Yeah, I like some easy listening/lounge/exotica/space age music and what the OP said as far as encountering this type of music while looking for the music you really like in the LP bins, in my case almost totally unrelated to my current music interests at that time, I decided to buy some of these LPs for a few different reasons since they were cheap and in great shape most of the time. But they did have some things in common with the Moog music I was listening to at that time by Perrey & Kingsley as well as some other artists and Psych bands. Moog music albums had a lot of instrumental cover versions of these older songs from these albums from the 50s and 60s, I kind of wanted to hear the source of this material since the songs were so catchy and mostly instrumental which I find relaxing when trying to clear my mind. 1. When I discovered The Mystic Moods Orchestra, I was stunned to see the name Brad Miller who I only knew at that time as the founder of MFSL. Brad Miller passed away shortly after me discovering these LPs. So doing a little reading online about these Mystic Moods Orchestra LPs I decided to pick some up. They were cheap (only 25 to 50 cents each). The music was well recorded and sounded nice even on my humble system. The one LP by this outfit that really captivated me the most was "Awakening." I like the other ones I have as well to varying degrees but that "Awakening" LP is more tailored to my interests. Another thing I noticed about some of these Mystic Moods Orchestra LPs is that the same album was available on both Phillips and Warner Bros. So I have both pressings for one title. Some were on Bainbridge records which I had never heard of before. 2. I stumbled upon the LPs of Dick Hyman and Enoch Light as well as other Command artists. I was familiar with Dick Hyman from my Moog CD of his but did not know about his other music. I like the stuff he played with the Lowrey organ "Electrodynamics." The thing that really fascinated me about these albums was due to the fact that some of them were recorded on 35mm magnetic film which I was unaware of as a recording medium for music. So I bought a few of these LPs and got them cheap like the others mentioned. While I don't have it on LP, I have a budget CD of the Enoch Light - Spaced Out album which has some Moog and other odd instrumentation as well as cool stereo effects. 3. I bought a CD by 101 Strings - Astro-Sounds From Beyond The Year 2000 a couple years after looking at those Re/Search: Incredibly Strange Music books while browsing at my local Media Play back in the mid 90s. It was after this that some really good psych albums came out on CD in 1994 (Silver Apples, Fifty Foot Hose, Beaver & Krause and Lothar & the Hand People) by artists that I read about and only knew about them from various books like Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia among other odd books including my Storm Thorgerson - Classic Album Covers of the 60s book which pictured many key rock and jazz albums from the 60s. Plus other books and record guides from the 70s and 80s concentrating on music from the 60s and early 70s came in handy. 4. I like this music as well since I heard a lot of it when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s while in shopping malls and other places. So it brings me back good memories of that time. 5. Plus my late Grandma and still living Grandpa liked this kind of easy listening music. Even my baby boomer Mom was familiar with it as well and likes some herself. I think often about my Grandma and those days of my youth while listening to this music. 6. Another reason I widened my palate of music was due to the fact that I would get called under by my music managers and co-workers from the records stores I worked in that I only listened to my focused areas of music, Garage, Psych, Prog, Electronics and Experimental music and mostly ignored the music coming out at the time and focusing on my musical interests only. I heard it from some family members as well. 7. The percussive instruments used in this type of music like vibes, xylophone, marimba along with the odd sounding keyboards/organs makes me like this music a lot. It's not something I listen to everyday but I have used it for falling asleep at night. 8. Plus lurking at this forum from the index page for years prior to finally joining up and getting involved in the discussion, I have learned a lot more about this kind music as well as other related artists. Some of my favorite artists from this period are: The Mystic Moods Orchestra, Enoch Light, Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Esquivel, 101 Strings, Percy Faith, Dick Hyman, Arthur Lyman, Hugo Montenegro, Henry Mancini, Paul Mauriat, Frank Mills, Andre Kostelanetz plus some piano music by Ferrante & Teicher, Roger Williams, Richard Clayderman, André Previn and related artists. I like organ and calliope music as well as percussion focused music.
I like some of the songs, although I don't generally go looking for them. Theme From a Summer Place is a pretty good tune so I play it once in a while. I like Love is Blue by Paul Mauriat and (especially) Soul Coaxin' by Raymond Lefevre (if that's considered "easy listening"). I don't really categorize my tastes that much; if I like it, I'll listen to it.
There's a thread on lounge music that covers a lot of this style. I was introduced to a lot of this 20 years ago when i started listening to a radio show called The Retro Cocktail Hour (still going! The Retro Cocktail Hour ). I have a few hundred albums in this style now, mostly Henry Mancini, but some Ferranti and Teicher, Percy Faith and others. I like it a lot, but my wife gets tired of it quickly.
Growing up in the 70’s I always found easy listening music way too cheesy: elevator music, Grandparents music. But now I find myself liking some of it (funny what age’ll do to ya). Is it a nostalgia thing? Maybe a bit, but so what It also helps that Dutton Vocalion is releasing some of these artists on SACD and they seem to be nicely recorded
In fact, this was the stuff that was bought by many who had stereo hi-fi consoles and the rare separate component stereo systems back in the day and this market wanted mostly well recorded stuff.
