Bora Bora, OST by Les Baxter (American International Records, USA, 1970).

When this steamy sexploitation film, directed by Italian Ugo Liberatore, came to the American marketplace in 1970, Les Baxter, one of the main mover/shakers of the late 1950s Exotica boom, was called upon to write a completely new soundtrack for it. Why, I’m really not sure, as Piero Piccioni had already written one in 1968 and from what little I’ve heard of it, it was a stunner (and sadly, a damn sight more difficult to get hold of than this record).

I’ve not seen the movie, and nor shall I bother, as I learned the hard way, long ago, not to waste too much of my time watching films simply because I had enjoyed the soundtrack on vinyl. A quick read up, and the synopsis reveals a tale of a married  French woman on the loose on Tahiti, shacked up with a virile local. Sacre blue. Her husband tracks her down and attempts to win her back by proving the quality of the lead in his pencil. How? By putting it about with the local totty who, of course, are only too willing to oblige. What? Are we in Europe so idiotic as to really believe that just because people wear less clothes than us, they are in a constant state of arousal? Will they really fornicate in the street at the drop of a hat just because they are hot? I have recently experimented with turning the central heating up a degree or two at home, and I can assure you that it does not result in an violent unleashing of passion. It just makes me tired.

Listen to Les, skip the skin flick.

Listen to ‘Ciao Italia’ by Bruno Nicolai (Edi-Pan, Italy, 1976).

Everyone likes a bit of Italian library music from time to time, and I’m no exception. Trouble is, it’s often silly money, and then you need to pay the Italian postman to boot. Happily, this particular record was offered to the entire world on ebay but nobody wanted it except me, so it cost a fiver (and I only had to pay that lovely English postie). At such a low price I was expecting a load of old rubbish, but as you will hear in the sound clip, it’s a satisfying hotch-potch of spikey jazz, cheap sounding electronic drum patterns, funky riffs that suddenly wander off down ‘jaunty street’, fuzzy guitar pop/rock instrumentals and sunny bossa. Not to mention the wonderful spoken word interludes that serve as postcards home throughout the record. There is also a smooth vocal number sung by Fred Bongusto. (I wish ‘Bongusto’ was my surname).

‘Ciao Italia’ was released on Bruno Nicolai’s own library label, Edi-Pan, but it appears to be an original soundtrack to a film of the same name that I know nothing about.

Ciao, for now.

Listen to three tunes from the OST to ‘Breezy’ (MCA, 1973, USA) composed by Michel Legrand.

If you are even only slightly diverted by film soundtracks you will be aware of Legrand, a towering figure in jazz and cinematic music for many decades. However, if you find yourself in the camp that doesn’t know its Pinocchio from its Piccioni, then Michel Legrand (or ‘The Big Michael’ as he is known round here), is the composer of ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’ and ‘The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg’. So, now you know.

His score to this 1973 Clint Eastwood directed movie about an older man finding solace through the love of a nubile young hippy chick (yawn), isn’t an OST one sees around too often, so when it appeared on a very, very long list of soundtrack records being auctioned on ebay a few months back, I picked it out, along with a few other cherries.

To be honest, it doesn’t set the world on fire, which is most likely why it has never  aroused much attention. However, it does have a, dare I say it, breezy, pastoral appeal, which makes for particularly successful, lazy summer listening, experienced at its best on the Shelby Flint sung title song (Flint was once cited by Joni Mitchell as the singer that she most wanted to sound like during the embryonic stage of her career). And of course, it also has a wonderful, long Legrand trademark big band jazz number, subtly fuzzed guitar, dancing electric bass,  horns a-blazing and the man himself at the piano.