VA - Easy Rhythms for Your Cocktail Hour (1996)

Review by Richie Unterberger
As spage age bachelor pad music goes, this is among the goofiest and edgiest. This 14-song survey is heavy on two aspects of the cocktail kitsch genre: then-futuristic, now-primitive synthesizer squawks (Richard Hayman, Dick Hyman, Perrey-Kingsley) and double entendre sexual innuedos. Sometimes that double entendre was vocal, as in Julie London's "Hot Toddy," or Mel Henke's ridiculous "The Lively Ones" (some of whose dialogue is delivered by Herschel Bernardi). Sometimes the titles of the instrumentals sufficed by themselves (Les Baxter's "Lust," Jerry Murad's "Music to Watch Girls By," Hyman's "The Topless Dancers of Corfu"). And there are old space age pop standbys like Latin rhythms, stereophonic experimentation, exotica, and mutation of time-honored pop standards worked in. This compilation may not be long on consistency, but on the other hand the track selection is very good, assembling some of the most amusing, fun, and adventurous cocktail music available.

Tracks:

1. The Lively Ones - Mel Henke
2. 77 Sunset Strip - Warren Barker
3. I Get A Kick Out Of You - Felix Slatkin
4. Jazz Pizzicato - Percussion & Guitars
5. Swamp-Fire - Enoch Light & The Light Brigade
6. Caravan - Ray Conniff & His Orchestra & Chorus
7. The Topless Dancer Of Corfu - Dick Hyman
8. Swan's Splashdown - Perrey & Kingsley
9. The Girl From Ipanema - Richard Hayman
10. Carol's Theme - Los Brasilios
11. Music To Watch Girls By - Jerry Murad's Harmonicats
12. Lust - Les Baxter
13. The Twisters - Mel Henke
14. Hot Toddy - Julie London

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