Capitol Records tried to cash in on the '90s lounge revival with its "Ultra-Lounge" series--albums that pulled tracks from the label's vaults that fell under some of the umbrellas that came to associated with lounge including crooners, mambos, space-age sounds, and tiki bar music. In 1996, it released Christmas Cocktails, with series compiler Brad Benedict pulling together holidays songs from those genres.
It was so successful that Capitol released Christmas Cocktails Vol. 2 in 1997, then Christmas Cocktails Vol. 3 much later in 2012 with a different, more pedestrian creative team. By that point, Benedict and the Ultra-Lounge creative team had gone on to Shout Factory Records for the "Wonderland" series, three similar compilations of Christmas music that had different label libraries to draw from.
Christmas Cocktails was influential at the time and is still fondly remembered, so this week I'm discussing it with the King of Jingaling, Brad Ross MacLeod from one of the OG Christmas mp3 blogs, falalalalala.com.
We talk about his site, lounge, reissues, nostalgia, the contemporary music that bridged these songs from the late 1950s and early '60s with the music of the '90s when the first two volumes came out.
Along the way, we talk about Peggy Lee, who I discussed in an episode with her granddaughter Holly Foster-Wells in 2021.
The Smithereens and ChristmasUnderground.com
Joss Stone
Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips - An Encore Presentation
Children’s Music at Christmas with Laurie Berkner
Low and ”Just Like Christmas”- an Encore Presentation
”A Charlie Brown Christmas” with Derrick Bang
Bruce Cockburn
Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones
José James
Julian Koster and His Singing Saws
Susan Cowsill of The Cowsills
Filmmaker Mitchell Kezin and ”Jingle Bell Rocks!”
Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel
A ”Molto Groovy Christmas” with Carlo Poddighe
”Last Christmas” with Annie Zalenski
Highlights of the First 100 Episodes, Pt. 5
Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 4
Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 3
Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 2
Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 1
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