The Space Age Bachelor Pad Music Thread
- Thread starter JohnVF
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I bought the 2-LP 45 RPM set of the original Pink Panther soundtrack, as released by Analogue Productions. One of three Mancini titles they did, all of which I bought. (And thanks to poor sales, Chad says they're not doing any more of them.) I grew up playing a bedraggled mono Dynagroove copy, and none of the CD versions have sounded right. The LP is sublime.
BTW, for those out Esquivel-hunting, I just saw this on Qobuz:
www.qobuz.com
This contains the original Las Tandas album, and To Love Again, as a two-fer. Released December 2021. I added it to my Qobuz cart. It's strange to hear the music without a barrage of pops and scratches. 😁
BTW, for those out Esquivel-hunting, I just saw this on Qobuz:
Mexico Days, Esquivel - Qobuz
Listen to unlimited streaming or download Mexico Days by Esquivel in Hi-Res quality on Qobuz. Subscriptions from $10.83/month.
www.qobuz.com
This contains the original Las Tandas album, and To Love Again, as a two-fer. Released December 2021. I added it to my Qobuz cart. It's strange to hear the music without a barrage of pops and scratches. 😁
Wow. Thank you for all of that. I didn’t know you were such a fan. I have three Esquivel albums…the first I bought because I liked the cover (I’ll post a photo of them when I get a chance) and it was my gateway into this music. We got into tiki decor two years ago and the rest of the Exotica music followed. I don’t listen to it out of irony, I sincerely love it.Sandy Warner. She appeared on quite a few covers back in the day. I think she's even on the cover of the George Shearing Latin Escapade album. (I'd sent the album link to a fellow who compiled a list of album covers she appeared on, and he agreed it's probably her; his wife agreed also. 😁) My dad owned Primitiva and I have a feeling he bought it more for the album cover than the music. 🤣 That was back in the era when Julius Wechter was still in Denny's group. I think there was a falling out or some situation where Arthur Lyman left Denny's group and essentially "borrowed" the same tiki/lounge style for his own purposes.
Got just about all of the Esquivel goodies here, either on wax or CD. Even the first Mexican-only LP, Las Tandas de Juan Garcia Esquivel, which I presume my mother bought in Mexico when she visited in the late 50s. That one was presented as a musical program with an MC and fake crowd noises between songs, and it's not the Esquivel we're familiar with--it's more of a straight-up big band album. It had a later reissue (1980) as Solo Para Bailar (on the Otra label with a different track order and the MC and crowd noises absent)--that's my clean copy of the music. There was a Camden reissue in 1972 in Mexico as well, which I would guess was the original 1956 album as it has the same track order.
I think the only one I'm missing now is one of his last RCA albums (Esquivel '68), and To Love Again from 1957 (which is presumably more MOR than lounge). I have a few 45 RPM singles but I'm not sure which album they are from (if any)--I have to dig further to find out. I do have Esquivel! Actual! (mono, Mexican release) and The Genius of Esquivel (stereo--the same album but was the US version with a rearranged track order) both on wax. Many of the others are either on import CD from BMG in Germany (good sound) or the two-fers released in the US (mediocre). Got only a couple on vinyl aside from those listed above.
See It in Sound was a CD-only release of an unreleased RCA session (allegedly rejected by the label). It's more like a Martin Denny record as it has a lot of sound effects. Still a few available on Discogs.
Esquivel - See It In Sound
View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1999 CD release of "See It In Sound" on Discogs.www.discogs.com
BTW, the following was one of the first Space Age Bachelor Pad Music sites on the web. I still keep in touch occasionally with the proprietor, who is an active street photographer in NYC whose work I appreciate.
Space Age Bachelor Pad Music
space age bachelor pad music is instrumental orchestral music of the 1950s and 1960s, by artists like Esquivel! Martin Denny, Dick Schory, and Arthur Lymanjulianbh.com
I discovered lounge music in the early nineties and was drawn to the work of Esquivel, as previously mentioned by Rudy. I have always found him to be quirky, inventive, and yet listenable. I find remnants of his work in Pink Martini.
I agree with you; great music to set the mood and you can’t go wrong with Nat’s baritone voice. To think he was never trained as a singer. (I know I would enjoy this even more if I didn’t know Spanish 🫣)
Digging this thread, I’ll see if I have a record or two that will fit the bill.
Aquaintances of mine (who live in Chicagoland) built a full tiki bar in their basement, and they're very much into the whole "cocktail culture." Alex is a woodworker by trade, and he makes some beautiful furnishings, all in an updated mid-century modern style, everything from audio credenzas and record storage to built-in shelving. If you scroll down on the site's home page and "load more" a few times, you'll find posts from a few years ago with pictures of their "Secretiki" basement, along with samples of Alex's work.
I kind of latched onto the lounge movement in the early to mid 90s when Esquivel had a sudden surge in popularity. Also helped that some of the music my dad had in the basement was already familiar to me, and some of it definitely could fall into the lounge category.
Reminds me, he also had a few tiki decorations behind his basement bar, and I have those packed in a box. It might be something to do this autumn once my travel and work schedule calms down.
His work is incredible and that tiki bar looks way better than mine. I would bet we actually know some of the same people as they do- the vintage scene isn’t that big here. Big but everybody seems to know everybody. He looks familiar, might know my friends Tony and Margaret.
