By pejepeine
This topic turned out to be huge, with some intelligent insights into the nature of easy listening, some expert knowledge of the whole phenomenon and an immense range of nominations. It would have been impossible to cover all the angles, so for the A-list I've focused on out-and-out easy listening classics, while the B-list looks at modern interpretations of the genre.
The Easy Option A-List:
The “beautiful music” heard in supermarkets, lifts, workplaces in the 50s and 60s reminds me of what Roberto Calasso says about the Spartans' attitude to music in his book about Greek myth, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony: “They wished to make it first innocuous, then useful.” One of the aims of easy listening was, explicitly, to affect the mood of listeners with gorgeous melodies and agreeable, soothing arrangements.
The mood-altering properties of Charmaine by Mantovani's Orchestra are shown in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, where it is constantly played to calm the inmates of the mental asylum. But it's also an undeniably gorgeous piece of music, and the “cascading strings” effect that tried to replicate the echoing acoustics of a large palatial hall were genuinely innovative.
Percy Faith was another easy pioneer, and his Theme From A Summer Place is one of the defining tunes of the genre, an immense hit in 1960. Like many bandleaders, Over the years Percy tackled Cuban, Brazilian and Japanese music, soul, rock and disco, exemplifying the hungry, curious nature of easy listening.
Easy listening's endless recycling of standards and recent pop hits was derivative, but there was also a constant appetite for novelty. Peter Drake's version of Forever is a fairly standard country stroll until his bizarre talking steel guitar, which sounds like a Hawaiian vocoder, appears, instantly grabbing your attention and tickling your fancy.
Exotica also used novelty to invoke a mood, this time the exotic sounds of foreign lands. Martin Denny's arrangements used native instruments as well as bird calls and other sound effects to put you in the middle of a Polynesian tropical paradise. Quiet Village is the best-known example of an inventive, unique style that fascinated later generations including industrial musicians such as Throbbing Gristle and 23 Skidoo.
In 1961, Bert Kaempfert released the Beatles first commercial recording in Hamburg. A year later, he jumped on the success of South African kwela hits such as Wimoweh and Skokiaan with the charity shop classic A Swingin' Safari. A couple of years later, Horst Jankowski had an international smash hit with the chirpy A Walk In The Black Forest.
Cast Your Fate To The Wind originated as a jazzy instrumental by Vince Guaraldi, but it was two British easy legends, Johnny Pearson and John Schroeder, whose complex arrangement turned it into a chart hit under the name Sounds Orchestral.
In 1961, Henry Mancini recorded an album of latin tinged versions of tunes from the Mr Lucky TV show. Among them was a stunning original named Lujon after the strange, metallic marimba that had been recently invented. It's another superb example of the place where easy met exotica.
Easy listening was a ripe target for parody by younger, hipper musicians, and in The Graduate Dave Grusin composed Sunporch Cha-Cha-Cha as a wry comment on the sort of music that the middle-class suburban parents of the hippy generation listened to. It still didn't stop it becoming a hit on easy listening radio stations.
Bossa nova first went global after coming to the attention of cool jazz artists in the USA, but its subdued samba rhythm soon became a central element of hundreds of easy listening albums. In Europe, Francis Lai teamed it with wordless shabadaba vocals for the soundtrack of A Man and A Woman, and was followed by scores of other composers. Ennio Morricone's spiralling Metti Una Sera A Cena is one of the best examples.
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss's A&M records was a palace built on high-quality easy listening, recording Herb's Tijuana Brass, Burt Bacharach, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim and many others. It was also key to the soft rock movement, launching the Carpenters on the world and providing the relaxed studio conditions that led to Carole King's Tapestry album. Carole's Been To Canaan is another wonderful track that topped the “adult contemporary” chart where soft rock found its home.
Bob Crewe Generation's Music To Watch Girls By is a distillation of late 60s groovy easy listening, with a brass section clearly based on Herb Alpert's Tijuana style, surfy fuzz guitar, marimbas, a harpsichord and dramatic counter-melodies on the strings.
Hugo Montenegro was an arranger known for groovy versions featuring Moog synthesisers and worldelss vocals. In 1970 he gave Classical Gas the treatment.
In the 70s and 80s, the charts would still occasionally feature full-blown easy listening, usually popularised by a TV or film theme. Francis Lai's Love Story Theme, Simon Park's Eye Level and Morricone's Chi Mai were all examples, but Johnny Pearson's Sleepy Shores is among the best – pure melody, with none of that jazzy nonsense, but incredibly subtle progression.
