Various Artists - Welcome To The Ultra-Lounge (1996)

Capitol's Ultra-Lounge series is consistently inconsistent, so I usually stay away from them when I see them in used bins, but I simply couldn't resist the attractive packaging of this sampler. Turns out it is commonly referred to as the "Fuzzy Leopard" sampler and the faux-leopard skin packaging won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in 1997.

As for the music, it's mostly from the 1950s and 1960s in such genres as exotica, lounge, cha-cha, space age pop, mambo, and TV themes. The liner notes (and vintage website) describe it thusly:

The neon above the door reads Ultra-Lounge. Enter, and you step back in time. Not too far back. Just a few decades. Back to a time when "revolution" meant watering down your scotch with ice. Back to an era when "evolution" meant taking out the olive and putting in an onion. When Generation X was a secret atomic weapon coveted by secret agents and Cold War spies.

This is a place clothed in leopard and sharkskin. An era bathed in gimlets, hi-balls, straight-up, on the rocks, shaken, not stirred, hi-octane elixirs dressed in garish garni. A time viewed through the seductive haze of slow-burning gazes. Where lipstick-kissed cigarettes ashtray-dance with cigar stubs and cherry stems.

The atmosphere mambos to a soundtrack of cool. Rumbling saxophones, jazzy vibes, over-heated Hammonds, and the sexy chill of a brush across a cymbal. Bold, exotic rhythms strut to the cough and cacophony of the Atomic-Age.

So pour yourself a cocktail, slip off your shoes, shuffle across the shag to your favorite easy chair and enjoy the intoxicating taste of the Ultra-Lounge.

And at 24 tracks over 67 minutes, there's a lot of lounging to do. 2 songs each from the first 12 volumes of the series.

Peak on the US Billboard 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks, with my favorites indicated (✔):

Title	Artist	Year
Selections from Mondo Exotica
Swamp Fire	Martin Denny	1959
Voodoo Dreams/Voodoo	Les Baxter	1959
Selections from Mambo Fever
Taki Rari	Yma Sumac	1954
Glow Worm Cha-Cha-Cha	Jackie Davis	1959
Selections from Space-Capades
Holiday For Strings ✔	The Voices of Walter Schumann	1951
Lonesome Road	Dean Elliott & His Big Band	1962
Selections from Bachelor Pad Royale
Theme From Route 66	Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra	1962
Melancholy Serenade	King Curtis	1964
Selections from Wild, Cool & Swingin'
Jump, Jive An' Wail ✔	Louis Prima	1956
More ✔	Bobby Darin	1964
Selections from Rhapsodesia
Girl Talk ✔	Howard Roberts	1965
Go Slow	Julie London	1957
Selections from The Crime Scene
The Peter Gunn Theme ✔	Ray Anthony	1958
Search For Vulcan (from "Thunderball")	Leroy Holmes	1966
Selections from Cocktail Capers
The Pink Panther Theme	Hollywood Studio Orchestra	1964
Teach Me Tiger	April Stevens	1960
Selections from Cha-Cha De Amor
Cha-Cha-Cha d'Amour	Dean Martin	1962
So Nice (Samba de Verão) ✔	Billy May	1972
Selections from A Bachelor In Paris
French Rat Race	The Double Six Of Paris	1960
I Love Paris	Jack Costanzo	1960
Selections from Organs In Orbit
Rockhouse ✔	The Ernie Freeman Combo	1963
Mr. Ghost Goes to Town	The John Buzon Trio	1959
Selections from Saxophobia
Bernie's Tune	Curley Hamner/Milt Buckner	1962
Tanya	Plas Johnson	1963

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Back in the late 1990's, I bought a copy of volume 4 of the series, Bachelor Pad Royale, because I dug the retro design and the fact that it had Route 66 on the track listing. Silly me didn't read that it was the theme to the Route 66 TV show and not a version of the standard (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66. So I was disappointed in it from the get-go and probably didn't give a proper chance. But when my father passed all his vinyl down to me a couple of years later, I was captivated with the album cover of Martin Denny's Exotica album that he must have listened to when he was in college.

However, I didn't care much for that, either. Then I had a friend/co-worker who liked to spin these Ultra-Lounge discs while we had "cocktails" in his apartment. (His idea of a cocktail was limited to mixing Coke and Wild Turkey, but it was free booze so I certainly didn't complain.) It was then I learned how hit-or-miss the Ultra-Lounge compilations were.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Christmas Cocktails (1996)

Various Artists - Christmas Cocktails (1996)

Fantastic compilation of mid-20th-century exotica/space age/mambo/lounge versions of Christmas tunes. Issued in 1996 as part of Capitol Record's Ultra-Lounge series. From the defunct ultralounge.com website, ca. 1996:

Let's face it, the holiday season provides everybody a great excuse to party! Big bowls of little peanuts with the red skins on' em, cut-glass serving dishes shaped like vegetables overflowing with black olives (you know, the ones you put on your fingertips when you were a kid), and rum-spiked punch in giant bowls with those useless little cups hangin' off the side -- the works! It's Holiday Time at the Ultra- Lounge!

And there's no doubt this set would provide great background music at your next wassailfest. This particular disc of holiday tunes was so popular, it spawned two sequels (neither has appeared on my shelves. Yet.).

But what about the cocktails? Here's the two recipes included in the liner notes. Enjoy responsibly.

And now I've got memories of watching my mother at the stove, making a potent eggnog from scratch. We weren't listening to anything as hip as these cuts back then, though.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Before purchasing this CD, the only track I had previously heard was the Nat King Cole, which is readily available on many compilations (it's fantastic, no matter the number of CDs on which it appears). Don't skip any of these tracks, but I've checked off today's favorites.

Song	Artist	Year
Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo	Billy May	1953
Winter Wonderland	Peggy Lee	1965
Christmas Trumpets/We Wish You A Very Merry Christmas*	Ray Anthony	1966	✔
Christmas Is	Lou Rawls	1967	✔
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town/White Christmas	Jimmy McGriff	1963	✔
I'd Like You For Christmas	Julie London	1957
Holiday On Skis	Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani	1967
(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag	Kay Starr	1950	✔
Jingle Bells/Jingle Bell Rock	Hollyridge Strings	1965
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm	Dean Martin	1959
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus/Jingle Bells Bossa Nova	Eddie Dunstedter	1965
Christmas Kisses	Ray Anthony	1961
I'll Be Home For Christmas/ Baby, It's Cold Outside	Jackie Gleason/ Jack Marshall	1956/ 1959
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?	Nancy Wilson	1963	✔
Cha-Cha All The Way*	Capitol Studio Orchestra	1958
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)	Nat King Cole	1961	✔
The Nutcracker Suite	Les Brown & His Band Of Renown	1957	✔
Ring Those Christmas Bells	Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians	1959
Violets For Your Furs**	The Continental	1952
Toys For Tots**	Peggy Lee/Nat King Cole/Nancy Wilson	1956
Jingle Rock The Bells**	"from the folks at Capitol'	1952

  *previously unreleased tracks
  **unlisted bonus tracks

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Hey, Commrades of Cool! Remember when there were postage-paid postcards included in the CD packaging to get you on the record label's mailings lists?