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Morning Open Thread, Thursday September 4, theme: 'alley' songs [1]
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Date: 2025-09-04
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>>>This diary features songs with the word ‘alley’ in the title.
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Wikis: Alley Cat Creeque Alley Alley-Oop
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September song themes for Thursdays: 4th: Alley, 11th: Lane, 18th: Street, 25th: Road
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"Alley Cat", also known as "Alleycat" and "The Alley Cat," is a popular instrumental song made most famous by the Danish pianist and composer Bent Fabric, released in 1962. Fabric (born Bent Fabricius-Bjerre) wrote the tune under the pseudonym Frank Björn.
The song was originally released in November, 1961, under the Danish title "Omkring et flygel," which means "Around a Piano." In 1962, the Bent Fabric composition reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart
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Creeque Alley" is an autobiographical hit single written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas And The Papas in late 1966, narrating the story of how the group was formed, and its early years.
The title of the song, which does not occur in the lyrics, is derived from Creque or Crequi (pronounced "creaky") Alley, home to a club in the Virgin Islands where the New Journeymen, John and Michelle Phillips' original group, spent time on vacation.The lyric "Greasin' on American Express cards" refers to that time, during which they could only make ends meet by using their credit cards,
Michelle Phillips is referred to in the lyrics by her nickname Michi ("John and Michi were getting kind of itchy, just to leave the folk music behind").
The line that ends the first three verses is "And no one's getting fat, except Mama Cass". In the fourth verse, with the story of the genesis of the Mamas and the Papas nearing its denouement, Phillips changes the concluding line to "And everybody's getting fat except Mama Cass", with the word "fat" assuming the meaning of prosperous, alluding to the notion that the successes recently achieved by Cass' professional associates and friends had still eluded her.
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"Alley Oop" is a song written in 1957. The song was inspired by the comic strip of the same name.
The Hollywood Argyles recorded the song in 1960, and it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was produced by Gary Paxton, who also sang lead vocals.
According to Paxton:
There were NO Hollywood Argyles at the very beginning. I was the only lead singer. The drummer was Ronnie Silico. The piano player was Gaynel Hodge. The bass player was Harper Cosby, a jazz bassist in L.A. Sandy Nelson played the garbage can and screamed on the record. A little bitty street (Argyle Street) was next door to the studio, so I said, "Let's call ourselves The Hollywood Argyles!"
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Alley Cat by Bent Fabric
Creeque Alley by The Mamas And The Papas
Alley-Oop by The Hollywood Argyles
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