Yakety Yak
"Yakety Yak" | ||||
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![]() A-side label of the U.S. vinyl single | ||||
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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"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, one of the biggest performing acts of the rock and roll era.[2]
Song[]
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.[3] 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 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.[4]
The threatened punishment for not taking out the garbage and sweeping the floor is, in the song's humorous lyrics:[5]
- "You ain't gonna rock and roll no more,"
And the refrain is:
- "Yakety yak; don't talk back."[6]
In the last verse, the parents order their son to tell his "Hoodlum Friend" outside in the car, that he won't be allowed to go out with him at all for a ride.
Personnel[]
- Mike Stoller, piano
- King Curtis, saxophone
- Alan Hanlon, guitar
- Adolph Jacobs, guitar
- Wendell Marshall or Lloyd Trotman, bass
- Joe Marshall, drums
- Chino Pozo, congas
Cover versions[]
- Québécois duo Les Jérolas recorded in 1959 a French version "Rouspet' pas"
- Billy Sanders recorded a version in German, "Jackety Jack" in early 1959. .[8]
- The song was covered by Jan & Dean and was planned to be released on their album Carnival of Sound in 1968. Carnival of Sound was not released until 2010.
- Lee Perry released a cover version in 1969 (as Lee Perry and the Upsetters), altering the lyric "You ain't gonna rock and roll no more" to "You ain't gonna reggae reggae reggae no more"
- Sha Na Na performed this as part of their set at the original Woodstock Festival and recorded two live covers of the song in 1971 and 1972.
- The Pipkins covered the song in 1970, produced by John Burgess.
- Electronic/disco group El Coco covered this song in 1975 with some comedy elements, taken from their debut album, Mondo Disco, released on AVI Records.
- The song was covered by 2 Live Crew for the 1988 movie Twins. In the film, Julius (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sings along as the song plays in his earphones while flying to the United States.
- Phantom Planet covered this song for the soundtrack of the 1999 film Mumford.
Parodies and alternate lyrics[]
- The song was parodied for use in adverts for Radox bath soak and McCain Micro Chips in the 1980s and 1990s respectively.
- A modified version, "Yakety Yak, Take It Back", was used in a 1990 all-star PSA for the Take It Back Foundation.[9]
- Vince Vance & the Valiants, one of multiple groups parodying Barbara Ann as "Bomb Iran" in 1980, created a similarly themed 2005 parody called "Yakety Yak (Bomb Iraq)".[10]
Other uses in popular culture[]
- The sax solo by King Curtis inspired the 1963 Boots Randolph song "Yakety Sax"[11]
- The song is sung by the Coasters in the 1988 horror-comedy Phantom of the Ritz, in which the four-man group makes a cameo appearance.
- It has also served as the theme to Clive Anderson's chat-show Clive Anderson Talks Back during the 1990s, and as the opening theme of the 1988 movie
- It was the inspiration and theme song for the 2002-2003 Canadian/Australian animated series, Yakkity Yak.[12]
- A music video starring Plucky Duck as the kid tasked with chores, and a group of anthropomorphic yaks in police officer suits, aired on the 90th episode of Tiny Toon Adventures and used in The Plucky Duck Show.
- The song name was used for the code name of Ubuntu 16.10, a Linux operating system with its versions all named after animals.[13]
- Used as the opening theme for Barstool Sports radio show The Yak.
- The song is sung by Paul Bettany as Vision in the WandaVision episode "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience".
The original recording was also included in films including Stand by Me (1986), The Great Outdoors[14] (1988) and Always (1989) and the Disney+ original miniseries, WandaVision.[15]
See also[]
- List of number-one R&B singles of 1958 (U.S.)
- List of number-one singles of 1958 (U.S.)
References[]
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 125.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "The Coasters". Rock Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2006-10-17. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
- ^ Anthony DeCurtis, & James Henke (eds) (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. ISBN 0-679-73728-6.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
- ^ Matos, Michaelangelo (April 13, 2005). "Yakety Yak". Seattle Weekly. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
- ^ Leiber & Stoller interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
- ^ The Coasters: The Complete Singles As & Bs 1954-62, Acrobat Licensing LTD., ADDCCD3180, 2016, UK
- ^ Billboard, "Yakety Yak" goes Teutonic" March 30, 1959
- ^ "'Yakety Yak – Take It Back!' Music Video". Take It Back Foundation. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
- ^ "The Show Band that Wouldn't Die". Houston Press, June 30, 2005.
- ^ Boots Randolph, Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax! Retrieved February 6, 2015
- ^ Yakkity Yak Intro. YouTube. January 12, 2011.
- ^ "Mark Shuttleworth » Blog Archive » Y is for…". www.markshuttleworth.com. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
- ^ "The Great Outdoors (1988) - Soundtracks". IMDb. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
- ^ "Paul Bettany on 'WandaVision' Stakes: "It Can't Stay That Way Forever"". The Hollywood Reporter. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
External links[]
- Songs written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
- Jan and Dean songs
- 1958 singles
- The Coasters songs
- Billboard Top 100 number-one singles
- Cashbox number-one singles
- 1958 songs
- Atco Records singles