Bachelor in Paradise

Bachelor In Paradise | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 29, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Delta
• ASIN: B000001W3W
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,742,196 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rod McKuen, Wontcha Please Go Home?, August 9, 2003

By 

winkingtiger ";oD" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bachelor in Paradise (Audio CD)

The master of 'not getting it', Rod McKuen, tackles yet another decade with this stab at 'Lounge'. Anyone unfortunate enough to have read his poems knows that Rod doesn't 'get' poetry. Anybody unlucky enough to hear Mr. McKuen's lame entries in the 'twist' craze of the early 60's ('Celebrity Twist' and 'Oliver Twist' ugh!), knows that Rod doesn't 'get' dance music either. Now here he is... back again, producing this so-called 'lounge' compilation in a lame attempt to jump on the mid-90's lounge bandwagon craze. No less than three songs on this compilation just so happen to be written by Rod McKuen, and he produced the disc too!

Once again, he just doesn't 'get' it. Everything on here (with 3 exceptions) is complete and utter muzak! Strings are knee-deep on virtually every cut, and none of them 'swing' in any sense. The Ezio Pinza tune is so awful, I dare anyone to listen to it all the way through! And Rod's tunes are of course...lousy. The 3 exceptions I mentioned earlier are 'Lisbon Antigua' (available on the far superior 'Ultra-Lounge' series, please, get any of them rather than this!), 'Bo Mambo' by Yma Sumac (inferior to any of her cuts on Ultra-Lounge), and the Dave Brubeck-esque 'Like Blue' by Andre Previn & his Trio. Andre Previn? Yes, IMHO, this album is way off-base in calling itself 'lounge'. Great graphics though, but they're hardly a reason to buy it.

In conclusion, I'd just like to say that sometimes when artists get something wrong, it can be very entertaining and funny (see Ultra-Lounge's 'On The Rocks' series), just not in this case. I can't wait till McKuen does an electronica compilation....

2.0 out of 5 stars Good, but deceptive, November 15, 2010

By 

Edward Bremson "eddie80" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bachelor in Paradise (Audio CD)

First off, I'm a big fan of Space Age Pop (or Bachelor Pad music), and I love CD compilatons of this music. I feel like the compilations are often a fantastic and effective way of highlighting the many eclectic recordings in this genre. This CD, however, is mostly disappointing and rather deceptive. When I played it, song after song (with the exception of 4 or so tracks) was in the vein of Light music, the kind they'd play in romantic movies of the '40s or '50s. Few swingin', groovin' space age pop or exotica tracks were present, instead sappy, strings-and-piano mood music was the primary focus. I would not normally have a problem with this, since I enjoy most Light music I hear (including from this compilation). The problem is, if the producer was attempting to make a 'bachelor's den' compilation, he should've cared to look into many of those old vintage hip albums that were recorded in the mid-century, Martin Denny, Sid Bass, or their myriad contemporaries. These selections don't really do the job.

I did like Esquivel's 'Snowfall,' a little-heard piece from one of his later albums. Yma Sumac (Bo Mambo, from MAMBO!), Tito Puente, and Andre Previn were also good to hear, and good selections for a compilation at that. The rest of the album was so moody and soft that it actually made these songs seem horribly out of place, and the opposite should be the case.

For anyone who is looking for space age pop, don't expect to find much that's inspiring and evocative on this album(although I can't personally say that I entirely regret the purchase myself). If you want authentic space age pop compilations, check out the Ultra Lounge compilations, the Incredibly Strange Music compilations, and possibly Calvert Deforest's Erotic Experience (definitely a step above this).