Ports of Paradise (Remastered)

Ports of Paradise was originally issued by Capitol in 1960 as an exotica orchestral and vocal album centered on the various parts of the South Pacific — Hawaii in particular (which makes it no mistake that Mountain Apple decided to reissue it on CD). Essentially, it is a misguided theme recording with the voices of Alfred Newman, Ken Darby, and Mavis Rivers along with wildly overblown orchestration, unhinged dynamics, and a sense of otherness that was common for the space age pop and mood music of the era. While one can hear elements of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony in here, and even bits of Debussy's La Mer, what is heard most is something like Mantovani meeting Lawrence Welk, Guy Lombardo, and Eugene Ormandy with the Boston Pops fronted by vocalists imagining the South Pacific after having only read books about it. The reading of "My Little Grass Shack" is particularly hilarious.