Friday nights at 8 & Saturday nights at 11 on WILL-FM
The show, simply put, is a celebration of the golden age of the hi-fi and beyond! It's American popular music from the 1950s and 1960s with a few modern numbers thrown in for good measure.
This week, on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, we’re Mad About Mercer…Johnny Mercer that is. We take another deep dive into the songs of one of the most important lyricists of the hi-fi era. We’ll hear from Tony Bennett, June Christy, Aretha Franklin and many more.
Coming up, on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, a look at the 1990s Lounge Revival. A time when folks were rediscovering the sounds of the hi-fi era and classic Atomic Age artists were being pop stars again. We’ll hear from Joey Altruda, Pat Boone, Combustible Edison, and many more.
On The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, it’s That Nelson Riddle Touch. Another look at the one of the great arrangers of the hi-fi era and all the talented people he worked with. We’ll hear from Nat King Cole, Jack Jones, Peggy Lee, and many more.
Coming up on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, we’re keeping things Light and Breezy. It’s an hour of snappy songs from the hi-fi era, all performed with a light touch. We’ll hear from Barney Kessel, Blossom Dearie, Bobby Hackett, and many more.
This week, on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, it’s another of our Atomic Samplers. A tasting menu, if you will, of lots of the good stuff you normally here on the program. We’ve got a big helping of crime jazz along with the Twist ala lounge, and some tunes from the 1990’s Lounge Revival.
Coming up, on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, Blame it on the Bossa Nova! In the 1960s, the Bossa Nova was all the rage and just about everyone wanted to get into the bossa action…which led to some really wonderful and some really interesting recordings. We’ll hear from Eydie Gorme, Paul Anka, The Hi-Lo's, and many more.
On this week’s Atomic Age Cocktail Party, we are bringing out the brass! Terrific Trombones is what we’re calling it. A look at some of the great trombone players and trombone records of the hi-fi era. We’ll hear from Warren Covington, Jack Teagarden, Si Zentner, and many more.
This week, on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, we’re enjoying Penthouse Pianos. Piano styling that are lush and cosmopolitan and filled with all the swank-ness you would expect from the Atomic Age. We’ll hear from Steve Allen, André Previn, Ferrante & Teicher, and many more.
This week, on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, it’s Magical Mambos! Another deep dive into the wild and wonderful mambo music that came out during the height of the mambo craze of the 1950s. We’ll hear from Cal Tjader, Joe Loco, Tito Rodríguez, and many more.
This week, on The Atomic Age Cocktail Party, it’s Tiki Music. That catch-all term we now use that encompasses a wide swath of tropical-inspired styles that includes Exotica and Hawaiian music. We’ll hear from Webley Edwards, Robert Drasnin, The Tikiyaki Orchestra, and many more.
Jason Croft has been collecting, enjoying, and programming lounge, easy-listening, and other music of the Atomic Age for over two decades. Now he is sharing this genre with you every Saturday and Sunday night with the Atomic Age Cocktail Party on WILL-FM. When he’s not knee-deep in his record collection, he’s the Technical Director for The 21st, local host for Here and Now, and one of the voices of AM580 on the weekends.
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