Yakety Sax

"Yakety Sax" is a pop-jazz instrumental whose music was jointly composed by James Q. "Spider" Rich and Homer "Boots" Randolph III. Randolph, a saxophonist, popularized the selection in his 1963 recording; Benny Hill later made it more widely known as the de facto theme music of his comedy show.

The selection, which includes pieces of assorted fiddle tunes, was originally composed by Rich 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.

Randolph's take on the piece was inspired by a sax solo in the Leiber and Stoller song "Yakety Yak," recorded in 1958 by The Coasters. The tunes are similar, and both feature the "yakety sax" sound. Randolph first recorded "Yakety Sax" that year for RCA Victor, but it did not become a hit till he re-recorded it for Monument Records in 1963; this version reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Other performances

Chase (instrumental)

"Chase" or "The Chase" is an instrumental by Giorgio Moroder from his Academy Award-winning soundtrack album Midnight Express (1978). It was an electronic instrumental that was subsequently extended and released as maxi single and made the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1979, listing as high as #33. In Canada, the song reached #41 on the RPM Magazine Top Singles Chart.

Alan Parker, the director of Midnight Express, explicitly asked Moroder for a song in the style of "I Feel Love", which Moroder composed for Donna Summer. It was Moroder's first time composing a movie soundtrack.

Although a disco piece, "Chase", along with "I Feel Love", is more specifically considered the pioneering introduction of the hi-NRG genre, which came to prominence in the early 1980s.

The music was arranged by Harold Faltermeyer under the leadership of Giorgio Moroder.

In 2000, a remix of "Chase" credited to Giorgio Moroder vs. Jam & Spoon, went to number one on the US Dance Charts.

Legacy