Music 🎼: Lounge Acts: Pop Piano Favorites! (1967)

Reader’s Digest celebrated a great achievement with its 100th Birthday this year. This milestone is quite impressive as mass media has gone through tremendous changes and upheavals during the past century. The Reader’s Digest Association is best known for it’s hugely popular, monthly general interest magazine published in numerous languages, reaching at least 43,000,000 people annually, and the monthly anthology series of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books published from 1950 to 1997.

However, Reader’s Digest also produced a prolific musical collection when the vinyl era reigned supreme. Of the various music genres represented on these collections, Pop Piano Favorites is one of the most delightful. The first record (from the set of four) features The Inimitable Frankie Carle Plays For Listening And Dancing. Carle was one of America’s most gifted and popular pianists of the mid-20th century and the album sleeve notes describe Carle’s playing style as: “light and buoyant as a sunny spring day, as softly dreamy as a pink cloud, and as happily lighthearted as a stroll along a country lane.”

Some of Carle’s best medleys on this record include the heartfelt “Unforgettable” which was also a Top 20 hit for Nat King Cole in 1951, and the perennially popular Disney signature tune “When You Wish Upon A Star” which was originally part of the Pinocchio soundtrack. “Imagination” is one of those ‘time to unwind’ tunes easily enjoyed with an adult beverage at a plush cocktail lounge. Carle’s “Love Letters In The Sand” is a romantic delight which also was a hit for Pat Boone in the late 1950s.

The second album in the Pop Piano Favorites set is all about Cocktail Piano. The album notes sum up these songs perfectly: “The light, inviting sound of a melodious piano, dancing along with the sparkling bubbles glistening within a glass of champagne- that is the essence of what is known as cocktail piano.” Whether cocktails are involved or not, the main point is (as the notes continue) are the feelings that the music conveys: “…a sense of buoyant warmth, of relaxation, of friendly intimacy, of amiable good cheer.”

Like Frankie Carle, Dennis Wilson was also one of the most acclaimed pianists of the mid-20th century and collaborated with other talented musicians such as Rosemary Clooney and Eartha Kitt. Wilson’s talents are amply displayed on this second record with fun, catchy tunes such as “Buttons & Bows” (a major hit for Dinah Shore) and the ever popular “That Old Black Magic” which was featured in at least four movies, most famously performed by Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop (1956).

Our third entry homes in on Rhythm Rhapsodies and is a pleasing, full-bodied blend of piano and orchestra that is compared on the album notes as being – “like a cool taste of mint running through a meltingly rich dessert.” Some of these “rich dessert” song titles speak for themselves, timeless classics such as “Canadian Sunset” and “Moonglow” which are nothing if not pure, relaxation enjoyment.

The fourth and final entry of the Pop Piano Favorites collection wouldn’t be complete without Twin Piano Fun! This record contains the liveliest tunes, combining boogie-woogie, honky-tonk and jazz styles where “talented fingers and imaginations run riot” as the liner notes aptly state. Some of the wild, whimsical tunes include “Kitten On The Keys” and “Dizzy Fingers”. All of these tunes and more can be enjoyed on Pop Piano Favorites. It is great addition to any collection of mid-century popular music and can be purchased at ://www.discogs.com