and songs by the Chipmunks, “The Purple People Eater” was part of a craze in the 1950s for novelty rock songs. These were songs that used the sounds and tropes of rock and roll but were less ...

Sheb Wooley, a veteran actor in westerns like “High Noon” who also recorded the pop novelty song “The Purple People Eater,” died yesterday (Sept. 16) in Nashville. He was 82.

Sheb Wooley, who menaced Gary Cooper in “High Noon,” played the trail scout on TV’s “Rawhide” and scored one of the biggest novelty recording hits of the 1950s with “The Purple People ...