The “Golden Hits Of The 60s”
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HOLLYWOOD ARGYLES
“ALLEY-OOP“
(Dallas Frazier)
Lute 5905
No. 1 July 11, 1960
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Skip & Flip’s cha-cha, “It Was I” had hit number 11 in 1959, and “Cherry Pie” had matched that
position in 1960. But with their chart days apparently behind them, the “Flip” half of the team–
Gary Paxton (b. Mesa, Arizona)–moved out of his place in Arizona headed for Hollywood. When he
arrived there it was 2 AM, and legend has it that the first gas station he stopped at was manned by
Dallas Frazier. Dal’s musical day had not come just yet–his songs “Mohair Sam” and “Elvira” were
still to be conceived. He did tell Gary, though, that he was going to make it as a songwriter, and
Paxton promised to look him up the next time he needed a tune.
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Once settled in Hollywood, Paxton formed a music publishing “company”–Maverick Music, it’s
telephone number was the pay-phone at Happy’s Chevron station, cornor Sunset and Vine–with
songwriter /producerI manager /full-time self-acknowledged eccentric Kim Fawley (creator of such as
hits for B. Bumble & the Stingers, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Rivingtons, THE SEEDS and THE
MURMAIDS), and called on Frazier for a hit tune. Dallas came up with the tale of a cartoon caveman
from way back named “Alley-Oop.” As drummer and “Let There BeDrums” creator Sandy Nelson told
Charlie Gillett in The Sound of the City, every-one present was sloshed on the day of the recording.
The band was divinely sloppy, and “Flip” was so zonked that some soul had to hold him upright and
aim him at the mike.
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Apparently, this state of mind was non-conducive to memory formation since a dispute continues (or
had) as to just who was present. Most reports credit Ted Marsh, Bobby Rey (sax), Deary Weaver
(guitar), Gary “Spider” Webb (drums), Ted Winters and, some claim, THE TEDDY BEAR’s Marshall
Lieb (keyboards), though Paxton claims that this line-up (minus both Teds) was merely the touring
group. Fowley adamently maintains that those in presence were himself, Frazier, Nelson on garbage
can and screams, Paxton’s then-girlfriend (“Diane from Long Beach”), sometime dishwasher and
“Skip” replacement Dave Martinez and JOHNNY OTIS bassist Harper Crosby, THE PENGUINS’ Gayle
Hodges on keyboards, and Olympics’ session man Ronnie Silica on drums.
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“We did the whole thing for $92, maybe $96,” said Fowley to Goldmine’s Stever Roeser. “We made the
record, fed everybody, and still had money left over.” Fowley took the disk around. No respectable
labels were interested. “Everybody told us we were assholes,” said Fawley, who decided to approach a
Jehovah Witness preacher named Al Cavaland; who had produced Fess Parker and was a brief owner
Cascade Records. The three together formed Lute.
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Paxton’s first 45 on Lute was “You’re Ruining My Gladness”; the label credits read “Gary Paxton.”
“Alley-Oop” was likewise to be a solo single, until someone advised Paxton that he and “Skip” (Clyde
Battin, an old University of Arizona buddy/one-time Tucson, Az. KMOP DJ) were still under contract
to Brent Records. To avoid any legal hassles, Gary created the “Argyle” moniker. Why Hollywood
Argyles? The recording studio was located at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Street.
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An album, now nearly extinct, was released. It sold poorly, as did the group’s remaining follow-ups (if
you can locate it in a used lot, test-drive the Argyles’ astonishingly primitive “Grumble”). Paxton
formed a few record labels like Paxley and Garpax. The latter issued Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s
perennial, “Monster Mash.” Skip Battin went on to hippie haven playing bass for the Byrds, the Flying
Burrito Brothers, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.
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“I just wanted to be in the music business,” Paxton told Discoveries’ Peter Pittman. I wanted to have
hits and I had hits, but I never got paid. Cavaland never paid us. We sued him, but I think he paid off
our lawyers…”
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In more recent years, Paxton became a born-again Christian, issued some atypical theological tunes,
surfaced with a daily Nashville-based radio talk show and wound up romantically linked to one Tammy
Faye Bakker.
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“Alley Oop” made a One-Hit Wonder also out of a Herb Alpert-Lou Adler group, DANTE & THE
EVERGREENS (#15); though the Jimmy Norman-H.B. BARNUM studio-group, the Dyna Sores (#59),
failed to break into the top 40.