Song:Alley Oop
Album:Hollywood Maverick: The Gary S. Paxton Story
Alley Oop is one of the goofiest songs to ever top the pop charts in 1960. Alley Oop was a once popular comic strip caveman. Of course I'm sure it won't surprise you that there was never a group called The Hollywood Argyles. The two guys behind the record were Gary S. Paxton and Kim Fowley. Paxton got his start in the music business when he met Skip Battin while attending the University Of Arizona. They would become Skip & Flip and scored a top 20 hit with It Was I in 1959. He moved to Los Angeles and shared a room with Fowley. He wanted to keep busy Country music singer songwriter Dallas Frazier recorded Alley Oop in 1957. Paxton thought it could be turned into a hit. He couldn't use his own name because he was still under contract as Flip. The recording studio was at the corner of Hollywood & Argyle so they called themselves The Hollywood Argyles. According to Paxton, there was no band. One rumour is they paid poet Norm Davis $25 to sing the vocal. Paxton says he sang it himself. The rest were studio musicians including Sandy Nelson. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960 and is still memorable today. Paxton and Fowley both went on to long careers as producers. This CD focuses on Paxton and includes rare songs by artists who went on to be famous. He also produced the Bobby "Boris" Pickett hit The Monster Mash. He became a born again Christian in the 70s and has had his own label for many years. Here's a video for Alley Oop by The Hollywood Argyles.
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