Charlie Brown (The Coasters song)

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"Charlie Brown" is a popular Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song that was a top-ten hit for the Coasters in the spring of 1959 (released in January, coupled with "Three Cool Cats", Atco 6132). It went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, while "Venus" by Frankie Avalon was at No. 1. It reached No. 1 in Canada. It 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." Towards the end of the bridge of the song, the words...

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