Reading about space age pop is fine, but listening is better! The following pages provide recommendations on representative recordings in some of the primary categories of this un-categorizable genre, as well as a candidate list of the ten albums that have come to epitomize space age pop and exotica.
Thanks to a recent burst of releases and reissues, some of these albums are in print in CD form. But most are rewards that await you at the end of hours of thumbing through Night Ranger and Barbra Streisand albums in thrift stores and flea markets. Keep at it, though: persistence pays off!
- Ten Basic Space Age Pop Albums
- And Now for a Tune from Our Sponsor
- Ball-R-Us: High Society Bands
- Big Bands Tackle Now Sounds
- Bongos, Baby, Bongos!
- Classics--With a Beat!
- Cool Crimes
- Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Trombones
- Herb Alpert and the Ti-Wannabes
- Hipsters, Flipsters, and Finger-Poppin' Daddies
- Honky-Tonk Piano Plunkers
- How the West was Swung: Jazz Westerns
- Just Squeeze Me: Accordionists
- Let's Play Spot the Ondioline!
- Love Those Vocal Groups!
- Perdurable Percussion Platters
- Oddball Instrumentalists
- One Hundred and One String Groups
- Organ Odysseys
- Overseas Ventures: A Globe Full of Great Guitar Groups
- Savage Rituals: Jungle Exotica
- Siren Songs: Wordless Vocalists
- Sophisticated Savages: Jungle Jazz
- Space Escapades
- Spy Sounds
- Tapeheads and Sound Effects Geeks