Songfacts®:

• "Wake Me, Shake Me" is a lighthearted plea to be woken up in time for work. Coasters frontman Billy Guy, who wrote the song, sings about his miserable job as a sanitation worker (a profession sometimes called "a garbage man") and his fears of sleeping in and failing to punch the clock on time. He dreams of garbage trucks bearing down on him and reminds us repeatedly that his boss is a "big, fat slob." Still, he can't be a minute late because he needs the money.
• The Coasters had a run of jovial hit sin the late '50s that were written by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. In the early '60s, they could still earn some airplay, but they weren't nearly as popular. "Wake Me, Shake Me" was one of several minor hits for the group in this era. Leiber and Stoller are merely listed as "supervisors" on the album it came from.