I met him and his wife through a mutual friend, as his wife and my friend worked together in the same department at a large industrial distributor (with the big yellow catalog) a few years ago. They displayed for one year at AXPONA in the marketplace, which is how we were introduced.
Expensive stuff...but so well made! It's the way premium furnishings used to be built, decades ago.
I'm not sure of their social circle (don't know them all that well) but it's possible paths have crossed. 👍
While doing a search last night, something stuck in my head that I needed to look through Vince Mendoza's discography. And of course, this was what I was thinking of.
It's a newer recording of Esquivel recordings, performed with the original RCA arrangements.
Whether it's a pointless exercise, or a great tribute, I'll leave that up to the listener. 😁 Doesn't bother me at all, and it is well-recorded. And the Metropole Orkest is always in good form.
It's a newer recording of Esquivel recordings, performed with the original RCA arrangements.
Whether it's a pointless exercise, or a great tribute, I'll leave that up to the listener. 😁 Doesn't bother me at all, and it is well-recorded. And the Metropole Orkest is always in good form.
While I'm not sure that its necessary it does sound very good. It would be a fun concert to go to. I know just what i'd wear.
jblnut
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Seems to be a popular genre at the moment. I'd encourage anyone who likes this style to tune into our local Jazz station from 5-7pm EST on Saturdays while you're making some cocktails :-).
One cool thing about the recording is that a couple of the tracks from Latin-Esque, which was in RCA's Stereo Action series ("The Sound Your Eyes Can Follow"), have the same "sound moving between the speakers" mix as the RCA originals. Clever! Someone put a lot of thought into this recording.
I can't recall which album it was, but one of the RCA albums had two Esquivel orchestras in separate studios, and a closed-circuit television was used to conduct both simultaneously. In stereo, one orchestra appeared left, and the other on the right. (I read it in the liner notes of one of the compilation CDs that I have packed away now.)
I posted this sampler of the Stereo Action series in March of last year. No Esquivel, but similar music from the RCA stables. The LP jackets in this series were cool, and expensive--the covers were die-cut, with the design on the thick innersleeve showing through the front.
If what I'm reading is correct on the interwebs, Exploring New Sounds in Hi-Fi and Exploring New Sounds in Stereo may have arrangements with minor differences. (Not uncommon in the stereo era--allegedly Martin Denny's Exotica in mono was a completely different recording session when released in stereo a short time after.) I'll need to get the Hi-Fi version and compare.
I've never quite thought of that as "lounge" but then again, it also fell kind of into the easy listening category and a lot of the lounge fad picked up on those records. I grew up playing a mono copy of that one myself (my folks had those early Brasil '66 records), and later bought the Mobile Fidelity version when it was first released in the 80s. (Lucky I did, as I've never seen another copy except on Discogs.)
Burt Bacharach's music also could fit into that category, especially his soundtracks and instrumental albums. He had quite a resurgence back in the 90s also.
Now 'scuse me while I go find a lava lamp and mix a Tom Collins...
Burt Bacharach's music also could fit into that category, especially his soundtracks and instrumental albums. He had quite a resurgence back in the 90s also.
Now 'scuse me while I go find a lava lamp and mix a Tom Collins...
Those Ultra Lounge series CDs from the mid 1990s are a great starting point for this type of music. They must have had at least a dozen in the series, and they specialized in music under the Capitol and EMI umbrella. It appears the series was popular enough that it turned into a brief sub-label for lounge compilations. The Ultra Lounge CDs appear to be available on Qobuz.
www.discogs.com
Universal had a series as well, but I'm sure there were more than three than the Discogs listing shows.
www.discogs.com
RCA had a 3-disc series called The History of Space Age Pop.
www.discogs.com
Ultra-Lounge
Ultra-Lounge is a series of compilation CDs released by Capitol Records, predominantly featuring music genres such as exotica, space age pop, mambo, television theme songs, and lounge. The series started in 1996, but as of 2009 the newer releases have been made available only in digital format...
www.discogs.com
Universal had a series as well, but I'm sure there were more than three than the Discogs listing shows.
Mondo Lounge
Explore releases from the Mondo Lounge label. Discover what's missing in your discography and shop for Mondo Lounge releases.
www.discogs.com
RCA had a 3-disc series called The History of Space Age Pop.
The History Of Space Age Pop
Explore releases from the The History Of Space Age Pop label. Discover what's missing in your discography and shop for The History Of Space Age Pop releases.
www.discogs.com
This just popped up on Roon Radio and I was thinking, "Now, 'THEY' even know the threads I read."
Saxnbass's version of The Pink Panther.
Open Qobuz
open.qobuz.com
I have to say that those 60s RCA reissues in the hi-res versions sound better than most of the RCA reissue CDs I've ever purchased. I don't have the Analogue Productions SACD of Pink Panther yet but the hi-res from BMG (via Qobuz or HD Tracks) sounds almost as good as the Analogue Productions 45 RPM set.
A few of those RCAs from that era could qualify as lounge/bachelor pad music. This was one of my purchases from the Qobuz store last year:
A few of those RCAs from that era could qualify as lounge/bachelor pad music. This was one of my purchases from the Qobuz store last year:
I picked this up yesterday at a store in Chicago that has a lot of esoteric music from other countries. I would say it’s very much lounge music … a current band, playing a sort of psychedelic space age Latin folk. “Insolito Universo”
If it's Latin/South American, I'm interested. 👍 Qobuz has this--I'll have to give it a spin later. Graçias!
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