Funny 50's & Silly 60's
Except forWeird Al Yankovic, pop music today suffers from a severe lack of the novelty rock or pop song or spoof. Listening to the Re-Bops unearth the lost treasures of noveltyland from the 1950s and '60s, one can't help but wonder why the form has fallen on such hard times. Here there's not only a first-rate collection of oddball songs but some insights into the period as well: "The Martian Hop" and "Purple People Eater" were hits at the dawn of the space age, light years before there was any talk of alien abductions in the culture. On the flesh front, "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" serves up a tiny bit of body talk. Then there's just the rich throwaway lyrics of "Wooly Bully," "Surfin' Bird," and the truly ga-ga thrills of that real nonsong "Mah Na, Mah Na," whose nonsense lyrics are a cross between scat singing and baby gibberish. Add "Name Game," "Witch Doctor" (made popular again recently by the firstRugratsmoviesoundtrack), "Yakety Yak," and others, and suddenly old novelties seem brand new again. Loads of fractured fun.--Martin Keller