Do The Pop-Eye＜限定盤＞

The Mar-Keys' second album was much like their first, Last Night! (issued earlier in 1962): functional, simple early-'60s soul-rock instrumentals, prominently featuring sax and organ and easy to dance to. And like Last Night!, it was unimaginative and dull to listen to altogether, with the disadvantage of lacking a single as good as the classic "Last Night," though it was a little funkier in its song selection and execution. The bouncy "Pop-Eye Stroll" had been a very small hit (making number 94), and probably for that reason there were a couple of knockoffs elsewhere on the LP, "Pop-Eye Rider" and "Too Pooped to Pop-Eye." Historically this is an important record, only because three of the musicians to play in Booker T. & the MG's -- Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, and Duck Dunn -- play on it (Cropper and Jones also wrote a bit of the material). You can hear antecedents to the Booker T. & the MG's' sound on some of the better cuts, like "Straight From the Can" and "Sit Still," which has some stinging Cropper licks; Rufus Thomas wrote one of the other tracks, "'Cause I Love You." In 2002 the album was paired on CD with the Last Night! album. ~ Richie Unterberger