Pierre Dorsey Et Son Grand Orchestre The Pleasures of Paris [1960]

Gene Norman Presents GNP 43 

From Billboard February 1, 1960:
"Collection of French tunes for dancing recorded in Paris and given the full lush treatment of Pierre Dorsey and orchestra. There's music in various moods; fox trots, waltzes and Latin tempos for a half hour of dancing and listening pleasure. Set should have good appeal. Attractive cover."

The Living Strings Play Music From Faraway Places [1967]

RCA Camden CCS 0001 

An armchair vacation!  No packing, no cranky TSA agents!

101 Strings Orchestra Play Big Hits of Today [1976]

Alshire International S-5336 

One of the most prolific and reliable names in instrumental easy listening music, the 101 Strings Orchestra has literally recorded hundreds of albums since its inception in 1957. Their trademark sound is built on a reverence for melody, pristine production, and a pleasant, relaxing ambience; while occasional albums have concentrated on brass, piano, guitars, and even mild rock and roll rhythms, the string section -- true to the group's name -- nearly always remains front and center, because of its lush, soothing sound qualities. 

John Williams Plays Spanish Music [1970]

Columbia Masterworks M 30057 

The virtuosic skills on acoustic guitarist of John Williams have allowed him to move far beyond classical music genres and audiences in his long career. Even for those who don't know him by name or confuse him with the film score composer of the same name, they are probably familiar with his recording of Cavatina, used in the film The Deer Hunter (1978), which is just one facet of his musical interests.

Johnny Mathis Open Fire, Two Guitars [1959]

Columbia ‎Records CS 8056 

The open fire of the title is a warm hearth, not an invitation to gunplay. On this 1959 album, Johnny Mathis creates an atmosphere of fireside intimacy by dispensing with his usual orchestral accompaniment so that the purity of his voice entices the listener's full attention. Al Caiola and Tony Mottola play the two guitars that supplement Mathis' crooning, with an upright bass providing the album's only other instrument. Producer Mitch Miller is often associated with gimmicky or novelty productions, but his work on Open Fire, Two Guitars is perfectly understated, emphasizing the gentle caress of Mathis' voice over the relaxed counterpoint of the two guitars. The songs give prominence to the pop standards of Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, and the Gershwins, but the title track, "Open Fire," is a new composition by Leiber and Stoller. The album's effect seems nearly a cappella at times, but "In the Still of the Night" finds Mathis intoning the lyrics over gently rhythmic guitar figures that educe new harmonic complexities from a well-known song. The enduring popularity of Open Fire, Two Guitars is attributable in part to its hypnotic aura of closeness and confidentiality, but also to the simple instrumentation that appeals to many rock-era listeners' preference for guitars over orchestral arrangements. [AllMusic]

Al Caiola, His Guitar and His Orchestra Italian Gold [Double LP] [1978]

Bruno-Dean Enterprises RBS 111

Along with Tony Mottola, the "first call" guitarist in New York City for over thirty years. Both men were prolific studio musicians and the stalwarts of countless "Percussion" albums: Mottola's for Command, Caiola's for Time. 

Caiola served in the Marines during World War Two, where he played alongside Bob Crosby and toured much of the Pacific Theater until the band members were assigned to active combat in the assault on Iwo Jima. After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to study music composition and theory at the New Jersey College of Music. 

Not long after graduating, Caiola was hired as a staff musician by CBS radio in New York City, and he has spent much of the subsequent fifty years working in recording and broadcasting studios up and down Manhattan. 

The list of artists Caiola worked with is so long and so star-studded that it becomes a bit mind-numbing. It's safe to say that he worked with just about every other New York musician in these pages, as well as pop artists from Tony Bennett to Andy Williams, and most of the mainstream singers in between. [Courtesy Space Age Pop]

Percy Faith and His Orchestra Shangri La! [1963]

Columbia Records CS 8824

Liner notes
“There’s a magic in the distance, where the sea-line meets the sky,” wrote the poet Alfred Noyes. And in this enchanting collection of music inspired by faraway horizons of the world, Percy Faith applies his matchless touch to a dozen songs that take on a nostalgic glow even for those who have never journeyed to mysterious India, the fabulous Orient or found peace and contentment on a sun-drenched Pacific isle.

Percy leads his orchestra (sometimes augmented by a wordless vocal chorus) in shimmering evocations of a mythical Himalayan utopia, Shangri-La; a delightfully languid version of Kashmiri Song, suggestive of all the seductive charm of pale hands beside the Shalimar, and songs of Siam (Richard Rodgers’ beloved March of Siamese Children), Persia (Stranger in Paradise, And This Is My Beloved), Japan (Percy’s own composition, Cherry Blossom, and Irving Berlin’s Sayonara), China (Mountain High, Valley Low) and the Pacific region (Beyond the Reef, The Moon of Manakoora, Return to Paradise).