James Last assembled a crack orchestra of musicians and made millions with albums that churned out easy versions of current hits, classical pieces and folk tunes. His party-mix style, which segued every tune seamlessly into one another, often accompanied by the sound effects of a happt crowd, could be wearing, but Hansi was also a talented composer. The Lonely Shepherd seizes on the 70s craze for pan pipes that also brought us Abba's Fernando to create a genuinely atmospheric piece of music, used by Quentin Tarantino to round off his Kill Bill films.
Mantovani’s Orchestra – Charmaine (attwilightlarks)
Percy Faith - Theme From A Summer Place (magicman)
Pete Drake and his Talking Steel Guitar - Forever (Marco)
Martin Denny - Quiet Village (Tarquin Spodd)
Bert Kaempfert – A Swingin' Safari (Nicko)
Horst Jankowski - A Walk In the Black Forest (Altraego)
Sounds Orchestral - Cast Your Fate To The Wind (shoegazer)
Henry Mancini - Lujon (magicman)
Dave Grusin - Sun Porch Cha-Cha-Cha (Banazir Galbasi)
Ennio Morricone - Metti Una Sera A Cena (UnterGunther)
Carole King - Been to Canaan (Fred Erickson)
Bob Crewe Generation - Music To Watch Girls By (Altraego)
Hugo Montenegro - Classical Gas (magicman)
Johnny Pearson – Sleepy Shores (SweetHomeAlabama)
James Last feat. Gheorghe Zamfir - The Lonely Shepherd (SweetHomeAlabama)
The Easy Touch B-List:
The B-list focuses on more recent expressions of the easy listening/lounge aesthetic, which are often characterised by nostalgic fascination with the pre-digital age, It can be expressed with wry irony, such as Nouvelle Vague's lounge versions of punk and post-punk classics, which have spawned an entire genre of wispy, knowing remakes; or with the deeper obsessions of vaporwave and hauntology, which dig into uneasy lo-fi nostalgia.
Then there was the chill-out room, a zone based on the all-night party scene in Ibiza, where ravers would come down to calming and soothing sounds as the sun rose over the Mediterranean. It's partly this club culture, and the influence of the ambient and New Age movements, that means that modern easy listening is more groove-based, with a far less rigid focus on melodies.
There are now-classic 90s lounge refits by St Etienne, Stereolab and The Gentle People, Air's seductive blend of chilled lounge, a flamenco chill song that defined a certain Spanish summer, ambient/new age stylings from Ozric Tentacles, Flying Lotus's laid-back sampling, Kruanghbin's sun-scorched Texas lounge and a sweet country version of a Burt Bacharach classic.
Stereolab – Percolator (Mussolini Headkick)
Saint Etienne – How We Used To Live (ParaMhor)
Khruangbin – May Ninth (nosuchzone)
MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュ(ajostu)
Nouvelle Vague – Love Will Tear Us Apart (happyclapper)
Chambao - Ahí Estas Tú (Déjate Llevar) (Maki)
Flying Lotus Ft. Ms Laura Darlington - Unexpected Delight (Untergunther)
Air - All I Need (Noodsy)
Laura Cantrell - Trains And Boats And Planes (attwilightlarks)
Meanderthals – Bugge's Room (Shoegazer)
Ozric Tentacles – Aura Borealis (Banazir Galbasi)
The Gentle People – Journey (Aphex Twin Care Mix) (Angel Ears)
Guru's Five Easy Pieces:
Hugo Montenegro – McArthur Park. Jim Webb is, of course, another easy touchstone. This is moogtastically groovy version of the allegro section of a song that was already epically pompous even before Richard Harris was roped in to ham it up.
Tony Hatch Orchestra – Laia Ladaia. British lounge legend takes a run at Edu Lobo's bossa hit Reza, building it up to a storming brass climax.
Electronic Concept Orchestra – The Look of Love. A studio project that teamed skilled jazz and soul session musicians with a Moog synthesiser and various pop standards by Bacharach, Jim Webb, Serge Gainsbourg etc.
Orquesta Serenata Tropical – Why Can't We Live Together? Brazilian easy orchestra give Timmy Thomas's sparse soul hit a latin make over and a prowling bassline.
Piero Piccioni – Insolita Luce Azzurra. Gorgeously romantic light bossa from the Swept Away soundtrack.
The Gentle People
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Soft furnishings and soothing sounds: easy listening songs and music. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Fancy a turn behind the pumps at The Song Bar? Care to choose a playlist from songs nominated and write something about it? Then feel free to contact The Song Bar here, or try the usual email address. Also please follow us social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: