| "Young Blood" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Coasters | ||||
| B-side | "Searchin'" | |||
| Released | March 1957 | |||
| Recorded | February 15, 1957 | |||
| Label | Atco Records 6087 | |||
| Writer(s) | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Doc Pomus | |||
| Producer | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | |||
| The Coasters singles chronology | ||||
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"Young Blood" is a song written by the songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, together with Doc Pomus, in 1957. The song was included in the musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe.
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Musically, the song follows a minor blues structure, built mostly around three chords (im, ivm, V) except for the bridge (IV, VI, III, V). The lyrical theme is one typical of early rock and roll: boy meets girl, then meets girl's father, who does not approve of boy; so the boy departs, but cannot stop thinking about the girl, declaring "You're the one, you're the one, you're the one."
"Young Blood" was originally recorded by The Coasters, and released as a single together with "Searchin'" in March 1957 by Atco Records (#6087). This song is compared to the cleaner cut song "Standing on the Corner" from the musical The Most Happy Fella. Their version can also be heard on The Very Best of the Coasters album. It topped Billboard's R&B chart, and reached number eight on the Pop chart [1].
The Coasters' version is ranked #414 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, the group's only song on the list.[2] A sound bite, "Look a-there! Look a-there! Look a-there!" from the Coasters' version was used in a Dickie Goodman comedy record, Flying Saucer the Second.
The Beatles played "Young Blood" in their Cavern Club repertoire. It is one of twelve songs recorded by them in July 1962 on a tape, which was re-purchased by Paul McCartney at a Sotheby's auction in 1985.[3][4]
A previously-unreleased version performed by The Beatles (for the BBC radio show Pop Go the Beatles broadcast on June 11, 1963) is included on their album Live at the BBC, released in 1994. It was recorded at the BBC Paris Studio, London on June 1, 1963, and George Harrison is the lead vocalist on this recording; the tempo is moderately fast, considerably faster than in the original.[5][6]
The song has been covered by several other artists, including an audacious live performance by Leon Russell at the 1971 Concert for Bangla Desh, who was accompanied by a stageful of world-class musicians including George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. Other covers include a 1976 release by Bad Company which charted, a 1983 version by Beach Boys guitarist Carl Wilson that served as the title track to Youngblood (his second solo album), and a version by Bruce Willis in The Return of Bruno (1986). The Grateful Dead are known to have soundchecked the song. "Young Blood" was also featured in an episode of Happy Days. The song also appeared on Jerry Lee Lewis's 1995 album of the same name.
The song was also sung by season 10 American Idol contestant Scotty McCreery during the Leiber & Stoller week of the competition.
| Preceded by "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley |
Billboard R&B Best Sellers in Stores number-one single June 3, 1957 |
Succeeded by "Searchin'" by The Coasters |