Ultra Lounge, Vol. 4: Bachelor Pad Royale

From the start of Nelson Riddle's "Theme from Route 66" this album jumps out @ the listener, with this being easily one of the BEST TV themes ever produced, very catchy & very hip, perfect to introduce this package. John Buzon's "Caravan" is another fun spin on what is one of the several out there of this great tune, this one being played a bit like a rhumba. I can't say enough about Lou Busch's jazzy "Cool", adapted from the already jazz-cool Bernstein musical "West Side Story". This is just another good rendition offered, although here instrumental and really pushing jazz solos. Love it! "Night Train" is already a driving tune, but in Alvino Rey's hands, it's even more entertaining. I love "Harlem Nocturne", to begin with, and have another cool version of it on one of the other Ultra Lounge(maybe "Rhapsodesia", not sure). The Martin Denny arrangement, though, is very mellow, with a bit of the exotica sound that he made famous. Jimmie Haskell's "A Shot in the Dark", adapted from the 2nd Clouseau 'Pink Panther' film, is dynamite and Spike Jones' 'stripper' interpretation of the 'serious' "Shangri-La" is possibly funny as an in-joke but also a very smart reworking. Basically, more than 2/3rds of this compilation make this CD an above average Ultra Lounge addition (one of the better ones, basically).

Awesome tunes for your retro mid century modern mindset. This music channels the era of Mad Men. Stand out melodies are "Theme from Route 66", "Caravan", "The Beast", and my two personal favorites, "Playboy's Theme", and "Theme From Our Man Flint". I highly recommend this CD. Highly.

FAst delivery, Excellent condition. Plays well. Over the top

Groovy! Far out!

Hey, all you Cats and Kittens, warm up the hi-fi and get out the martini shaker. Bachelor Pad Royale will bring back the days of skinny ties, lounge lizards and Chesterfields. Warning: This CD is only for the really cool people out there. The squares are gonna go "Huh? I don't get it."

I love lounge music and this series of albums is excellent.

This is fun music to listen to & being a 'baby boomer' in age, it takes me back to a earlier time of listening to that kind of music on the radio or TV shows.

I love all the Ultra Lounge CDs but this CD is my 2nd favorite (my 1st fav is the cha cha one). A lot of good songs.

A fine selection of very cool cuts, makes you feel like you are sharing a pad with Dean Martin and Jack Lemmon in 1965. combo of very swirling and whooshing jazz numbers to lift you up and away !

Full marks to the compilers at Capitol for their "Ultra Lounge" idea, which, to the best of my knowledge, has run to at least 18 volumes to date. What an excellent way to breathe new life into your back catalogue. The advent of the CD certainly rejuvenated the record business - let's face it, who would have bothered buying this type of thing on reissued LP's?The period covered on this particular volume covers the years 1957-64, and whilst almost exclusively instrumental, a couple of great vocal tracks have been thrown in. Capitol have put out a good package here, even including a cocktail recipe in the sleeve notes!To quote: "This music puts you in a place - a Tijuana strip bar at 3 a.m." and the album has definitely got that brassy, late-night feel.For me, tunes like "Night Train", "Harlem Nocturne", "Street Scene '58", and "Like Young" kind of sum up this sound. I'm not normally a big band fan but as long as the tune is a reasonably familiar one I can take it!I don't think it really matters who the artists are - after all, there have been umpteen versions of "Route 66" for example. I'm sure any number of these songs have been used as background for TV series, and for me they bring forth images of black and white crime-type drama from the late 50's onwards.Excellent stuff to listen to in the car whilst stuck on the M25 - highly recommended.