"Searchin'" | ||||
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Single by the Coasters | ||||
from the album The Coasters | ||||
A-side | "Young Blood" | |||
Released | March 1957 | |||
Recorded | February 15, 1957 | |||
Genre | Rock and roll, R&B | |||
Length | 2:36 | |||
Label | Atco | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | |||
Producer(s) | Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller | |||
The Coasters singles chronology | ||||
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"Searchin'" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller specifically for the Coasters. [1] Atco Records released it as a single in March 1957, which topped the R&B Chart for twelve weeks. It also reached number three on the Billboard singles chart.
Although the Coasters had previously done well on the R&B charts, it was "Searchin'" (along with "Young Blood" on the flip side) that sparked the group's rock and roll fame.
The lyrics, written by Leiber, use vernacular phrasing. The plot revolves around the singer's determination to find his love wherever she may be, even if he must resort to detective work. The song's gimmick was to cite law-enforcement figures from popular culture such as Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, Joe Friday, Sam Spade, Boston Blackie, Bulldog Drummond, and the North-West Mounted Police (the Mounties). [1] The vocals of the Coasters' lead singer Billy Guy are raw and insistent. Driving the song is a pounding piano rhythm of two bass notes alternating on every second beat. [2]
The theme of the song is searching for love: "Well, I'm searching, Yeah I'm gonna find her". The refrain is simple variations of this phrase, "Gonna find her, yeah ah, gonna find her". [1]
The song was recorded in Los Angeles on February 15, 1957. [3]
Otis Blackwell released a version of this song on his 1977 album titled These are my songs!. Blackwell attributed the track to Lieber/Stoller, however the album brought to light many tracks that Blackwell was the original composer for. This was the only song on the album that was not a Blackwell composition [5]
Johnny Rivers released a version of the song as a medley with "So Fine" which reached number 113 on the U.S. pop chart in 1973. [6] [ better source needed ]
Singer/songwriter Paul McCartney chose "Searchin'" as one of his Desert Island Discs in 1982. McCartney performed the song with the Beatles during their audition for Decca Records on January 1, 1962 (with somewhat mangled lyrics that included a mention of Peter Gunn ).[ citation needed ]
The song was performed by Floyd Pepper in an episode of The Muppet Show .
The song was also recorded and performed by Sharon, Lois & Bram for both of their children's television series Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show (1987) and Skinnamarink TV (1997).
The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s. With hits including "Searchin'", "Young Blood", "Poison Ivy", and "Yakety Yak", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller. Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s. In 1987, they were the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jerome Solon Felder, known professionally as Doc Pomus, was an American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-writer of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 1992, the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), and the Blues Hall of Fame (2012).
Johnny Otis was a first generation Greek-American singer, musician, composer, bandleader, record producer, and talent scout. He was a seminal influence on American R&B and rock and roll. He discovered numerous artists early in their careers who went on to become highly successful in their own right, including Little Esther Phillips, Etta James, Alan O'Day, Big Mama Thornton, Johnny Ace, Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John, Hank Ballard, and The Robins, among many others. Otis has been called the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues".
Leiber and Stoller were an American Grammy award-winning songwriting and record production duo, consisting of lyricist Jerry Leiber and composer Mike Stoller. As well as many R&B and pop hits, they wrote numerous standards for Broadway.
"Hound Dog" is a twelve-bar blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Recorded originally by Big Mama Thornton on August 13, 1952, in Los Angeles and released by Peacock Records in late February 1953, "Hound Dog" was Thornton's only hit record, selling over 500,000 copies, spending 14 weeks in the R&B charts, including seven weeks at number one. Thornton's recording of "Hound Dog" is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll", ranked at 318 in the 2021 iteration of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in February 2013.
My Bonnie is a 1962 album by English rock and roll singer-songwriter and musician Tony Sheridan. Sheridan, then playing in clubs in Hamburg with the Beatles, was discovered by producer Bert Kaempfert and subsequently signed with him to record for Polydor. Sheridan recorded several songs with the Beatles, of which only a single was released in 1961, the titular "My Bonnie" and B-side "The Saints", credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. While both songs are included here, the remaining tracks on this album were credited again to the Beat Brothers but recorded without the Beatles.
Carl Edward Gardner was an American singer, best known as the foremost member and founder of The Coasters. Known for the 1958 song "Yakety Yak", which spent a week as number one on the Hot 100 pop list, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
"Spanish Harlem" is a song recorded by Ben E. King in 1960 for Atco Records. It was written by Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. "Spanish Harlem" was King's first hit away from The Drifters, peaking at number 15 on Billboard's rhythm and blues and number 10 in pop music chart.
"Young Blood" is a song written by Doc Pomus along with the songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that first became a hit by The Coasters in 1957.
"Kansas City" is a rhythm and blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. First recorded by Little Willie Littlefield the same year, as "K. C. Loving", the song later became a chart-topping hit when it was recorded by Wilbert Harrison in 1959. "Kansas City" is one of Leiber and Stoller's "most recorded tunes, with more than three hundred versions", with several appearing in the R&B and pop record charts.
"Yakety Yak" is a song written, produced, and arranged by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the Coasters and released on Atco Records in 1958, spending seven weeks as #1 on the R&B charts and a week as number one on the Top 100 pop list. This song was one of a string of singles released by the Coasters between 1957 and 1959 that dominated the charts, making them one of the biggest performing acts of the rock and roll era.
"There Goes My Baby" is a song written by Ben E. King, Lover Patterson, George Treadwell and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for The Drifters. This was the first single by the second incarnation of the Drifters, who assumed the group name in 1958 after manager George Treadwell fired the remaining members of the original lineup. The Atlantic Records release was Ben E. King's debut recording as the lead singer of the group.
Live at Hammersmith is a live album by American heavy metal band Twisted Sister, released on October 3, 1994. It was recorded on June 15, 1984, at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, England.
Obediah Donnell "Obie" Jessie was an American R&B, rock and roll and jazz singer and songwriter. He recorded as Young Jessie in the 1950s and 1960s, and was known for his solo career, work with The Flairs and a brief stint in The Coasters. He later performed and recorded jazz as Obie Jessie.
"Charlie Brown" is a popular Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song that was a top-ten hit for the Coasters in the spring of 1959. It went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, while "Venus" by Frankie Avalon was at No. 1. 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?"
"Poison Ivy" is a popular song by American songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally recorded by the Coasters in 1959. It went to No.1 on the R&B chart, No.7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and No.15 in the UK. This was their third top-ten hit of that year following "Charlie Brown" and "Along Came Jones".
Alvin "Shine" Robinson, sometimes credited as Al Robinson, was an American rhythm and blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, based in New Orleans. His recording of "Something You Got" reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964.
"One Kiss Led to Another" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and performed by The Coasters. The song reached #11 on the R&B chart and #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1956. The song appeared on their 1957 album, The Coasters.
Don't Stop Me Now! is the eleventh studio album by Cliff Richard, released in 1967. It is his twentieth album overall. The album was arranged and conducted by Mike Leander.
"Girls Girls Girls", or "Girls! Girls! Girls!", is a song written and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.