March 17, 2021

45 RPMs 59: The Coasters ~ Yakety Yak

 ~ 
vinyl LP album cover 
cover photographer unknown

     
I had been a fan of The Coasters for a couple of years because of their songs Down in Mexico, Searchin' and Young Blood when Yakety Yak hit the scene! I remember the first time i heard it and the opening lyrics for the song, "Take out the papers and the trash!", reverberated around my brain and I heard the voice of my mother saying those very same words to me! While the resounding deep bass voice of Will “Dub” Jones saying, "Don't talk back!" was my father sternly talking to me.   
 
I was the oldest kid so in addition to baby sitting, changing diapers, doing dishes and other chores a mid-teen had to do, taking out the trash was one of them so the song was VERY pertinent to me.     
 
Yakety Yak was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for the Coasters and it was recorded on March 17, 1958, on Atco/Atlantic Records, 63 years ago. WOW!     


The Coasters 
date & photographer unknown


From Wikipedia:
"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. 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. The serio-comic street-smart “playlets” etched out by the songwriters were sung by the Coasters with a sly clowning humor. The group was openly "theatrical" in style—they were not pretending to be expressing their own experience."            
In The History of Rock, by Bill Millar, he writes:
"There are lots of social implications that can be read into this song, which was written by two Jewish men and sung by a black vocal group. "The Coasters were clearly irreverent and opposed institutions that white adults held in high esteem. Authority, parents, fidelity, hard work, piety and the suppression of risky pleasures were questioned with a blood and subversive wit. Jews (Leiber and Stoller) and Southern blacks (the Coasters) were expected to show gratitude towards the system. Instead they stood up and criticized it, a theme that can be recognized in almost all their songs."        


 
 
Arnold Shaw wrote in his book The Rockin´ ´50s:
"If rock ´n´ roll had produced nothing but the Coasters and Leiber and Stoller, it would still have commanded attention as the sound embodiment of a time and generation". The Coasters are widely regarded as the pre-eminent vocal group of the original rock ´n´ roll era. 
 
Arnold Shaw ~ The Rockin´ ´50s
 
 
Neil Slaven stated in late 1997, "There never was - nor will there ever be - another group quite like the Coasters".        


Yakety Yak lyrics

Take out the papers and the trash
Or you don't get no spendin' cash
If you don't scrub that kitchen floor
You ain't gonna rock and roll no more
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Just finish cleanin' up your room
Let's see that dust fly with that broom
Get all that garbage out of sight
Or you don't go out Friday night
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

You just put on your coat and hat
And walk yourself to the laundromat
And when you finish doin' that
Bring in the dog and put out the cat
Yakety yak (don't talk back)

Don't you give me no dirty looks
Your father's hip; he knows what cooks
Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride

Yakety yak (don't talk back)
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak
[Fade]
Yakety yak, yakety yak

 
Yakety Yak features Carl Gardner, Billy Guy, Cornell Gunter, and Will “Dub” Jones with his fantastic bass. Of course the WAY over the top saxophone played by King Curtis drove me right up the wall and then some; I was and still am a sucker for good sax.    


45 rpm record w/sleeve 
photo by Styrous®


Yakety Yak spent seven weeks as #1 on the R&B charts and a week as number one on the Top 100 pop list; it was their only #1 single. 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.       

The song was covered by the English ska band Bad Manners, Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs, Ray Stevens, in 1959 a French version by the Canadian group, Les Jérolas and a pseudo-C/W version by in 1963. Boots Randolph used Yakety Yak as the basis for his instrumental Yakety Sax.     
             
 

45 rpm record label
photo by Styrous®


        
Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - Yakety Yak - 1:50

Side 2:

B - Along Came Jones - 2:49

Companies, etc.

    Manufactured By – Atlantic Recording Corporation
    Pressed By – Monarch Record Mfg. Co.

Notes:

A: Pub., Tiger, BMI
From ATCO 6116

B: Pub., Tiger, BMI
From ATCO 6141

Mfg. by Atlantic Recording Corp.

Barcode and Other Identifiers
        
        
    Matrix / Runout (Center label, side A): 58C-365-MO
    Matrix / Runout (Center label, side B): 59C-3418-MO
    Matrix / Runout (Runout, side A): 58-C 365-10-RepL. 5̶8̶-̶C̶-̶4̶1̶2̶3̶-̶1̶0̶ SRC △90022 AT
    Matrix / Runout (Runout, side B): 59-C-3418-11 -RepL. SRC AT △90031     
      
      
      
  
Viewfinder links:       
        
The Coasters       
King Curtis       
Christine K. Simonson         
Ray Stevens       
     
Net links:       
         
SongFacts ~ Yakety Yak        
Vintage Music FM ~ The Coasters       
     
YouTube links:      
        
The Coasters -    
      Yakety Yak       
      Yakety Yak (live)       
Les Jérolas ~ Yakety Yak (rouspèt' pas)     
      
      
      
       
Although I did in later years, somehow, way back then, I never had the nerve to say "Yakety Yak!" to my mother,  It just wasn't the right time.     
      
      
      
      
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, March 17, 2021 







      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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