"When I was in the service in the early 1950s and didn't come home and go to work, my mother said 'get a job' and basically that's where the song came from," said tenor Richard Lewis, who wrote the lyrics.[3] The four members of the group shared the credit, jointly creating the "sha na na" and "dip dip dip dip" hooks later imitated by other doo-wop groups.[citation needed]
It was recorded at Robinson Recording Laboratories in Philadelphia in October 1957. Rollee McGill played the saxophone break, and the arranger was Howard Biggs. Intended as the B-side to "I Am Lonely",[4] "Get a Job" was initially released on Kae Williams' Junior label; Williams, who was also a Philadelphia disc-jockey, was The Silhouettes' manager.[5][6]Doug Moody, an executive at Ember Records, acquired the rights to the song for that label, where it was licensed for national distribution.
In early 1958, The Silhouettes performed "Get a Job" several times on American Bandstand and once on The Dick Clark Show, appearances that contributed to the song's success by exposing it to a large audience.[7][a] Ultimately the single sold more than a million copies.[9]
The revival group Sha Na Na derived their name from the song's doo-wop introduction.[4] They performed it at Woodstock in 1969. Sha Na Na in return, though under the spelling "Xanana" became the nickname of former East TimoresePresident and Prime Minister José Alexandre Gusmão, better known as "Xanana Gusmão".[10]
The famous line "yep yep yep yep yep um um um um get a job" was used in an episode of Married... with Children (Al Bundy tells his son Bud what he should do to earn money).
Album appearances
In addition to the 1973 American Graffiti soundtrack album (MCA2-8001), the song appears on the 1962 compilation Alan Freed's Top 15 (End LP 315), the 1964 compilation Original Golden Hits of the Great Groups Vol. III (Mercury MGH 25007), as well as the 1973 ABC Records compilation Rock 'N' Soul 1958 (ABCX-1958).
In the 1984 "You and the Horse You Rode In On" episode 7 of season 2 of the TV series Hardcastle and McCormick, at 11 minutes and 2 seconds, this song is played during the sequence in which the character Mark McCormick is walking the streets in search of employment.
In 2004’s season 3, episode 8 of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, “The Mooninites: Final Mooning,” Meatwad recites the opening line of the song from an instruction page when attempting to use the Lunar Melting Amulet against Master Shake.
Note
^Bandstand was a Philadelphia show, broadcast nationally by ABC. Bandstand producer Tony Mammarella bought a share of the rights to "Get a Job" from Kae Williams, an example of the "pay for play" practices for which Clark, Mammarella and others were later rebuked during the payola scandal.[8]
