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Searchin'

"Searchin'"
Coasters searchin3.jpg
Searchin' by the Coasters on Atco Records
Single by The Coasters
from the album The Coasters
A-side "Young Blood"
Released March 1957
Recorded February 15, 1957
Genre Rock and roll
Length 2:36
Label Atco
Writer(s) Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Producer(s) Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
The Coasters singles chronology
"One Kiss Led to Another"
(1956)
"Searchin'"
(1957)
"Idol with the Golden Head"
(1957)

"Searchin'" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller specifically for The Coasters. It was released as a single on Atco Records in March 1957, and topped the Rhythm and Blues Chart for twelve weeks. It reached #3 on the national pop 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.

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 1 January 1962 (with somewhat mangled lyrics that included a mention of Peter Gunn).

The song is featured in the 1999 Warner Bros. animated movie, The Iron Giant, the musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe, and the 1999 biographical film October Sky.

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 notable gimmick was in citing specific 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). 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.


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