The Coasters

Calling the Coasters the court jesters of rock & roll implies that they lacked a certain amount of depth, but that was far from the case. Between 1956 and 1961 the Coasters put out a dozen or so classic singles that brilliantly detailed teenage angst, love and lust, all of them given a slight comic spin that allowed the songs to nestle into AM pop radio with undetected subversive intent. It helped, too, that the Coasters material was written, produced, and arranged by the great team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who knew exactly what to do and how to do it. This concise anthology gets straight to the point and includes just the hits and nothing but the hits, which is probably all that most listeners will need. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide