I’m not certain what triggered my turn towards easy listening and lounge music. Is it a by product of aging? I had been a fan of guys like Dean Martin and Andy Williams for most of my life even if they were absent for most of it. It seems unlikely that a guy that was so into Iron Maiden just a decade ago could be so into the soothing tones of Yellow Bird. They seem contradictory.
My wife and I are opposites when it comes to lyrics. For the most part, I don’t acknowledge the words. If the beat is good and the melody is moving that is good enough for me. My wife is a lyrics first person. She wants to know what they’re saying. What is the message? What is this song about? I’ll occasionally become intimate with lyrics particularly when I think that are clever or poignant. However, in case you haven’t noticed, I really like instrumental music more than any other. That is not to say that no songs with words rise to the top of the favorites list. Just that on a whole, I can listen to instrumental music all day long everyday and I do in most cases.
I bought Instrumental Gold from one of those TV infomercial offers like you did back in the pre internet days. I’m sure that I was watching the commercial and thought “that’s a cool song” about several of the samples. Perhaps there was one that stuck out. The two disc set is full of good stuff. There are a couple of songs that aren’t actually instrumental as that have vocal tracks but even they are reminiscent of that bygone era of songs and it does the job.
I think the only track here that I don’t care for is The Stripper. I don’t know why but that song just grates on me somehow. Maybe because it is so stereo typically burlesque. Maybe because the raucous brass clashes with the soothing tone of the rest of the collection. It is kind of like the clock chimes section of Dark Side Of The Moon. A smooth and cool vibe shattered by tolling bells and alarm clocks.
Percy Faith – Theme From A Summer Place
Morris Stoloff – Moonglow
Leroy Anderson – Blue Tango
Les Baxter – The Poor People Of Paris
Paul Muriat – Love Is Blue
Perez Prado – Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White
Frank Mills – Music Box Dancer
Billy Vaughn – Sail Along Silv’ry Moon
Apollo 100 – Joy
Robert Maxwell – Shangri-La
Arthur Lyman – Yellow Bird
Martin Denny – Quiet Village
David Rose – Holiday For Strings
Hugo Winterhalter – Canadian Sunset
Roger Williams – Autumn Leaves
Patricia – Wait a second, this kind of sounds like that Guinness screen saver song
Horst Jankowski – A Walk In The Black Forest