Space age bachelor pad full#

More serious musicians such as Andre Kostelanetz and Mantovani recast their stuff as 'mood music' to ride on Gleason's coat-tails. Film and television comedian Jackie Gleason to take the starch out of what had been known as light music and aim for a less discriminating audience who saw music as a means to an end: 'Music to Change Her Mind,' as the title of one of his albums puts it. Or rather, that music shouldn't get in the way of things. Music, Martinis, and Memories, Jackie Gleason At the far end of the spectrum from the hi-fi nuts who loved Stereo Action and Command records were those folks who bought their stereos at the furniture store, and felt that like other pieces of furniture, it should be seen and not heard.

Space age bachelor pad full#

Read the liner notes from any album on Command, the label Light founded to showcase his stereo recordings, and you might think you were holding a hi-fi test record-what another company referred to as 'an obstacle course for your phonograph needle.' Persuasive Percussion ranked until recently among the top 25 best-selling albums of all time, and it spawned a whole slew of recordings that met (or claimed to) its five criteria: (1) prominent, persistent, and at times pernicious use of percussion (2) blatant use of channel separation and the full range of audio frequencies (with real instruments, though, not electronic circuitry) (3) simple, striking abstract cover graphics (4) gatefold cover (5) detailed liner notes emphasizing what the music will do to your stereo system. Light was an engineer at heart, and he put as much or more work into the technology of the recording as the music itself. Persuasive Percussion, Enoch Light Esquivel may have been the finest artist of the stereo canvas, but Enoch Light was the most influential. Although not the first crime jazz recording, it's certainly the most famous, and for decades since, no private eye's outfit has been complete without a smoky saxophone and slinking guitar riff. Music from 'Peter Gunn,' Henry Mancini One of the first albums of the music from a television series, 'Peter Gunn' remains among the top 100 best-selling albums. *Most cuts available on Bar-None compilation, Music for a Space-Age Bachelor Pad As Byron Werner has put it, this is the music George Jetson would listen to if he were a bachelor. He took channel separation to the limit, placing orchestras in sound stages blocks apart. Latin-esque is the most action-filled of RCA's great Stereo Action series, and the one album where Esquivel enjoyed the freedom to go to the extremes of his concepts. Latin-esque, Juan Garcia Esquivel Stereo was the Space Age's outstanding contribution to the musical scene, and no arranger embraced stereo with the imagination and skill of Esquivel. Denny improved upon Baxter's example: instead of a studio string orchestra, his was a nightclub combo somewhere between cocktail piano and cool jazz instead of Burbank, he came from America's newest state and safe tropical resort, Hawaii and he added a whole range of environment sounds-mostly screeches and caws of imaginary exotic birds, suggesting that the deep, dark jungle really was lurking just outside the door. *Several cuts available on The Exotic Moods of Les Baxter compilationĮxotica, Martin Denny The source of the best-selling cover of 'Quiet Village' and the album that gave a name to a whole nameless genre. The source of the original 'Quiet Village.'

Yet not too dangerous: after all, the white couple on the front cover were clearly not too, too far away from the safety of the country club dance. First recorded in 1951, Ritual of the Savage contained all the essential ingredients we would come to look for: primitive rhythms, melodies from far away places, song titles evoking a mythical land of mystery, savagery, and romance, and a call to long-repressed passions. Ritual of the Savage, Les Baxter The textbook for countless exotica recordings.