This week I was shedding some King Curtis. Specifically, I was working out the solo he played on the 1958 song Yakety Yak, that was performed by The Coasters.
I’m surprised that I had never transcribed the solo before. It took me unearthing my CD collection in the Bankers Boxes that they’re currently in, to inspire me to sit down and work out some solos that I hadn’t in the past.
Yakety Yak is of course a classic song of the American Graffiti era, and Curtis’ solo has become a classic in its own right. At the time Curtis was already a highly-sought-after session musician, and had worked with a many artists on their chart-topping hits including: Nappy Brown, Chuck Willis, the Diamonds, and Ruth Brown.¹
Thanks to YouTube, there are a couple of variations of the famous Curtis solo available.
The first version of the King Curtis Yakety Yak solo, is the single as it was released in 1958.
This second version is the 5th take of Yakety Yak.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4MC73C2J0o&feature=related
Obviously there was at least a 6th take, since the famous solo version is different.
King Curtis is one of those rock ‘n roll saxophone pioneers who set the bar at such a high level, that few people would ever match his performances. His playing was—and continues to be—inspirational to rock ‘n roll sax players.
After his successful work as a session musician, Curtis decided to front his own band. The first was called King Curtis and The Noble Knights, and the second was The Kingpins.
Despite his 3, Top 40 hits in the 1960s, the record-buying public was not as interested in instrumentals as they were in songs with vocal tracks. In total Curtis had 15, Top 100 songs from 1962 to 1971.
Curtis continued working with other artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Wilson Pickett, Eric Clapton, et al, until his untimely death in 1971. He was murdered when he ended up in an altercation with several drug users who were at the entrance to his apartment building. When he asked them to move, he was fatally stabbed.²
The mark that King Curtis has left on rock ‘n roll saxophone playing is an indelible one. The bar he set in the 50s and 60s still stands as a marker for players to aim for. His style, like that of Boots Randolph, is unique, and contains many signature sounds which make him readily identifiable.
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that was my era dont come back.great player big sound.every time i played rock and roll there was always a part of that sound coming back to me,thanks so much 😀
Nice piece on King Curtis….if you or any of your readers would like to know more, drop me an email request to casasquirrels@aol.com for a copy of my King Curtis Sessionography – 120 odd pages of session details of everything I could find he had played on!
Hi there Roy. Welcome to my site.
You must be a true King Curtis fan. That is a lot of research that you have done, in order to have compiled 120 pages of data on his session work. That’s quite remarkable.
Thank you for the offer of sharing this research. I’ll drop you an email. I would definitely like to get a copy.
Regards,
Helen
Can you send the King Curtis sessionography? I’ve been looking for one for a long, long time. Many thanks!
Fred 😉
Did not receive the King Curtis sessionography. Just changed my e-mail settings. Should receive it when you send it this time.
Thanks! 😐
Hi Fred.
Welcome to my site. I never sent it. At this point I’m on my laptop, and don’t have access to my PC. I can’t remember if I was ever sent the sessionography or not, since I can’t remember if I emailed Roy and asked for a copy.
I suggest you send Roy an email, and ask for it yourself. Mention that he was kind enough to offer to send it to readers of the Bassic Sax Blog. You might want to give him this URL as a courtesy, in case he forgot his is offer: https://bassic-sax.info/blog/?p=27999
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Helen