Yakety Axe

"Yakety Sax"
Single by Boots Randolph
from the album Yakety Sax!
B-side	"I Really Don't Want to Know"
Released	1963
Format	7" (45 rpm)
Genre	Novelty, pop
Length	2:00
Label	Monument Records
Songwriter(s)	Spider Rich Boots Randolph
Producer(s)	Fred Foster

"Yakety Sax" is a pop novelty instrumental jointly composed by James Q. "Spider" Rich and Boots Randolph. Saxophonist Randolph popularized the selection in his 1963 recording, which reached number 35 on the rock charts. UK comedian Benny Hill later made it more widely known as the closing theme music of The Benny Hill Show. The piece is considered Randolph's signature song.

The selection includes pieces of assorted fiddle tunes and 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 number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Yakety Sax is often used in television and film as a soundtrack for outlandishly humorous situations. It was frequently used to accompany comedic sketches - particularly the rapidly paced, silent chase skit, which came at the end of almost each episode of the Thames Television comedy programme, The Benny Hill Show, Indeed, thanks to Hill, Yakety Sax is so closely linked to the series, that it is also known as The Benny Hill Theme. On The Benny Hill Show, the music was performed by Ronnie Aldrich and His Orchestra.

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Wikipedia