The Robins
The Robins were an American doo-wop and R&B group, best known for their song "Riot In Cell Block #9" (1954) (sang by Richard Berry, who received no credit for his performance). The Robins later changed their name to The Coasters.
"Riot In Cell Block #9" by The Robins was one of Zappa's earliest musical memories and the first single he ever bought. According to page 22 of Barry Miles' book Frank Zappa: A Biography Zappa and his brother Carl Zappa used to play a ventriloquist dummy act during this song. In December 1973 Zappa played "Smokey's Café" (1955) by The Robins on Dr. Demento.
Frank Zappa about The Robins
"I saw it as a totally unified field theory. What appealed to me in the Varese album was that the writing was so direct. It was like here's a guy who's writing dissonant music and he's not fucking around. And here's a group called The Robins, and they didn't seem like they were fucking around, either. They were havin' a good time. Certainly Hank Ballard and the Midnighters sounded like they were having a good time. And although harmonically, rhythmically and in many other superficial ways it was very different, the basic soul of the music seemed to me to be coming from the same universal source. You know: a guy who had the nerve to stand up and say, "This is my song, like it or lump it."" (FZ in a Rolling Stone Interview, 1988)
