Fool’s Gold is the next in Righteous 'Lux and Ivy' series of compilations, which sees respected music journalist Dave Henderson compiling together rare, campy and wacky 45’s from the 1950s and 1960s. The focus of this comp is novelty tunes- with a subtitle of ’25 tunes to scare the kids- Saturday mornings will never be the same again’.

The single CD comes presented in a clear jewel case- on the front cover we have a picture of a woman sitting on a stool, in red tights/ leggings- with a yellow jumper & hair- I’m guessing it’s from the late ’50s. Inside we get an eight-page inlay booklet- this features a three-page write-up about the themes of the compilation from Henderson, 45 labels, and track listings.

The compilation takes in twenty-five tracks in all, and once again it’s a largely good and enjoyable sonic ride. We open the sassy bish-bash percussion & horn swinging of Spike Jones's “Pimples and branches” which has an expressive American man saying a selection of quirky word parings over the top. Moving we have the creepingly deranged “Mommy, Gimme A Drink Of Water” which finds Danny Kaye berating his mother in the most unhinged man trying to be a kid voice, over playful orchestration. We have the weird gurgling alien voices meets honking flow  & quirky sound effects of Tony Burrello's “There’s A New Sound( The Sound Of Worms). There’s the slow ‘n’ smooth piano wonderings of Jim Backus's “Delicious” which features dialogue of a couple eating a meal, and laughing about it. There’s twisting ‘n’ plucking 50 pop jive of Cindy Malone’s “Weird Beard”, which details her mans porcupine-like facial hair.  We have the stomping bass and horn honk of Googie Rene’s “Bigfoot” which features animal-like grunts & stories of cutting down the cryptid's favourite tree.

One slight slip-up here with the track pick is Eugene Fox’s “The Sinners Dream”, as this appeared on the last release in this series of comps Lux And Ivy Say Flip Your Top- Sinners And Penguin- which came out early on this year….it’s a great track, but clearly for those who have been following collecting this series is somewhat of faux pas.

In finishing Fool’s Gold is another worthy chapter in this series- and it would be great to see it return to novelty tracks again, as I’m sure there are tons and tons of wacky and wonderful ones from the 50s and 60s.