Yakety Yak
| "Yakety Yak" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 A-side label of the U.S. vinyl single | ||||
| Singlebythe 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 | Atco6116 | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Jerry Leiber,Mike Stoller | |||
| Producer(s) | Jerry Leiber,Mike Stoller | |||
| The Coasterssingles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Yakety Yak" (2007 Remaster)on YouTube | ||||
"Yakety Yak"is a song written, produced, and arranged byJerry Leiber and Mike Stollerforthe Coastersand released onAtco Recordsin 1958, spending seven weeks as #1 onthe R&B chartsand a week asnumber oneon theTop 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 therock and rollera.[2]
In 1999, the original 1958 recording on the ATCO label bythe Coasterswas inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame.[3]
Song
[edit]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 thetenor saxophoneofKing Curtisfilled in, in the up-tempodoo-wopstyle. 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]
- "You ain't gonna rock and roll no more,"
And the refrain is:
- "Yakety yak. Don't talk back."[7]
In the last verse, the parents order their son to tell his "hoodlumfriend "outside in the car, that he will not be allowed to go out with him at all for a ride.
Personnel
[edit]Source:[8]
- Mike Stoller- piano
- King Curtis-tenor saxophone[9]
- Alan Hanlon - guitar
- Adolph Jacobs- guitar
- Wendell MarshallorLloyd Trotman- bass
- Joe Marshall- drums
- Chino Pozo- congas
Parodies
[edit]- Vince Vance & the Valiants,one of various groups parodyingBarbara Annas "Bomb Iran"in 1980, created a similarly-themed 2005 parody titled" Yakety Yak (Bomb Iraq) ".[10]
Other uses in popular culture
[edit]- Thetenor saxophonesolo byKing Curtisinspired the 1963Boots Randolphsong "Yakety Sax".[11]
- The song's name was used for the code name ofUbuntu16.10, aLinuxoperating system with itsversionsall named after animals.[12]
- Paul Bettanyperforms the song in a pivotal scene asVisionin theWandaVisionepisode "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience".[13]
- A video of the song was done inTiny Toon Adventures(season 3, episode 12), featuring Plucky Duck.[14]
- The Ripley family sings along to the song in the opening scene of the 1988 filmThe Great Outdoors.[15]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Whitburn, Joel(2004).Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004.Record Research. p. 125.
- ^ab"The Coasters".Rock Hall of Fame. Archived fromthe originalon 2006-10-17.Retrieved2006-11-08.
- ^"GRAMMY Hall Of Fame | Hall of Fame Artists | GRAMMY.com".grammy.com.
- ^Henke, James; DeCurtis, Anthony (1980).The RollingStone: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music((3rd Ed.) ed.). New York, N.Y.: Random House, Inc. p. 98.ISBN0-679-73728-6.
- ^Matos, Michaelangelo (April 13, 2005)."Yakety Yak".Seattle Weekly.Retrieved2006-11-08.
- ^Leiber & Stollerinterviewed on thePop Chronicles(1969)
- ^The Coasters: The Complete Singles As & Bs 1954-62,Acrobat Licensing LTD., ADDCCD3180, 2016, UK
- ^"The Cowboy and the Dandy".
- ^"The Show Band that Wouldn't Die".Houston Press,June 30, 2005.
- ^Boots Randolph,Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax!Retrieved February 6, 2015
- ^"Mark Shuttleworth » Blog Archive » Y is for…".www.markshuttleworth.com.Retrieved2016-11-02.
- ^"Paul Bettany on 'WandaVision' Stakes:" It Can't Stay That Way Forever "".The Hollywood Reporter.14 January 2021.Retrieved16 January2021.
- ^"'Tiny Toon Adventures' Toon TV(1992) soundtrack ".IMDb.Retrieved2024-05-22.
- ^The Great Outdoors (1988) - Soundtracks - IMDb.Retrieved2024-07-10– via www.imdb.com.
