One little warning for when/if you go visit those wonderful vintage-music blogs . . . not ALL of the great songs are actually out of print or unavailable on CD. You kind of have to watch that. For instance, there’s a grand “Cocktail Mix” available on which the second song is Bobby Darin’s “Call Me Irresponsible.” Now, at one time that song and the album it’s on (“Love Swings,” I think) went out of print, but *now* “Love Swings” and most of Bobby’s other albums are back in print and payments must be made to the Testamentary Trust for the use of the songs. I think that particular track is also on an Ultra-Lounge CD in the great “Ultra-Lounge” series. Now, *I* personally don’t have to worry, for I own not only the original vinyl album but also the “Love Swings” remastered CD, and so I can play the track without guilt (as I have ripped that track in off my own CD before). But just be warned that you’ve got to watch for that. As with writers, it’s a case of intellectual property being respected.
There’s even an entire album that I ordered on CD after seeing it up for download . . . so don’t D/L “Tamboo!” either. It’s a cool bongos thing from Les Baxter. The CD incorporates two albums, “Tamboo!” and “Skins!” Got the CD from Amazon today and am ripping it into iTunes now.
That said, Hepcat Willy is another squee-worthy 1950s-worshiping shrine! I think the reason I am into the fifties is because there was such a nostalgia movement in the 1970s when I was in middle school/junior high, fueled by the release of “Grease” and the predominance of “Happy Days” and “Laverne and Shirley” on the tube. We even had our eighth-grade spring dance with a 1950s theme. I think “American Graffiti” started it all for us. I am into the sixties because I actually *remember* them. And into the seventies because that’s my early teen years. The eighties, I kind of remember, and the nineties, not so much. *GRIN*
Does anyone out there like lounge music? Am I driving my readership away with these enthusiastic posts? Am I nothing but a Rat Pack-loving, go-go-boots-wearing, Nancy Sinatra-idolizing, Herman Wouk-reading Friend of Darin?*
* Snaps to those who identify source of parodied quotation without Googling. “He’s a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, show-tunes-loving friend of Dorothy.”
In other news, it didn’t rain today. Finally.
shalanna 