When I was a kid I loved those K-Tel compilations like Dumb Ditties and Goofy Greats, and while I've never been a raving fanatic about novelty records as an adult, I do still sometimes get that strange midnight craving for whatever that is in the garbage cans out behind the building where they make the Petula Clark and Platters and Three Dog Night records. I was already familiar with the more famous works of Nervous Norvus (aka Jimmy Drake) like "Transfusion" and "Ape Call," but I'd never heard this, his final Dot single until it was covered by Notorious Sophisticated International Playboy Deke Dickerson. Kory Willis (my boss and musical comrade) and I were so intrigued that we had to track down the original, and to our delight it was truly demented; much, much stranger than Mr. Dickerson's cover would have suggested. While we were spinning it at the house one night, a friend who disdains most music recorded after about 1966 commented "See, this is everything I like about American Music of the 50s. It's a guy playing a ukelele and stomping on the floor, and it came out on a major label."

Speaking of which, Dot records must have been a pretty interesting place to work. On one hand, Pat Boone and the Hilltoppers. On the other, "Love Me" by the Phantom, Sanford Clark, and Nervous Norvous. Wow.

The mellaroonie folks at Norton Records have assembled an exhaustive compilation of the Nervous one's compositions entitled Stone Age Woo: The Zorch Sounds of Nervous Norvus. It includes much biographical hoo-haw and is highly recommended.

"The Fang" is dedicated to the beloved Casey, whose overbite has amused many visitors to our house.

This one is something of a shout-out to my junior high friend Doug Pumphrey, who was absolutely mad for the Swingers, particularly this terrific bit of new wave fluff. The Swingers were a trio led by ex-Split Enz singer Phil Judd, who seems to be following the pure-pop direction that his former band went into after he left: this song is every bit as catchy as "I Got You" or "One Step Ahead," just a little more manic. Great goofy video, too, which was a staple of Boulder public-access channel KBDI's late night video show FM-TV. The Swingers -- who also featured bassist Dwayne Hillman, who later joined Midnight Oil -- didn't last long, releasing only this one album before Judd went solo with a 1983 EP confusingly called The Swinger. Oh, and if you ever get a chance to Netflix the 1982 Australian new wave film Starstruck, directed by Gillian Armstrong, do so: there's a great club scene featuring the Swingers performing their song "One Good Reason." This is an album and a band that just disappeared into the ether, which is particularly unfair because they're really quite terrific.

-Stewart Mason