YEAR
1987
INDUCTED BY
Lester Sill
CATEGORY
Performers
Witty. Engaging. Hilarious. Infectious. The Coasters are in a league of their own.
The Coasters married comedy with craftsmanship and set it to a doo wop beat, establishing them as one of the most memorable and unique groups of the Fifties.
Billy Guy
Carl Gardner
Cornell Gunter
Will Dubb Jones
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Michael Hill
On July 15th, 1958, at a Senate hearing concerned with the music industry, a counsel for the American Guild of Authors and Composers treated our elected officials to a spin of the Coasters’ “Yakety Yak” in order to illustrate how rock and roll was responsible for “the cheapening of American music.”
“Yakety Yak,” which topped both the pop and the rhythm and blues charts, was the Coasters’ biggest hit, and a fine example of a number of things, but not of the aforementioned allegation.
