Searchin'

The Coasters were one of the 1950's most energetic rock and roll singing groups. Songwriters Leiber and Stoller wrote Seachin' especially for them, and the Coasters released it on the Atco label in March of 1957 (with Young Blood on the back). It was number one on the R&B chart for 12 weeks and rose to number 3 on list for pop singles. The Beatles were aware of this song and liked it, performing it in the early days of the Cavern Club and in Germany. When time came to record a set of demo songs for the Decca audition on January 1, 1962, manager Brian Epstein judged that Searchin' was an obvious inclusion. Paul sang lead with John and Paul backing him up, and Pete Best was on drums. The Beatles' cover of Searchin' was probably unconvincing to the Decca people because of Paul's need to sing raspy falsetto in an American accent. It did not really showcase what the group was capable of doing. The Decca audition track was released as part of the Anthology 1 collection, but without the introduction.