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:: Watermelon Man ::

:: Surfin' USA ::

:: Pipeline ::

:: Alley Cat ::

:: South Street ::

Al Caiola has played a lot of guitar over the years. This time out, he takes on the top pop hits of 1963 with his swank, rich-as-mama's-Besciamella guitar stylings, backed by one of the the breeziest orchestras I've ever heard. I was particularly interested in what he'd do with the surf numbers, and I wasn't disappointed. A lot of this stuff is sort of dinner music, but I really dig the organ playing -- it kind of reminds me of the playing on Sinatra's Strangers In The Night album. Every once in a while, there's some undeniably 60's vocal work that really makes me want to do a Laugh-In style dance around my living room. Did I just type that? Speaking of sights, when I hear "South Street," I can picture Phil dancing along in his kitchen in his boxers while he makes eggs for breakfast. For those of you who know Phil and can actually picture that, I am sorry.



Back to Al Caiola -- he's still around, and to show you we've come full circle, one of his grandsons messaged me on MySpace recently because we have his grandpa listed as one of our heroes. And he is.


Tony

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