Yakety Sax

Yakety Sax

"Yakety Sax" is a piece of music written by James Q. "Spider" Rich and Boots Randolph and popularized by saxophonist Randolph in his 1963 recording.

The composition includes pieces of assorted fiddle tunes and was written for a performance at a venue called The Armory in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Two bars of "Entrance of the Gladiators" and "The Girl I Left Behind" are also worked into it.

The song is not to be confused with the Leiber and Stoller song "Yakety Yak", recorded in 1958 by The Coasters. The tunes are similar, and both feature the "yakety sax" sound, but have distinct melodies. Randolph first recorded "Yakety Sax" that year for RCA Victor, but the song did not become a hit until his re-recording for Monument Records in 1963, which reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The song is most famously known to audiences as the iconic theme song of The Benny Hill Show.