This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Wild, cool and swingin.’ You’d be hard-pressed to find three better adjectives for hilarious hepcat and Vegas legend Louis Prima — which makes him the perfect crooner to kick off this new series of Ultra-Lounge albums spotlighting kitschy-cool vocalists from years gone by.
And kick it off with a bang he does — musically, this two-CD set is the finest Prima collection ever assembled, with 44 songs and 140 minutes of Louis’s lasagne lunacy, his partner-in-rhyme Keely Smith’s cool chanteusing and sax man Sam Butera’s honking horn. Two previously unreleased tracks are what had me salivating, but you don’t have to be a fan to dig the man who taught Brian Setzer to Jump, Jive An’ Wail and showed David Lee Roth it was OK to be Just A Gigolo. Of course, while Louis was the king of the Desert Inn lounge, Bobby Darin was the star in the big room. Forget Splish Splash, kitten; this set is strictly Darin done debonair, with plenty of ring-a-ding-ding and finger-popping swing as the big B loosens the tux tie and croons his way through happenin’ hits like As Long As I’m Singing and I Got Rhythm. Finally, over in the comedy club, you’ll find ’60s cult figure Mrs. Miller, who definitely ain’t got rhythm. Or melody. One of the most bizarre and least talented singers ever waxed — imagine what Tiny Tim’s mom might have sounded like if she made records — Miller woefully warbles, whistles and generally blunders her way through every song put in front of her, whether it be The Girl From Ipanema or Yellow Submarine. Wild, she’s got in spades. Cool and swingin’, I’m not so sure about.
