"Alley Oop" became a fluke smash in 1960, prompting mastermind
Gary Paxton to assemble a group for a quickie album of silliness and filler. The highly collectable album that resulted is a good-time collection of appropriate covers like "Yakety Yak" and "Hully Gully," with a few instrumentals and ridiculous novelties. There is a knowing and postmodern quality to
Paxton's absurdist humor that is not in evidence here as much as on his solo recordings, but it crops up in places, particularly on "Yakety Yak" and "Gun-Totin' Critter Called Jack."
Alley Oop is -- and sounds like -- an album that was put together very quickly with make-do ingredients, but has its endearing moments of insanity for
Paxton devotees.