Hall of Fame
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Willis Wade…too deep!
There are lots of small regional labels that put out records like this. Many from the South with the featured artist in the gaudiest, most tacky, showbiz outfit. Often with the touring bus in the background. But this one that Tony laid on me out of the blue transcends the ordinary and defines the genre for me. Such is Willis Wade. Isn’t he fabulous!
Now I gotta find a copy. Anyone?
Separated at birth?
Sometimes covers in distant parts of the world seem to just match up too well. Or is this the same model and photo shoot. Martin Denny’s Primativa (1958) on Liberty is a staple of any exotica/bachelor pad/lounge collection. But this Arturo Romero record on Orfeon from Mexico may even pre-date it.
Pre-Jeannie Barbara Eden
This is a young Barbara Eden of “I Dream of Jeannie” fame. Imagine Jeannie smoking and drinking in a sexy negligee and fuzzy slippers. Major Nelson! This is on the Bethlehem jazz label with music by jazz singer Herb Jeffries. Jeffries sang with big bands, (most notably with the Duke Ellington Orchestra), and starred in B-movie westerns in the forties and fifties. He was married to Tempest Storm the famous burlesque queen (“Teaserama” with Bettie Page) and was known as the “Bronze Buckaroo.” But it’s this sexy cover of the prudish Jeannie that would blow the mind of any seven year-old in the mid-sixties fantasizing about having a girl in a bottle.
Space Escapade
A masterpiece of the space age bachelor pad genre. Les Baxter is synonomous with exotica and his records from the late fifties and early sixties define a style with adventurous, exotic and “way out” sounds. This is a cool cover from a time when the space program was launching and B movies were king.