I'm a huge fan of Bert Kaempfert. And there must be other fans as well. The YouTube video of "Wonderland by Night" linked below has more than 1,700,000 views and over 700 comments!
Ultra Lounge series. And some of it is not really easy listening... But truly exceptional and memorable
Well, you have great taste in your instrumental music choices as those are probably my three top favorite instrumental classics not counting songs from the holiday genre. Percy Faith's Theme From A Summer Place actually won the Grammy for Single Of The Year in 1960, so people should not discount the merits of this great "Easy Listening" music that helped sell a lot of stereo consoles back in the late fifties and early sixties. Paul Mauriat's Love Is Blue is a song I have loved since I was a young boy and I have never gotten tired of listening to that very well produced piece of ear candy. It has a nice drum lick that kicks in when you least expect it. Percy and Paul had sometimes amazingly great rhythm arrangements to go with their orchestral sound. Soul Coaxing is a kick as well and features some amazing swirling and cascading strings with some awesome piano.
The mono Percy Faith's Greatest Hits album is a priceless artifact that I always have ready to go on my iTunes. If more people would listen to Percy Faith, then we'd have less car accidents, murders, and bar fights.
So very well said, Brad. Percy Faith and his contemporaries really helped to break wide open the new stereo technology and their albums were extremely well engineered and recorded. Percy not only had three number one songs on the Billboard Charts, but also sold a ton of Christmas albums with his beautiful arrangements on his three great Christmas albums. His most iconic of the holiday albums was undoubtedly Music Of Christmas, most recently remastered in an Expanded Edition last year by Real Gone Music with absolutely stupendous remastering by Elvis Presley restoration engineer Vic Anesini. The original CD of Music Of Christmas from the early 1980's was horrendous to say the least, but this new remaster by Vic breathes new life into that beauty.
To me, a good song is a good song regardless of its style. "Theme From a Summer Place"is one of them. I refuse to be pidgeon holed musically. If you were around in the 60's this release from Ace kills. 1. More - Kai Winding 2. Love Is Blue - Paul Mauriat 3. Washington Square - Village Stompers 4. Mexico Bob Moore 5. Our Winter Love - Bill Pursell 6. Fly Me To The Moon - Joe Harnell 7. Flying Circle - Fray Slay 8. Image - Hank Levine 9. Alley Cat - Bent Fabric 10. Beautiful Obsession - Sir Chauncey 11. Java - Al Hirt 12. The Enchanted Sea - The Islanders 13. A Walk In The Black Forest - Horst Jankowski 14. Calcutta - Lawrence Welk ! ( Rock on soul man ! ) 15. Moon River - Henry Mancini 16. Cast Your Fate To The Wind - Sounds Orchestral 17. A Swingin Safari - Billy Vaughn 18. Stranger On The Shore - Mr. Acker Bilk 19. Summer Set - Monty Kelly 20. Baby Elephant Walk - The Miniature Men 21. Lost Love - H.B. Barnum 22. Soul Coaxing (Amy Caline) - Raymond Lefevre 23. The Dis-Advantages Of You - The Brass Ring 24. Summer Samba (So Nice) - Walter Wandereley 25. Canadian Sunset - Hugo Winterhalter (With Eddie Heywood) 26. Theme From A Summer Place - Percy Faith 27. Music To Watch Girls By - The Bob Crewe Generation 28. Bonanza - Al Caiola
Very well said my friend. I am a huge Elvis fan, and admire everyone from Adele to Sinatra and Patsy Cline to Roy Orbison. I like The Eagles and The Beatles and lots in between, and yes indeed, I really dig Percy Faith and Mantovani as well. Great music is great music no matter the genre or how "hip" somebody thinks it may be to the rest of the pop culture. Great music should never go out of style! Oh my, that Hits with Strings and things is one of my very favorite CDs in my entire album collection. Great remastering of some of the greatest instrumental music ever. Cannot recommend this CD enough!
Some of the greatest artists ever can be, at least in part for some of their albums, classified as easy listening - Bing, Sinatra, Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and even Ella. I always thought of some of Ella’s song book material as easy listening, albeit of the highest order. Some great old country is pretty easy listening too.
One of my favourites is this tune by James Last - from 1969. He wrote it as the title track for the cheesy movie "Morgens um 7 ist die Welt noch in Ordnung". I love the sound of these late 60s Polydor productions. James Last admired Bert Kaempfert, and I think this is obvious here. The youtube picture is a little misleading:
Dutton Vocalion has a long series of 2fers of this kind of music. Superb quality. As to the genre itself, it contains many gems amid a lot of pedestrian covers. I have lots of time for my 3 - 4 shelves of cds that fall into the category.
I remember having "Beautiful Music" FM stations on in the doctor or dentist office in the early to late 70s. What got me was that darned piano playing EVERY melody under the middle C key! hated it then; love to hear it now! Does anyone have a link to an example?
When I saw this cd I expected the Little Richard song, but I like it anyways The Girl Can't Help It (Steve Allen, Vocal; Charlie Morillas, Trombone Solo)
