When I was younger the term easy listening applied to old fogey music from the 1950s or even earlier. Think Glenn Miller and In the Mood or Bing Crosby and Don't fence me in.
Easy Listening was a term of abuse, it made you unhip. BBC 4 celebrates the uncool by making it hip and happening. The passing years have meant pop and rock music from the 1960s and 1970s have transformed into easy listening. Even an Oasis single from the mid 1990s, Wonderwall can become easy listening if you add enough cheese to it.
So here spend a hour listening to the likes of James Last & his orchestra who made a literal killing with easy listening albums sold by the bucket loads, The Carpenters but the real kings of easy listening and who elevated this genre into an art form, Bacharach and David. Their songs interpreted by others could in places be sublime.
Of course it is not all good news. The programme has its share of bland, euro medleys and the infernally cheery but bad music.
Easy Listening was a term of abuse, it made you unhip. BBC 4 celebrates the uncool by making it hip and happening. The passing years have meant pop and rock music from the 1960s and 1970s have transformed into easy listening. Even an Oasis single from the mid 1990s, Wonderwall can become easy listening if you add enough cheese to it.
So here spend a hour listening to the likes of James Last & his orchestra who made a literal killing with easy listening albums sold by the bucket loads, The Carpenters but the real kings of easy listening and who elevated this genre into an art form, Bacharach and David. Their songs interpreted by others could in places be sublime.
Of course it is not all good news. The programme has its share of bland, euro medleys and the infernally cheery but bad music.
