Vocalists — LPs  

All you need is love – that, and some great vocals and backings as well! Anita Kerr really gets groovy on this little set – taking the famous sound of her harmony quartet into some great late 60s territory – a range of pop tunes hinted at by the Beatles reference on the cover – all arranged and conducted by Anita herself, and produced with some great Sunshine Pop touches! The mixed male/female sound of the quartet is a nice precursor to the 70s recordings by Singers Unlimited – sweet and smooth, but bumped along by a groove on most of these tracks – and titles include "Autumn Afternoon", "No Salt On Her Tail", "Holiday", "A Natural Woman", "Never My Love", "I Make A Fool Of Myself", and "The Last Waltz".

Hard to imagine Anita Kerr being turned on – especially given her school marm-ish look on the cover – but the album's a pretty darn groovy set, and one that certainly shows Kerr picking up some of the best easy elements of the 60s! The Burt Kaempfert touch is heard here especially in the album's use of electric bass – a nicely bouncing element that gives most of the tunes a lot more of a bottom than some of Kerr's other work – used in that trademark stepping style that Burt first laid down himself a few years before on worldwide instrumental hits, and made even better here by Anita's great quartet and their warmly-crafted vocal harmonies! Titles include many tunes presented in a Kaempfert-styled way – but with vocals – and tracks include "Love", "I Can't Help Remembering You", "Two Can Live On Love Alone", 'Spanish Eyes", "Remember When", "Danke Schoen", "Strangers In The Night", "Wonderland By Night", and "A Swingin' Safari".

Warm wonderful whitebread work from the King Family! A great example of the way the large King ensemble really shone in the space of a concert performance – filling up the space well with all the different voices in the extended family, and shifting into different groupings that keep things interesting throughout! Titles include "The Men In My Little Girl's Life", "What The World Needs Now", "On A Clear Day", "I Said No", "Why Did I Choose You", "Guadalajara", and "Baby Sitter's Blues".

Great stuff – one of Flora Purim's more R&B-sounding albums from the 70s, produced by George Duke with an appreciation for Flora's Brazilian jazz roots, but with a smoother sound that's in keeping with Duke's own work of the time! The combination is pretty sweet – a professional culmination of the mixture of fusion and Brazilian jazz that had been happening in the San Francisco scene during most of the 70s, and featuring many of the musicians who had helped make that groove so strong. Players include Airto, Sheila Escovedo, Joe Farrell, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Lyle, and Larry Williams – and tracks include "Niura Is Coming Back", "From The Lonely Afternoon", "Freeway Jam", "Beijo Partido", "Corine", and "Love Lock".

Hardly the surf music set you'd expect from the title – but still a set that's plenty surf-washed, thanks to a great choice of exotic numbers for the record! The Surfers are a vocal group, not a guitar-based instrumental combo – and they harmonize with a mixture of jazz and pop modes that's mighty nice – and very unique, given that many of the numbers here have a tropical theme – almost as if The Lettermen or Brothers Four decided to cut an exotica album! Titles include "Pagan Love Song", "Canoe Song", "Island Angel", "Follow Me", "Bali Hai", "Pearly Shells", and "Farewell".

A compelling little vocal set – very soulful in parts, with a vibe that's almost like some of the Trudy Pitts vocal work. And honestly, they already had us at "Music For The First Three Cocktails"!

Great songs, great vocals, great instrumentation, and another late 70s classic from Michael Franks – one of the few mainstream masters of understatement in his generation! As on all his best albums, the style here is a subtle blend of jazz and pop with a bit of a Brazilian inspiration – kind of a more mainstream take on styles that Bob Dorough and Blossom Dearie had first put forth, with all the sort of hip songwriting that sort of reference might imply. Deodato's at the helm of the arrangements here – keeping things lean and clean, and using key contributions from players like Leon Pendarvis, John Tropea, Steve Gadd, and Bud Shank to flesh out the jazzier side of Franks' sound. Titles include "Wrestle A Live Nude Girl", "In Search Of The Perfect Shampoo", "Vivaldi's Song", "Dear Little Nightingale", "When The Cookie Jar Is Empty", "A Robinsong", and "Meet Me In The Deerpark".

Titles include "Rainy Night In Tokyo", "When Sly Calls", "How The Garden Grows", "Sunday Morning Here With You", "Amazon", and "Never Satisfied".

Singlehandedly stopping the flight to the suburbs during those key postwar years, Petula Clark forever changed the urban landscape when she belted out the great 60s pop hit "Downtown". This groovy set includes all the original "city pop" tracks from the original Downtown album, plus a few other singles of the same vintage, also with arrangements by the great Tony Hatch. Titles include "You Belong To Me", "Music", "In Love", "Crying Through A Sleepless Night", and "Now That You've Gone".