The Hollywood Argyles were an American musical ensemble, assembled for studio recordings by the producer and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

Kim Fowley and his friend and fellow musician

Gary S. Paxton Gary Sanford Paxton (born Larry Wayne Stevens; May 18, 1939 – July 17, 2016) was an American record producer, recording artist, and Grammy and Dove Award winning songwriter. Paxton was a member of Skip & Flip and the Hollywood Argyles and wa ...

. They had a US number one

hit record A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

, "

Alley Oop ''Alley Oop'' is a syndicated comic strip created December 5, 1932, by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association. Hamlin introduced a cast of colorful characters an ...

" (Lute Records 5905), in 1960.

"Alley Oop"

According to Paxton—who, at the time, was half of

Skip & Flip Skip & Flip was a U.S. pop duo, consisting of Skip ( Clyde Battin) and Flip ( Gary S. Paxton). They met while attending the University of Arizona in the late 1950s. Career Once known as The Rockabillies, they recorded on Rev Records as The Pled ...

—"Alley Oop" was written by

Dallas Frazier Dallas Frazier (October 27, 1939 – January 14, 2022) was an American country musician and songwriter who had success in the 1950s and 1960s. Life and career Frazier was born in Spiro, Oklahoma, on October 27, 1939, but was raised in Bakersfi ...

as a country tune:

"As for the name, Kim Fowley and I were living in a $15-a-week room in Hollywood. ... Since I was still under contract (to Brent Records) as 'Flip,' I couldn't put my name on 'Alley Oop.' Seeing that the studio was on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Argyle Street, I decided on Hollywood Argyles. Other than myself, there were no actual Hollywood Argyles. Everyone else on the track was either a friend or a studio musician who I paid $25 apiece for the session. When 'Alley Oop' suddenly took off and people wanted to book us for concerts, there was no such group."

The "Alley Oop" session was produced by Fowley, who recalled that "all the participants were hopelessly drunk on cider by the time they recorded the song." According to some reports, the lead vocalist on the track "Alley Oop" is Norm Davis, although the voice on the record has been identified as a match with other recordings sung by Paxton from the same era, such as "Spookie Movies". According to Paxton, the group consisted of Ronnie Silico on drums, Gaynel Hodge on piano, Harper Cosby on bass, and

Sandy Nelson Sander Lloyd Nelson (December 1, 1938 – February 14, 2022) was an American drummer. Nelson, one of the best-known rock and modern jazz drummers of the late 1950s and early 1960s, had several solo instrumental Top 40 hits and released over 30 ...

(of "

Teen Beat ''Teen Beat'' is an American magazine geared towards teenaged readers, published from 1967–c. 2007. Over its history, the magazine had multiple teen idols on its cover, including John Travolta, David Cassidy, Leif Garrett, Menudo, Michael J. ...

" fame) playing percussion on tambourine and a garbage can. Nelson also provided background screams in the song. The background singers included Dallas Frazier, Buddy Mize, Scott Turner, and a woman named Diane. "Alley Oop" was the first song played on WLS-AM Radio in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on May 2, 1960, when it changed format from

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

programming to

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

. "Alley Oop" charted for 15 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number one for the week of July 11, 1960. The song sold over one million copies and was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

by the RIAA.

Other versions

According to Jerry Osborne, two other groups—

Dante and the Evergreens Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...

(

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

130) and the Dyna-Sores ( Rendezvous 120)—had versions of "Alley Oop" on the '' Billboard'' charts at the same time, peaking at No. 15 and No. 59, respectively.

Later activities

Frazier is perhaps best known for writing the song " There Goes My Everything", a hit song for

Jack Greene Jack Henry Greene (January 7, 1930 – March 14, 2013) was an American country musician. Nicknamed the "Jolly Greene Giant" due to his height and deep voice, Greene was a long time member of the Grand Ole Opry. A three-time Grammy Award nomin ...

in 1966 and Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967. Frazier also wrote and recorded "

Elvira Elvira is a female given name. First recorded in medieval Spain, it is likely of Germanic (Gothic) origin. Elvira may refer to: People Nobility * Elvira Menéndez (died 921), daughter of Hermenegildo Gutiérrez and wife of Ordoño II of Leó ...

", which became a 1981 country hit for the Oak Ridge Boys. Paxton later formed

Garpax Records Garpax Records was an American record label, established by Gary S. Paxton, which first issued the song "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett in 1962. It was distributed by London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Mu ...

and became a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

artist. Fowley soon produced

the Murmaids The Murmaids were an American one-hit wonder all-female vocal trio, composed of sisters Carol and Terry Fischer (1 April 1946 – 28 March 2017); and Sally Gordon from North Hollywood, California, United States, who, in January 1964 reached No. ...

' 1963 hit "

Popsicles and Icicles "Popsicles and Icicles" is a song written by David Gates and performed by The Murmaids. The single was arranged by Nestor La Bonte and produced by Kim Fowley. Chart performance It reached No. 2 on the Middle-Road Singles chart, No. 3 on the ' ...

" (US No. 3). He also helped bring together

the Runaways The Runaways were an all-female American rock band who recorded and performed from 1975 to 1979. The band released four studio albums and one live album during its run. Among their best-known songs are " Cherry Bomb", "Hollywood", "Queens of ...

in 1975, as well as the Orchids (not the Scottish band, but another American all-female band). Their 1980 album, ''The Orchids'', was released on

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 w ...

as MCA-3235.

Discography

* "

" / "Sho Know a Lot About Love" (1960, Lute 5905) * "Gun Totin' Critter Named Jack" / "The Bug Eyed Man" (1960, Lute 5908) * "

Hully Gully The Hully Gully is a type of unstructured line dance often considered to have originated in the 1960s, but is also mentioned some forty years earlier as a dance common in the black juke joints in the first part of the twentieth century. In its mo ...

" / " So Fine" (1960, Lute 6002) * "You've Been Torturing Me" / "The Grubble" (1961, Paxley 752; credited to Gary Paxton and the Hollywood Argyles) * "Long-Hair-Unsquare Dude Called Jack" / "Ole" (1965, Chatahoochee 691) * "Alley Oop '66" / "Do the Funky Foot" (1966, Kammy 105) "Gun Totin' Critter Named Jack" and "You've Been Torturing Me" are covers of the Four Young Men (e.g.

Crest Records Crest Records is a now defunct subsidiary record label of music publisher American Music owned by Sylvester Cross. History Crest Records started operating in 1954, released its first records in 1955. Its offices were located at 9109 Sunset Boule ...

1076).

References

Bibliography

* Joel Whitburn; ''Top 40 Hits'' * Steve Propes; ''Golden Goodies'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollywood Argyles, The American rhythm and blues musical groups