OOOOOO _____ I like this CRAZY music ! :-D ------------- ------------------------- DETAILS: ------- ......artist: v/a .......title: Welcome to Chinatown - Oriental "Popcorn" tracks, vol.1 ......origin: Belgium (of all places :) ........type: CD .......label: Marginal Records MAR CD 002 .......price: BEF 650 = USD 660 distribution: by direct mail-order from: Patrick Michiels, PO Box 4, 9100 Nieuwkerke, Belgium tel: ++ 32 3 776 82 33 ........year: 1995 .......genre: Orient pop, novelty ....duration: 75:45 (yes! yes! :) I must admit that I don't know exactly what POPCORN is; I guess it's sugary 60's pop? Anyway, this CD has been released by a Belgian label specialised in this "popcorn" music, together with 2 other interesting CD's I'll talk about in one of my next postings. The 30 tracks on this compilation CD really only have 2 features in common: they date from the late 50's - early 60's (I guess), and they are influenced by Chinese and Japanese ethnic music - some of them just a little bit, like tracks # 16 (60's soul) or # 18 & 22 (sugary R&B) with only something oriental in the title - other are so much orientally spiced that it is comical, as is the case with Lester Laundree's "Chopstick Cha-Cha", which has every imaginable oriental cliche plus irresistable laughter :) Only 3 of these tracks (and the cover drawing) overlap with another Oriental compilation, "Chop suey rock - songs about the Orient vol.1" (HS 001, an LP sold by Norton Records). The musical genres on this very good sounding (digitally remastered) CD range from smooth R & B (Artie Banks...) over R & R (The Peppers, The Instrumentals...) chacha-pop (Al Fredito...) smooching girl vocals (The Bermudas, The Galens) Motown (Jennifer Wells, Four Tops) beatnik (The Dynamics) to cocktail (De Denise, Jimmy Mc Griff) Both The J's With Jamie and Lionel Newman may have been an inspiration for Pizzicato 5: they sound very brassy and Mancini/Bacharach like; and Eddy Christiani's guitar playing sounds a bit like Buddy Merrill... So, I like this CD; it may be very sweet & easy stuff, but the oriental instruments and harmonies (and even Japanese singing on a few tracks) make it... well, _exotic_ is the right word here. If these songs would have been non "spiced" however, most of them would be completely uninteresting, I'm afraid. A minus point though is the complete lack of any liner notes (typical for this label); not even the original release year is mentioned :( TRAX: ---- 01 The Cha-Cha Boys Geisha Cha-Cha 02 Eddie Baxter Fortune Cookie 03 Al Fredito Chinese Cha-Cha-Cha 04 The J's With Jamie Yoshiko 05 The Peppers Yoko-Hoko-Homa 06 Lester Laundree Chopstick Cha-Cha 07 The Bermudas Chu-Sen-Ling 08 Victor Knight Chinatown 09 Jennifer Wells Dining In Chinatown 10 Bernie Turner Ching-Ching Wong 11 Sheridan Hollenbeck Tokyo Melody 12 Ramsey Lewis China Gate 13 The Turbojets Far East Cha-Cha-Cha 14 Elvis Presley Earth Boy 15 De Denise Japanese Chacha 16 The Souljers Chinese Checkers 17 The Galens Chinese Lanterns 18 Ramona King Oriental Garden 19 Eddy Christiani Little Geisha 20 Floyd Cramer Hong-Kong 21 Earl Grant The Japanese Farewell Song 22 Artie Banks & The Tellers Oriental Baby 23 The Instrumentals Chop-Suey-Rock 24 The Popcorns Chinese Twist 25 The Dynamics Onion Salad 26 Bobby Gregg Chinatown (My Chinatown) 27 Lionel Newman Honorable Hong-Kong 28 Jimmy Mc Griff The World Of Suzie Wong 29 Moon Kim Oriental Hop 30 Four Tops Tea House in Chinatown PS: - when buying this item, please tell who told you about it :) - mentioned price is without postage, as this changes from country to country) - when contacting the mentioned address by mail, always include a stamp (or IRC) & addressed return envelop!) - I guess you could also immediately send a check if you add appropriate postage, whatever that would be) - I have no idea at all about the availability through shops, sorry. The discs I'm writing about are sometimes completely ignored by shops, dealers, companies; well, that is why I write about them :) Greatings from Johan johan.devis@ping.be (home: Wivina 15, 1702, Belgium)