Doubleback Alley:The Rutles

Artist: The Rutles

Album: The Rutles

Appears On (Mixes): Wally's Novelty Mix: She Yo-Yos Me and I Yo-Yo Her Back

Song Notes: The Rutles was a Beatles parody group put together intially for a TV show Eric Idle was working on, and later for a made-for-NBC movie. Musically, the driving force was Neil Innes, though the band also features Ollie Halsall, John Halsey and Rikki Fataar, three well-known session musicians. On the first Rutles record, all of the songs were pastiches of one or more Beatles songs -- this one is "Penny Lane", if it wasn't obvious from the song's title. Although, where "Penny Lane" looked back with nostalgia on a great place to grow up, "Doubleback Alley" wasn't such a great place -- "Happy smiling faces/if I clog my memory". It's a great soundalike, and a great pop song in its own right; Neil Innes really is a great songwriter. The second Rutles record, however, was much looser in its sound-alike-ness. There were only a few direct parodies of Beatles songs; for the most parts, they were original Neil Innes songs (including two that Neil Innes had released prior under his own name) merely arranged like Beatles songs. As such, that album wasn't nearly as popular, but I liked it a bit more, as I thought it actually stood up better as a real album than the first (the soundtrack to the film, plus some bonus tracks) did. - Rev. Syung Myung Me