Vegas Baby!

What exactly is "lounge" music? I think there are two definitions that often intersect. One is the kind of music that flourished in the late '50s and early '60s, which took more exotic forms like the mambo and cha-cha, combined them with tiki bar Polynesian stuff, and a bit of space age, and mixed them together to make the music that we associate with bachelor pads, hi-fis, and the early days of Playboy.

The second is simply music that is often heard in cocktail lounges. This is more the sound of Vegas Baby!, one of the many offerings in the Ultra-Lounge series. I have three different CDs in the series (I just added a bunch more to my wish list on Amazon), and after listening to Dean Martin I got this off the shelf and gave it some enjoyable spins.

Las Vegas, of course, is the epicenter of the cocktail lounge. Every casino has one, often with shows deep into the night. They are usually just a singer and a small combo--no strings, just a tinkling piano, some drums (often played with brushes) and a heavy brass section. The songs are jazz standards or the equivalent, often louche.

The selections on this CD focus on either songs about the Vegas experience--money, luck, having a good time--or on performers who were famous for playing Vegas. Thus we get two Wayne Newton songs that have nothing to do with Vegas--his signature song "Danke Schoen," and "Shangri-La," which upon hearing the first few times without checking the liner notes I thought was being sung by a woman. Keely Smith and Louis Prima were also long-time Vegas headliners, and they get one song together ("That Old Black Magic"), and Smith gets one ("On the Sunny Side of the Street") and Prima gets one ("Pennies from Heaven").

There are also some heavy hitters here, including Tony Bennett and Count Basie with two numbers, Dean Martin with "Who's Got the Action?" a terrific song, even it does compare women to race horses, Sammy Davis Jr. with "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," Judy Garland with "Lucky Day," and Nat King Cole and Mel Torme to boot. The only names that are conspicuous in their absence are Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, but I'm sure that had to with securing rights. Sinatra doing "Luck Be a Lady" would have made this perfect.

There are also some singers represented here who were big at one time but not so much now. Bobby Darin, one of the quintessential lounge singers, sings "Once in a Lifetime" with the kind of verve one would expect, and closes the album with a live version (recorded at the Flamingo) of "Ace in the Hole." Some singers of an early generation, such as Steve Lawrence, Jack Jones, and Vic Damone are also here. The most contemporary artist is probably Tom Jones, with his hit "It's Not Unusual." I think my favorite of all of these songs is Peggy Lee's version of "Hey, Big Spender," with a terrific brass accompaniment.

The packaging of this CD is almost as fun as the record itself. The jewel case is covered with green felt, and an actual roulette game is on the front. The inside has some great photos of the hey-day of Vegas, with matchbooks from the great old casinos (most of them now gone, like the Stardust, The Desert Inn, the Sahara, and The Thunderbird). There's even a drink recipe, called the Royal Flush.