60s era give or take. Not rock, not jazz, not classical. Variously called "pop", "easy listening", "MOR" (middle of the road), "beautiful music", "elevator music" (by it's detractors) and lounge (when re-discovered by post boomers).
It was a staple of the major labels who each had their own somewhat "in house" orchestra leaders/arrangers, studio musicians etc. There was a ton of this music on radio back when. There was a ton released on commercial pre-recorded reel to reel tape. (I have a ton of it on reel to reel!)
I, as a baby boomer, have mixed feelings and a love/hate relationship with all this, having been overly exposed to this sort of thing from my youth via the AM radio on all day as background music in our house.
It can be as exciting as Sinatra with Nelson Riddle in the Capitol era or as mundane as Ray Conniff, Lawrece Welk, the Tijuana Brass and the ubiquitous infamous 101 Strings. The thing is, the record labels threw their energy into this stuff and promoted it to average adults in this era and at least some of it is very well arraigned, performed and recorded.
Rock was largely dismissed by comparison, as unimportant and was often poorly recorded until the late 60s, How many teenagers bought reel to reel anyway. (All of us, I know, but we were the exception!)
So, does anyone have any favorites in this genre? Any possibilities that would make the grade as a Tape Project release?
