3 Songs From 1958 That Make Me Want to Travel Back in Time

The music of the 1950s almost always evokes a smile. Especially in the latter part of the decade, some of music’s best songs were released. These three songs all came out in 1958, but are so good, I want to travel back in time to listen to them again.

“Yakety Yak” by The Coasters

The Coasters’ first and only No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, “Yakety Yak” is a humorous tune. Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, “Yakety Yak” appears on The Coasters’ Greatest Hits record.

“Yakety Yak” is a song from the perspective of a parent speaking to a child. The song begins with “Take out the papers and the trash / Or you don’t get no spendin’ cash / If you don’t scrub that kitchen floor / You ain’t gonna rock and roll no more / Yakety yak, don’t talk back.”

Although Leiber and Stoller wrote “Yakety Yak”, The Coasters deserve some credit for the finished product.

“We would do these amusing songs. And then The Coasters would go out on the road, and they would choreograph themselves and work out how they’re going to perform it before an audience,” Stoller tells Songfacts. “Then they’d come back and do it for us, and we’d fall down on the floor laughing. Then we’d play them our new song, and they’d fall down on the floor laughing. So it was always great fun.”

“Do You Want To Dance” by Bobby Freeman

“Do You Want To Dance” is Bobby Freeman’s first single. One of only two Top 5 hits he had in his career, Freeman wrote “Do You Want To Dance” by himself.

The simple, catchy lyric says in part, “Well, do ya wanna dance and make romance / Squeeze me all through the night / Oh, baby, do ya wanna dance.”

Numerous other artists have put their own spin on “Do You Want To Dance”, including Del Shannon, Bette Midler, and The Ramones. In 1965, The Beach Boys had a Top 15 hit with this song.

“Splish Splash” by Bobby Darin

“Splish Splash” may be one of the most universally known songs from the 1950s. Bobby Darin had his first Top 5 single with “Splash Splash”.  Written by Darin and Murray Kaufman, the humorous tune is on Darin’s eponymous freshman record.

The song says, “Splish splash, I was taking a bath / Long about a Saturday night, yeah / A rub dub, just relaxing in the tub / Thinking everything was alright / Well, I stepped out the tub, put my feet on the floor / I wrapped the towel around me / And I opened the door, and then a / Splish, splash, I jumped back in the bath / Well, how was I to know there was a party going on?”

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