Stanley Black : Temptation

In the 50's, after the GI's came home from the Pacific Rim and we adopted Hawaii as our 50th state, there was an explosion of tiki culture in America. Everything remotely related to the Pacific, and by extension anything oriental and even Indian, was considered fascinating. This was true in music as well, as literally thousands of tiki-themed albums were released.

"Temptation" is another of those classic easy listening songs that appears on a bazillion LPs and it's especially popular amongst the tiki crowd, along with "Bali Ha'i", "Moon of Manakoora", "Quiet Village" and others. Stanley Black (real name: Solomon Schwartz) was a British composer and arranger who released a number of easy listening orchestral albums, most of which are top notch. It's hard to go wrong with a Stanley Black album.

Exotic Percussion is a great album, and, as it's name implies, it's chock full of old favorites spiced up with eastern-sounding horns, jungle drums and lots and lots of great percussion. Plus most of the tracks have a female chorus oohing and ahhing along, which just makes the songs doubly awesome. "Temptation" is no exception, kicking off the record with the percussion and horns pounding away, the vocals weaving delicately in and out, and all of the instruments showing off their stereo prowess. They proceed to march through a series of Bolero-like crescendos, ending in a final flourish of horn, drum and voice. Stanley knows how to wring the excitement out of a tune and he definitely pulls out the stops here.

"Temptation" can be found on Stanley's Exotic Percussion album, which you can grab from Amazon off a 2-LP-1-CD deal, or actually get the vinyl. I'd go for the vinyl.

* Art by Shag. He's awesome.

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Sir Julian : Caravan

Man, I love "Caravan". It's quite possibly my favorite tune ever, with the possible exception of "Brazil". You can't go wrong with a version of "Caravan". And the organ. I love the home entertainment organ. Maybe it's because my gram had one for a while, and she knew how to play it. That and it reminds me of trips we used to take to the shopping mall, on 9th and 77th, with it's 50's green and white marble-pebble facade... what do they call that stuff? You know what I'm talking about, it's in old elementary schools and post offices everywhere... Anyway...

Along with Lenny Dee, who is probably the undisputed master of the home entertainment organ, and Glenn Derringer, who no-one has heard of, but who's another of my favorites, Sir Julian could seriously rock the organ, while never leaving that safe haven of easy listening.


This is quite possibly the definitive "Caravan" for me, even more so than any version by the Duke himself. It starts with a low groove with a swinging bass line, shuffle drums and the organ dropping the main theme and punching its own accompaniment. The organ has that gorgeous fat round analog sound you just can't get from a chip. The tune slinks along for a bit, and then, around the two-minute mark, BANG! Sir Julian lets loose with a high-energy full-bore attack on the keys that makes you go weak in the knees; an organ-asm if you will.

To be fair, Sir Julian uses this trick on about a third of the tunes on the album, but it's still a suave move, and the tune seriously rocks.

"Caravan" can be found on The 13 Fingers of Sir Julian which isn't in print. It's also on RCA's History of Space Age Pop, vol. 1: Melodies and Mischief, which also isn't in print, but can be found. The History of Space Age Pop series from RCA is a fantastic compilation, and should be on any discerning music lover's shelf.

[You can listen to Sir Julian's "Caravan" by navigating to the post "Song009" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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