That's What the Good Book Says

Album: The Robins (1951)
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Songfacts®:

  • Listed on page 39 of Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography, "That's What the Good Book Says" is the first song Leiber and Stoller ever got produced. Each having been born in 1933 and this record cut in 1951, they were just at the age of 18. Of their first attempts to sell songs, Mike Stoller reminisces, "In those days we knew nothing about demos and, even if we did, we couldn't afford to make them. If we wanted to get our song recorded, we had to play it - live - in front of the people who would make it happen. So Jerry and I went to meet the people. We jumped into my beat-up '37 Plymouth and headed for Beverly Hills."

    Leiber and Stoller initially tried to sell their first song to Modern Records by making an appointment, but were discouraged after being kept to wait too long in the lobby. They left the Modern building and walked across the street to Aladdin Records. There, they simply told the receptionist that though they didn't have an appointment, they "had hit songs." Producer Maxwell Davis just happened to be walking by and told them, "OK, boys, let's hear what you got." Modern producer Lester Sill got word of the two teenage geniuses who almost slipped through his fingers, and brought them back to the Modern Records building, personally making sure that this time they'd get heard.
  • The Robins would figure prominently in the later careers of Leiber and Stoller. The Robins broke up and re-formed with some new members as The Coasters, singing some of their most memorable hits including "Searchin'," "Yakety Yak," and "Charlie Brown."

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