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Lead singer of The Coasters, Carl Gardner, sadly died on Sunday, June 12 of heart failure and vascular dementia at at Port St. Lucie Hospice Home. He was 83.

Gardner was born on April 29, 1928 in Tyler, Texas, to a black father and Comanche Indian mother. He began singing as a young child and during high school had a regular spot singing on local radio before a racially-motivated sacking. After a brief spell in the army, he joined the group The Robins in the early 1950s. It was while a member of The Robins that what was to be a fruitful association with the legendary songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller began. The pair had penned several songs for The Robins, including “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” and this brought them to the attention of Atlantic Records who offered Leiber and Stoller a contract to produce the group at Atlantic. The group would become The Coasters, with an original line-up of Carl Gardner, Billy Guy, Leon Hughes and Bobby Nunn. The latter two were replaced by Cornell Gunter and Will “Dub” Jones in 1957 to form the classic Coasters’ line-up.

After a couple of hits on the R&B chart (“Down in Mexio” and “One Kiss Led to Another”), The Coasters had their first major hit with the double-sided Leiber and Stoller-penned single “Young Blood”/”Searchin’.” The latter reached number three on the US pop chart and topping the R&B chart for 13 weeks.

The Coasters – “Searchin'”

The association with Leiber and Stoller produced a number of other classic hits, including “Charlie Brown,” “Along Came Jones,” “Poison Ivy,” “Love Potion No. 9,” “Little Egypt” and the number one “Yakety Yak.”

The Coasters – “Yakety Yak”

Although The Coasters’ popularity faded in the 1960s, many leading acts were inspired by the group and recorded their songs, including The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Hollies, The Grateful Dead and The Monkees.

The Coasters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

Gardner continued to perform on the oldies circuit until a few years ago when his son, Carl Jr, took over vocal duties with the group. In 2007, Gardner published his autobiography “Carl Gardner: Yakety Yak I Fought Back – My Life with The Coasters.”

The Coasters’ original hits have endured and are rightly regarded as true classics of the doo-wop era. That is due in no small part to Gardener’s strong tenor voice and appealing phrasing.

Gardner is survived by his wife, Veta Gardner, and son, Carl Jr.