"Yakety Yak" | ||||
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Single by the Coasters | ||||
B-side | "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" | |||
Released | April 1958 | |||
Recorded | March 17, 1958 | |||
Genre | Rock and roll | |||
Length | 1:52 | |||
Label | Atco 6116 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller | |||
Producer(s) | Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller | |||
The Coasters singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Yakety Yak" (2007 Remaster) on YouTube |
"Yakety Yak" is a song written, produced, and arranged by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the Coasters and released on Atco Records in 1958, spending seven weeks as #1 on the R&B charts and a week as number one on the Top 100 pop list. [1] This song was one of a string of singles released by the Coasters between 1957 and 1959 that dominated the charts, making them one of the biggest performing acts of the rock and roll era. [2]
In 1999, the original 1958 recording on the ATCO label by the Coasters was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. [3]
The song is a "playlet," a word Stoller used for the glimpses into teenage life that characterized the songs Leiber and Stoller wrote and produced. [4] The lyrics describe the listing of household chores to a kid, presumably a teenager, the teenager's response ("yakety yak") and the parents' retort ("don't talk back") — an experience very familiar to a middle-class teenager of the day. Leiber has said the Coasters portrayed "a white kid’s view of a black person’s conception of white society." [2] The serio-comic street-smart "playlets" etched out by the songwriters were sung by the Coasters with a sly, clowning humor, while the tenor saxophone of King Curtis filled in, in the up-tempo doo-wop style. The group was openly "theatrical" in style — they were not pretending to be expressing their own experience. [5]
The threatened punishment for not taking out the garbage and sweeping the floor is, in the song's humorous lyrics: [6]
And the refrain is:
In the last verse, the parents order their son to tell his "hoodlum friend" outside in the car, that he will not be allowed to go out with him at all for a ride.
Source: [8]
The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s. With hits including "Searchin'", "Young Blood", "Poison Ivy", and "Yakety Yak", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller. Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s. In 1987, they were the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Leiber and Stoller were an American Grammy award-winning songwriting and record production duo, consisting of lyricist Jerry Leiber and composer Mike Stoller. As well as many R&B and pop hits, they wrote numerous standards for Broadway.
Curtis Ousley, known professionally as King Curtis, was an American saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, jazz, and rock and roll. A bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer. A master of the instrument, he played tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone. He played riffs and solos on hit singles such as "Respect" by Aretha Franklin (1967), and "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters (1958) and his own "Soul Twist" (1962), "Soul Serenade" (1964), and "Memphis Soul Stew" (1967).
Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit "Yakety Sax". Randolph was a major part of the "Nashville sound" for most of his professional career.
"Yakety Sax" is a pop novelty instrumental jointly composed by James Q. "Spider" Rich and Boots Randolph.
Carl Edward Gardner was an American singer, best known as the foremost member and founder of The Coasters. Known for the 1958 song "Yakety Yak", which spent a week as number one on the Hot 100 pop list, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Gimme Dat Ding is a split album by The Sweet and The Pipkins, released on EMI's budget record label, MFP in 1970. It is named after the 1970 song "Gimme Dat Ding" by the Pipkins. In the US, The Pipkins released a full album of the same name, consisting of the six songs here and an additional four. It charted at No.132.
"Young Blood" is a song written by Doc Pomus along with the songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that first became a hit by The Coasters in 1957.
The Diamonds are a Canadian vocal quartet that rose to prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s with 16 Billboard hit records. The original members were Dave Somerville (lead), Ted Kowalski (tenor), Phil Levitt (baritone), and Bill Reed (bass). They were most noted for interpreting and introducing rhythm and blues vocal group music to the wider pop music audience. Contrary to a popular myth, the father of Tom Hanks was never a member of the group.
Lester Sill was an American record label executive, best remembered as Phil Spector's partner in Philles Records, and also as the head of both Colpix Records and the later Colgems Records. His three sons are music supervisors in the film and TV businesses: Joel Sill, Greg Sill and Lonnie Sill. His stepson Chuck Kaye is a longtime music publishing executive.
"Searchin'" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller specifically for the Coasters. Atco Records released it as a single in March 1957, which topped the R&B Chart for twelve weeks. It also reached number three on the Billboard singles chart.
Grady Chapman was best known as the American lead singer of doo wop group The Robins.
Cornell Gunter was an American rhythm and blues singer, most active in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born in Coffeyville, Kansas, and died in Las Vegas, Nevada, after being shot in his automobile. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 as a member of The Coasters.
"Along Came Jones" is a comedic song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally recorded by the Coasters, in 1959 peaking at number 9 in the Billboard Hot 100 but recorded by many other groups and individuals in the years that followed.
"Charlie Brown" is a popular Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song that was a top-ten hit for the Coasters in the spring of 1959. It went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, while "Venus" by Frankie Avalon was at No. 1. It was the first of three top-ten hits for the Coasters that year. It is best known for the phrase, "Why's everybody always pickin' on me?"
Chet, Floyd & Boots is a studio album by American guitarist Chet Atkins, pianist Floyd Cramer and saxophone player Boots Randolph. Boots had a novelty hit with Yakety Sax which Chet covered, playing the saxophone lead on guitar, as Yakety Axe - which also became a hit. Cramer was a regular session musician at the Nashville studios, playing with a multitude of artists including Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee, helping to define the "Nashville Sound" that Atkins had also helped develop. The trio briefly toured together.
"Saved" is a gospel and R&B-flavored song written by Leiber and Stoller and first recorded by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer LaVern Baker in 1961. The tongue-in-cheek song is written from the perspective of someone who had lived a fast, loose life but is then "saved" and is now standing on a corner preaching to the passers-by.
"Shoppin' for Clothes" is a novelty R&B song in the talking blues style, recorded by American vocal group the Coasters in 1960. Originally credited to Elmo Glick, a songwriting pseudonym of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who also produced the track, it was partly based on the 1956 song "Clothes Line ", written by Kent Harris and recorded by him as Boogaloo and his Gallant Crew. Harris later received a co-writing credit on "Shoppin' for Clothes."
"Girls Girls Girls", or "Girls! Girls! Girls!", is a song written and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
"Yakety Yak" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally performed by the Coasters in 1958.