Longines Symphonette - Gift of Love

If you like the classic easy listening sound, you could do far worse than search out LPs and box sets from Reader's Digest and Longines Symphonette. Fortunately, these albums turn up frequently in thrift and second-hand stores and also are in plentiful supply from online sellers. You shouldn't be paying more than a few dollars for them.

Unlike Reader's Digest, Longines Symphonette rarely credited the musicians on their orchestral recordings, so there's no indication of who plays on this album, Gift of Love, which came out in 1974.

As was usual with Longines, Gift of Love is a meticulously recorded instrumental set of standards, including The Very Thought of You, I'll Walk Alone and You'll Never Know, the last of which you can listen to and download from the link below.

You'll Never Know

As far as I know, none of the Longines Symphonette recordings have turned up on CD but some of them are available on legal download sites under the name Longines Symphonette Society or in some cases just The Symphonette Society.

Duane Eddy - Guitar Man

In 1975, Arista Records released the LP Guitar Man after Duane Eddy's surprise hit on the U.K. charts, Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar. Of course the album included the hit single, but there was also a cover of the Fifth Dimension's 1972 hit (Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All. Not much surprise there either as the same gentleman, Tony Macaulay, wrote both songs and was the producer of both Guitar Man and the Fifth Dimension hit.

Guitar Man featured both straight instrumentals and songs with a vocal group, much in the vein of Eddy's 1963 hit for RCA Victor, (Dance with the) Guitar Man. Below is the MP3 of Eddy's cover of (Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All, taken from the original vinyl.

(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All

And for those of you who like to watch, here's Duane doing Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar on the BBC's Top of the Pops program.

Guitar Man was released on CD in 2009 by the British company Beat Goes On. It contained two bonus tracks, vocals that Duane Eddy had recorded and that were released as a single by CBS in the U.K. The CD is now out of print, but apparently is still available from the record company.

Eddy is enjoying a resurgence of late. In 2011, he released a new album, Road Trip, on both CD and vinyl in the U.K. It is available in the U.S. as an import. Or you can opt for the much cheaper digital download. Click here for details.

Les Adams & His Fabulous Hawaiians - Adventures in Paradise

How about some Hawaiian music recorded in Australia? A bit strange perhaps, but Les Adams and His Fabulous Hawaiians recorded a couple of albums in the 1960s, including the simply-titled Hawaii, which came out in 1965. Adams was the lead steel guitar player of the nine-member group, whose take on Hawaiian music is pretty authentic, as you'll hear on Adventures in Paradise.

Adventures in Paradise

None of the recordings of Les Adams and His Fabulous Hawaiians appear to have made the transition to digital formats, although you can often find copies of the Hawaii LP for sale online.

Teresa Brewer & Mercer Ellington - The Cotton Connection

Those of you who remember Teresa Brewer for her high-pitched pop hits (like Music! Music! Music!) in the 1950s may be surprised (pleasantly, I hope) by her later jazz recordings.

Some may be put off by her slightly nasal tone, but she does a more than creditable job on The Cotton Connection, a 1985 album for the Doctor Jazz label where the band is led by Mercer Ellington.

Her re-emergence as a jazz singer came after her 1972 marriage to record producer Bob Thiele and she had a string of albums for Doctor Jazz, as well as Thiele's other labels, Red Baron and Signature.

From The Cotton Connection comes All of Me. The MP3 is taken from a cassette copy of the album.

All of Me

Here's the YouTube take on All of Me.

The Cotton Connection is readily available, paired with The Songs of Bessie Smith (backing by Count Basie), on a 2-for-1 CD from the Collectables label at a bargain price.

Paul & Rick - After Hours

Here's a really obscure R&B instrumental from 1969 by a duo billed as Paul & Rick. Don't know a thing about these guys and I can't find any reference to them on the web or in books.

This appears to have had mainly a European release, although I know it did come out in the U.S. as I used to have a promo copy. Unfortunately, it has long since disappeared.

Paul & Rick sound like they could be from Detroit, but who knows. Anyone with any information is welcome to leave a comment.

The "A" side, Hen House, is a good funk instrumental ruined by hollering and vocal interjections that reach a truly annoying level. If this sounds like your sort of thing, you can listen to it on this blog.

The flip side, After Hours, is more to my liking. There are still a few vocal grunts and so forth, but generally it's a pretty enjoyable slow blues. It's here for your listening and downloading pleasure, dubbed from the 45.

After Hours

If you're anxious to add this to your collection be prepared to pay -- a lot. Copies are currently listed anywhere from €20 to €85 on French websites. That's from $26 to $112. You'd have to be a fanatic, very rich or both.

Kelso Herston & the Guitar Kings - Country & Western: The Great Hits of the 50s

What did all those great session players in Nashville in the 1950s and '60s do when they weren't playing on hit records? Some of them, like Florence, Ala., native Kelso Herston made records of their own.

Herston's reputation as a guitar player got him work backing over 200 different artists. He later became head of Capitol Records' Nashville operation and was music director for the TV show Hee Haw. You can read more about him here. He also has a Facebook page.

Herston recorded a number of albums for Time Records in the 1960s, including Country & Western: The Great Hits of the 50s, which was released in 1965. Listen to and/or download his version of Hank Williams's Your Cheating Heart from the link below.

Your Cheating Heart

Among the members of Herston's Guitar Kings was future country hitmaker Jerry Reed.

Herston was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

Some of Herston's Time recordings (not including the album pictured here) are available at downloard sites like eMusic.

Martin Denny - A Taste of Honey

Once Martin Denny had established his credentials as the "father of exotica" with the 1957 album Exotica and its hit Quiet Village, along with several other similar-themed albums like Exotica, Vol. 2 & 3, Forbidden Island and Primitiva, he began veering into easy listening territory.

A Taste of Honey, released in 1962, was once such example. The title track, which was a hit for Denny, is below for your listening and downloading pleasure. Denny is on piano, with the future leader of the Baja Marimba Band, Julius Wechter, on vibes.

A Taste of Honey

The A Taste of Honey LP turns up quite frequently at relatively cheap prices and the title track has turned up on several CD compilations including a 1996 release on the Pair label entitled Bachelor in Paradise.

Here's a YouTube version of Denny's A Taste of Honey.

Martin Denny died on March 2, 2005 in Honolulu at the age of 93.