Many of us grew up listening to The Coasters, the iconic 1950s band that bridged the gap between doo-wop and R&B, that brought humor and sass to the birth of rock ’n’ roll. Remember “Yakety Yak” and “Charlie Brown,” “Along Came Jones” and “Poison Ivy,” “Wake Me, Shake Me” and “Little Egypt”?
But before any of those tunes topped the charts, it was a lesser known Coasters cut that grabbed us. Picture it: Hot summer, 1957, and into our shiny new transistor radios The Coasters came sashaying into our ears with a sexy little song that said, yeah, she may go to the baker for cake and to the butcher for steak, but when she wants good lovin’? …well!
It was a winking and nodding Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller composition called “(When She Wants Good Lovin’) My Baby Comes to Me.”
The song, a minor hit for The Coasters, was resurrected nine years later when a little known group called The Chicago Loop took a rendition of it to No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Rock trivia-lovers like to point out this disc because it features a young Michael Bloomfield on the guitar and Barry Goldberg on keyboards.
But in the Floodisphere, we were much more impressed with a different pressing of the song released one year earlier. Favorite folksinger Tom Rush’s 1965 self-titled debut Elektra album included a version of the tune, accompanied by bassist Bill Lee along with John Sebastian (of The Lovin’ Spoonful) and Fritz Richmond (of The Jim Kweskin Jug Band.)
Choosing the song was a rather bold move for Rush at a time when some music purists were trying — in vain — to keep the gap between rock and folk as wide as possible. In his liner notes, Tom pointed out that the song was released on the flip side of “Great Big Idol with the Golden Head,” adding, “I am a great admirer of The Coasters.”
It was back in the 1970s that Dave Peyton, Rog Samples and Charlie Bowen started playing around with the song because it definitely had jug band vibe going on.
Want to hear a fast and furious take from an August night in 1979 (with our buddy Jack Nuckols just killing it on the spoons)? Click the button below:
After that, the song went back to sleep in our consciousness for, oh, a half century or so.
Then last winter, Randy Hamilton started singing harmony with Charlie on the chorus and suddenly the song was back, evolving into a fine vehicle for cool solos by Danny Cox, Veezy Coffman and Sam St. Clair. Click here to hear the 2022 version of this early rock classic.
(When She Wants Good Lovin') My Baby Comes to Me