill Haley (Father of Rock ´n´ Roll), Chuck Berry (Still Motorvatin´), Fats Domino (They Call Me The Fat Man), Jerry Lee Lewis (The Killer Himself), Carl Perkins (King of Rockabilly), Bo Diddley (The Diddley Daddy), Screamin´ Jay Hawkins (Clown Prince of Rock ´n´ Roll), Duane Eddy (The Twang´s the Thang), The Coasters (That is Rock ´n´ Roll), Buddy Holly (Reminiscing), Eddie Cochran (Somethin´ Else), Gene Vincent (The Black Leather Rebel), Johnny and Dorsey Burnette (Rockabilly Boogie Brothers), Elvis Presley (Once a King), Little Richard (Back to the Church), The Everly Brothers (So Bad).