 The Coasters A mainstay of my childhood record player, the Coasters' Greatest Hits album documents one of the hippest and certainly one of the most hilarious pop groups ever. I recently found this UK reissue of the album on CD, including the original ten tracks from the LP and adding 14 bonus tracks not originally included, and it's a serious hoot. The Coasters were probably best known for "Yakety Yak" ("Don't talk back!") and "Charlie Brown" ("He's a clown"), both staples of "Wacky Classics" type compilations and countless episodes of "Happy Days." That said, it's likely that this disc may not appeal to everyone, but my gol-dang, what a different and better world it would be if every idiot Blur fan on the planet would start listening to the Coasters instead. Sorry if I like my music to be good, Blur fans. There's a couple other Coasters anthologies to choose from (Rhino put out a comprehensive 2-disc set awhile back), but for my money you can't beat this one, even though it doesn't include certain songs ("Smokey Joe's CafĂ©" and "Down in Mexico" are not present, for example, but those are far from my favorites). It's just a great collection, programmed with lots of love and representing easily the Coaster's coolest sides. For those not aware of the group, they were the primary proponents of the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who specialized in great 50s pop, but really shined on hilarious productions that hinged on clever vocal interplay and especially baritone vocal hooks (i.e. "Don't talk back!"). The liner notes point out that everyone involved would be pretty much rolling on the floor in laughter while recording these songs, and it's not hard to see why. They're not funny in the way, say, an Adam Sandler album is (fewer dick jokes, for one thing), but the over-the-top crazy voices and inflections put across by the group are truly something to marvel at. But the result does not become outright comedy or even simple novelty, because they pull off the harmonies with real power. What emerges is a group that knows how to laugh, but doesn't need to preen. My favorites on Greatest Hits are "Along Came Jones" (truly one of the funniest songs ever, makes me laugh pretty much every time), "I'm a Hog For You Baby" (extremely cool, especially for the line "One little piggie ate a pizza, one piggie ate potato chips" – blatantly aiming at the teen market without being exploitative) and "That is Rock And Roll" (featuring Jerry Leiber himself singing on the bridge because no one else in the group could get it right). The great thing about these tracks is that they're fun but not half-assed – the bands are full of great players (King Curtis plays sax on almost all the tracks; Milt Hinton makes an appearance; Phil Spector (!) is on guitar on one track), and the arrangements are hugely inventive. A few of the tracks even have a rhythm banjo player, but totally mixed in with the band so you hardly even notice why it sounds so unique. The guitars (most notable tracks featuring George Barnes) are very inventive, and the drums throughout are amazing (check out the cover of Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry" for some of the best fills you've ever heard). At twenty-four tracks, this is a whole lot of coastin', but every track is utterly solid. I'm torn between giving it six or seven l'il puppies, but I feel that to most people, a little of the Coasters sound goes a long way, like Spike Jones or black cherry soda – very cool, but best in smaller doses. But regardless of the arbitrary rating, this is highly recommended – shit man, it was good enough for the Beatles! Wait, but so was Carl Perkins, scratch that.
Review by Dixie Proulx |