1958



The Coasters, Yakety Yak.
The Silhouettes, Get a Job.
The Miracles, Got a Job.

In which teenagers declare war on the adult world. While skirmishes out in the brush continue to this day, the kids eventually seized control, though they still had to get jobs at some point.

The Coasters' "Yakety Yak" was recorded in New York on March 17, 1958, with King Curtis on the sax break and Mike Stoller (who wrote the song with Jerry Leiber) as arranger and pianist. It was released as Atco 6116 c/w "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," and was played in the home of every adolescent in America: find here.

The Silhouettes were once a gospel group known as the The Gospel Tornados, but their masterpiece, "Get a Job," dealt with secular time: first released in late '57 as Junior 391, the single went national early the next year as Ember 1029: find on Doo Wop Uptempo. The Miracles' answer record "Got a Job," the first appearance of an ambitious young singer named William "Smokey" Robinson, and the first composition by an equally ambitious producer named Berry Gordy, was rushed out in March 1958 as End 1016: find on Ooo Baby Baby.