Charlie Brown (The Coasters song)

"Charlie Brown" is a popular Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song that was a top-ten hit for The Coasters^[1] in the spring of 1959 (released in January, coupled with "Three Cool Cats," Atco 6132).^[2] It went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts, and 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."^[3]

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 of the song is in mono. However, a stereo version (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.

There have been over 80 cover versions of the song recorded, including one by British comedy actor Bernard Bresslaw and a German language version (as "Charly Brown") by Hans Blum, both in 1959. Deep River Boys with Mikkel Flagstad's orchestra recorded their version in Oslo on August 25, 1960; it was released on the extended play En aften på "Casino Non Stop" 1960 (HMV 7EGN 36). Dr. Lonnie Smith does an extended instrumental version on his live 1969 album Move Your Hand.^[4] Guy Mitchell released a cover version of this song.^[5] In 1995, the song was recorded in a ska-punk version by Voodoo Glow Skulls, on their album Firme.^[6]

Lyrics

The lyric "Who calls the English teacher 'Daddy-o'?"^[1] is most likely a reference to the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, in which high school students mock the surname of a new teacher, Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford), changing "Dadier" to "Daddy-o," a then-current slang term (usually genial) for a male friend or a father.

The song is not a reference to the Peanuts character of the same name. The strip had debuted less than a decade prior, and had not reached its peak of popularity yet. Adding to the confusion is the line "Why's everybody always pickin' on me?", resembling the comic strip Charlie Brown's generally pessimistic attitude.

In pop culture

In a 1979 episode of The White Shadow, the Carver basketball team performs this song at a school dance.

In the film Jack, the title character (played by Robin Williams) and his friends, including his teacher (played by Bill Cosby), sing this song in their tree house. The weight in the tree house is so great with the kids and the two adult-sized people that the tree house starts to creak. While they are singing the song, a butterfly lands on the tree house and the house collapses. Once they are on the ground, Jack uses the tag line of the song and says, "Why is everybody always fallin' on me?"

The song was included in the musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe.

References