For the inaugural file upload, I figured Martin Denny going cuckoo was the best place to start. Denny was one of the originators of the exotica sound, that bizarre blend of jazz, pop, and white, middle-class America's interpretation of mysterious far-flung locales like Polynesia, Asia, and Araby.

In the early 1960s, Elvis Presley returned home from the Army and resumed his acting career. But the serious films he'd been making before he left were a thing of the past, and upon his return, The King entered into a long career of breezy romantic comedy musicals that got increasingly shoddy as the years wore on but, for a man like me, never really got unenjoyable. His big hit was Blue Hawaii, a film that found the one-time king of rock and roll crooning a number of exotica-flavored songs that, years earlier, would have been the music of someone's parents. Square stuff. But Elvis made exotica palatable to the rock and roll generation. A few years later, exotica king Martin Denny must have seen fit to pay the King back, and the result is Hawaii Goes A Go-Go, an exotica album with a go-go rock undercurrent. And while I can't get images of square-jawed insurance salesmen in cardigans or Hawaiian shirts clapping out of time and moving stiffly to the wild grooves, that doesn't mean this isn't a boss selection of Denny tunes that will encourage you to hop up, shake your thang, and possibly clap along (though the spontaneous clapping on the recording sounds rather premeditated).

This is my first real rip from vinyl, so forgive if the sound quality is suspect. I think it sounds good, but I'm not a freak about such things.

Track Listing
[Side 1]
E Lei Ka Lei Lei
Beyond the Reef
The Girl from Ipanema
Hole in the Wall
Luna Luna
Call Me

[Side 2]
Friendly Islands
Sweet Someone
Everything in the Garden
She Sang Aloha to Me
Pearls (Mexican Pearls)
Pearly Shells

Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BYLGE2TA

Labels: Artist: Martin Denny, Exotica, mp3s