Walk Don't Run

The Ventures - "Walk Don't Run" (1960) - Dolton 

Hello Friends,

Tonight we're rocking out to the debut album by The Ventures.  Hailing from Tacoma, Washington, The Ventures' big guitar sounding surf rock instrumentals influenced an entire generation of budding musicians who practiced these songs with their neighborhood buddies in countless suburban garages!  



From the chart-topping title track to their versions of "Raunchy", "Morgen", Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk", this album is 27 minutes of twangy bliss-- thanks, in no small part, to lead guitarist's Bob Bogle's whammy bar virtuosity!  

Listening to "My Own True Love (Tara's Theme)" sounds like a slow dance at an early 1960's high school dance when the Civics teacher, Mrs. McGillicuddy, breaks you and your partner up for dancing too close!

And even though those guys in the background aren't really the Ventures (the band was unavailable for the photo shoot), its a great album cover! Check out the heels on that brunette!  Yowsa!

RATING: 5 Cities of Destiny out of 5

Santo & Johnny Hawaii

Santo & Johnny - "Hawaii" (1961) - Canadian American

Aloha friends!

Put down that rigatoni and pick up that pineapple chicken!  Our favorite Italian-American guitar-playing brothers are back with their third LP-- taking us on a one way trip to the Hawaiian islands by way of Brooklyn, NY!

On Hawaii, the Farina boys are backed by the inconspicuous Hutch Davie orchestra and chorus, but once again the clear star of the album is the haunting and precise pedal steel guitar playing.  Its sound is strange & familiar, tropical and other-worldly, all at the same time! 

The Hawaiian-themed album contains such classics as "Blue Hawaii", "Sweet Lelani", "Hawaiian War Chant" and "The Hawaiian Wedding Song".    


RATING: 4 Pineapple Princesses out of a possible 5

Santo and Johnny Encore

Santo & Johnny - Encore (1960)

Grab your pomade and open that Chianti... these Baciagaloops are at it again! 

On their second LP, the Brooklyn-bred Farina brothers are back with 12 more pedal steel guitar masterpieces! 

The style and sound is close to what it was on their self-titled debut LP (here), released a year prior in 1959.  Its sparse and haunting with an otherworldly pedal steel sound that can cut through a dense fog on a dark night.  The highlights are "Tear Drop", "Venus" and the fantastically sad-sounding, "You Belong to Me."

RATING: 4.5 Prego Jars* out of a possible 5

(* Its in there!)

 

Santo and Johnny

Wow!


The debut album by Brooklyn-born Italian brothers, Santo & Johnny Farina, is pretty effing amazing!  Or to put it in Brooklyn terms, "Hey Vinny! Haveya heard dese greaseballs?  Itsa good!"


Sparsely produced with some virtuosic pedal steel guitar work, this 1959 release is both haunting and frenetic. Its like the soundtrack to a orgy on the backlot of "Happy Days"!  


This is the LP that includes their huge, ubiquitous hit, "Sleepwalk", but it's also chock full of other great early rock'n'roll/loungey guitar-based instrumentals like "Caravan", "Blue Moon", Chuck Berry's "School Day" and Bill Justis's "Raunchy."


RATING: 4.5 bowls of pasta out of a possible 5