Charlie Brown (The Coasters song)

"Charlie Brown"
Single by The Coasters
B-side"Three Cool Cats"
ReleasedJanuary 1959
RecordedDecember 11, 1958
GenreRhythm and blues[1]
Length2:19
LabelAtco 6132
Songwriter(s)Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Producer(s)Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
The Coasters singles chronology
"The Shadow Knows"
(1958) 		"Charlie Brown"
(1959) 		"Along Came Jones"
(1959)

"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.

  1. ^ Breihan, Tom (November 15, 2022). "BTS - "Dynamite"". The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music. New York: Hachette Book Group. p. 296.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference pc13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Billboard Hits of 1959 Retrieved February 7, 2012
  4. ^ "Top 100 Songs - Billboard Hot 100 Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  5. ^ "CHUM Hit Parade - March 9, 1959".
  6. ^ Leiber and Mike Stoller with David Ritz, Jerry (2009). Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography. Simon & Schuster. pp. 136–137. ISBN 978-1-4165-5938-2.