Alley Cat: Strut Oscar Holden !exclusive!

If the Alley Cat Song is a cartoon cat drinking milk, Oscar Holden’s Alley Cat Strut is the real stray—scarred, smart, and swinging hard. It’s a reminder that sometimes the original is grittier, and much more interesting, than the copy.

When critics first heard it in the late 1920s, they described it as "the sound Seattle made when the lumberjacks came to town." alley cat strut oscar holden

A rockabilly hit by the Stray Cats .

Because the song was so popular with readers, it has since been brought into the real world through various musical projects: If the Alley Cat Song is a cartoon

His magnum opus?

But Oscar never let the city’s applause move him out of the alleys. When the record hit a modest success, he used his earnings to fix the roof over Mags’ kitchen and to buy new shoes for kids in his old neighborhood so they wouldn’t have to walk home barefoot in winter. He taught free after-school music classes in the recreation center—rudimentary theory, breathing, patience. “Music is a skill for the ears,” he’d tell the kids. “And a pair of ears is better than a million dollars and no one to hear you.” Because the song was so popular with readers,