As he has unforgettably demonstrated in his superb series of recordings of Latin American music, popular ballads, favorite standards, and Broadway hits, Percy Faith can color a melody as no other conductor-arranger-composer can. The sounds of SHANGRI-LA! Make it abundantly clear that the music of distant realms—real or imagined—has inspired the Maestro’s palette to glow more brilliantly than ever.

José Feliciano Souled [1968]

RCA Victor LSP-4045 

Feliciano's "Light My Fire" and "Feliz Navidad" come to mind but do you know about Feliciano's "Star-Spangled Banner"?

On October 7, 1968, at the height of protests against the Vietnam War, Feliciano was invited by Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell to perform The Star-Spangled Banner at Tiger Stadium in Detroit during Game 5 pre-game ceremonies of the 1968 World Series between the Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. His personalized, slow, Latin jazz performance proved highly controversial and damaging to José's career in the months, even in the years that followed. In an October 2006 NPR broadcast, however, he expressed pride at being the one to open the door for artists to later interpret the nation's anthem. His World Series rendition, which features Feliciano accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar, was released as a single that charted for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 50, the first time the United States' anthem appeared on the American music charts. That recording of the national anthem is now on permanent exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  [Wikipedia]

Dick Dale and His Del-Tones Checkered Flag [1963]

Capitol Records ST 2002 

Three decades after he first released his most famous tune, Dale and "Misirlou" had a wave of resurgence after the song was featured in the opening credits of Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction. The movie's soundtrack sold more than 3 million copies and helped put surf rock — and Dale himself — in front of a new generation of music fans. New compilations were issued and he was even booked on the 1996 Warped Tour.

Over the decades that followed, he released two more albums and kept playing in front of live audiences. "I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality," he told NPR. "It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That's what music does." [NPR]

Dick Dale passed away on March 16, 2019.  RIP "King of The Surf Guitar."

Bob Thompson The Sound of Speed [1959]

Dot Records DLP 25123

"Orchestral suite with actual vehicular sounds composed by Bob Thompson, performed by the Orchestra del Concerti di Roma, Paul Baron conducting." [Excerpt liner notes]

In the days of Esquivel's Space Age Bachelor Pad Music prime, orchestra leader/composer/arranger Bob Thompson (a long-admired Hollywood music figure who worked with Rosemary Clooney, Judy Garland, Duane Eddy, and Bing Crosby, among others) was his stylistic counterpart. They recorded for the same label (RCA Victor), employed many of the same musicians and vocalists, and experimented with sound in the same L.A. studios. 

Originally recorded for the Dot label, The Sound of Speed is Thompson's 1960 "concept" LP. Each composition evokes a different mode of modern transport, from Vespa scooters to Le Mans racers to rocket ships and each is book-ended by authentic sound effects, with vivid stereo motion.

The Sound of Speed has been high on the list of overlooked gems from a bygone era of orchestral elegance that connoisseurs of sophisticated sounds have been clamoring to see reissued on vinyl. Its highlights have been a staple of production music for decades. (Sundazed Music released it mastered in wide-angle stereo and pressed on 180-gram vinyl in 2014.)

The Sound of Speed is your ticket to explore the universe--not in coach, with a bag of salted nuts, but in First Class. Martini?  Here's to you, Mr. Thompson: cheers, and thanks for the bright, shiny, brand new musical memories. The 21st Century welcomes you!

Russ Case and His Orchestra Dances Wild [1957]

Vik LX-1085 (RCA)

Largely self-taught as a composer and arranger, Case worked as a freelancer through most of the big band era. After World War II, he went to work for NBC radio and later moved into television. He wrote and conducted incidental music for scores of now-forgotten shows like Pulitzer Prize Playhouse. 

He appeared live leading a studio orchestra on several short-lived variety shows, backing singer Julius LaRosa and country star Eddy Arnold. He served briefly as the director of pop music for RCA Victor, during which he arranged one of Perry Como's biggest hits, "Till the End of Time." At the time of his death, he was the arranger for "The Jackie Gleason Show," having arranged a number of Gleason's albums from the late 1950s and early 1960s. He also recorded instrumental albums under his own name, and his cover of "Doll Dance" was included on one of the recent compilations of space-age bachelor pad music. [Courtesy Space Age Pop]