Young Blood - The Coasters

Young Blood - The Coasters

2:23

single, 1957

Written by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, and Doc Pomus

I first came to this song through the Band's 1995 cover on Till The Night Is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus, and the contrast is instructive. The Coasters' original is a touch less wink-wink goofy, though it still revels in cartoonish exaggeration, especially in the vocal work: they stretch their range, slip into character voices, and turn the song into a miniature piece of musical theater.  Set against a slinking, burlesque horn line and echoing backing vocals, the lyric sketches a familiar teenage tragedy. A guy falls hard, only to lose the girl when her father steps in (his disapproval memorably delivered in Bobby Nunn's stern, bottom-of-the-well bass).  The humor keeps things light, grounded in something recognizably true: for those who burn with puppy love, the sting is real.  

Down in Mexico - the Coasters

Down in Mexico - the Coasters

3:16

single, 1956

Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Hard to believe this is the Coasters' debut single; they sing harmonies like they've been around forever.  Starting with a sultry sax, and boosted by some frenetic Latin-infused congas, it tells the story of a cat named Joe who plays blues piana in a honky-tonk down in Mexico.  And there's a dancer.  "Around her waist she wore three fishnets / She started dancin' with the castanets / I didn't know just what to expect / She threw her arms around my neck."  The ancestor song of "El Paso," "Romance in Durango," and even "Mexican Blackbird."