"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.
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.
[9] The song was later featured in the soundtracks of the movies American Graffiti (1973), Stand By Me (1986), Trading Places (1983), Get a Job (1985), Joey (1986), and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987).
[11] Dennis Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys, believed that his group's song "She's Goin' Bald" (1967) paid homage to "Get a Job".
[12] Several bars of "Get a Job" are quoted at the start of "The Obvious Child," the first track on Paul Simon's album The Rhythm of the Saints.
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.