Hollywood Hits Vol. 1 - Ray Davies Orchestra (1984)

A happy new year to all!

We kick off the new year with a great album from the Ray Davies Orchestra thanks to our regular contributor Al Gates from Australia.

The album is a nice mix of ballroom dancing music with all the usual dances included.

It is always nice to hear a Ray Davies / Button Down Brass album, and it is particularly good to hear this one from later in his career!

The most contemporary track on this album is a Cha Cha version of the theme from Fame, recently included on Lounge Legends' collection The Best Disco In Town, I had wondered which Ray Davies album it had originated on!

I hope you enjoy it and please comment if you do!

Album Preview - Little Brown Jug

Off Beat Cha Cha - All Star Orchestra (1965)

Here comes another great post from our friend Al Gates from Perth, West Australia!

A very nice 60s dancing album from Asia, it is quite the curio, and a very interesting listen, as most of the albums shared here and elsewhere are from Europe and North and South America!

Highlights include fine versions of You Belong To My Heart, Sukiyaki, Moon River, and a song made famous by one of my dad's favourites, Jim Reeves, in He'll Have To Go.

Thanks again to Al for these posts, and best wishes for the festive season, too!

Should anyone else reading this, like Al, have some albums they would also like to share, but do not have a blog of their own, please do send me the links, and if they are in keeping with the tone of the rest of the blog's material, could well end up on this blog being shared with hundreds of other Easy Listening enthusiasts!

I have more treats to share over the holiday, so please stay posted!

I hope you enjoy it and please comment if you do!

Album Preview - He'll Have To Go

I'm In The Mood For Dancing - Mick Urry & His Orchestra (1985)

 

Courtesy of our friend Al Gates of Perth, Australia comes this rather nice album of ballroom dance music from the 1980s.

If you like Joe Loss, Ray McVay and others you will like this, too!

Thanks to Al for another fine post and please keep them coming!

I hope you enjoy it and please comment if you do!

Album Preview - I'm In The Mood For Dancing

Instrumental Favourites - Geoff Love & His Orchestra

 

I recently came across the seven volumes of Geoff Love's Instrumental Favourites collection, so I thought it would be good to make a compilation of the tracks on them recorded especially i.e not the tracks off previous albums (which have generally been blogged themselves).

I think it makes for a good collection, it should come to three volumes when finished, so here is the first one.

I hope you enjoy it and please comment if you do!

Album Preview - In The Mood

 

Say It With Music - The Wally Mackenzie Orchestra

A must for those who enjoy big band or ballroom dancing music, this is a very enjoyable album from a band which I understand were very popular locally to where i live in East Manchester.

The arrangements are traditional but with energy, and very well recorded for a release which was clearly designed to be sold at the concerts and dances themselves.

I hope you enjoy it and please comment, leaving your name, if you do!

Album Preview - Hooked On Swing

Migration - Mike Leander Orchestra (1969)

Another excellent Easy instrumental album, this has been out there before, in its original version, titled "Together", this later reissue features a slightly altered tracklist.

Some nice arrangements of some 60s pop classics, standards, and an original, Mike Leander seems to have come up with a good sound and uses this sound on most of the arrangements on this album.

One of the tracks, the version of the Fab 4's Here There And Everywhere, became very well known in the UK in the 1970s as the theme from BBC Radio 2's Ray Moore show, and indeed, the notes on the rear are from Ray Moore himself.

A very interesting album, well worth a listen, the vinyl sounding in fine condition!

I hope you enjoy it and please comment, leaving your name, if you do!

Album Preview - Here There And Everywhere