Isn't this brilliant? It has everything, from a situation every Fifties American teenager would have been familiar with to an irresistible catch: "Don't talk back."
Yakety Yak was written and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who were responsible for many great songs, and performed by the Black doo-wop group The Coasters.
According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
The union of a black vocal group with two Jewish songwriters was one of the most propitious in rock history. Leiber and Stoller’s witty, street-smart 'playlets' were sung with sly, clowning humor by the Coasters and accompanied by the hot, honking 'yakety sax' of King Curtis.
The Coasters parlayed their R&B; roots into rock and roll hits by delivering Leiber and Stoller’s serio-comic tunes in an uptempo doo-wop style. Beneath the humour the songs often made incisive points about American culture for those willing to dig a little deeper.
Leiber has described the Coasters’ style as "a white kid’s view of a black person’s conception of white society." In fact, their success showed how thin was the line between rhythm & blues and rock and roll in the Fifties.
"Our songs…were R&B; hits that white kids were attracted to," Leiber said in a 1992 interview. "And if people bought it, it became rock and roll."
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