Do do that voodoo that you do so well

Oh, here we go again - back to work...

Never mind, eh? It's a short week thanks to Easter, I'll be trawling the garden centres of Essex on the weekend, and I am off all next week, so that's something to look forward to!

We have another raft of birthday celebrants today, including Sir Michael Caine, Albert Einstein, Quincy Jones, Mrs (Isabella) Beeton, Eleanor Bron, Bill Owen (aka "Compo" from Last of the Summer Wine), Johann Strauss I, Billy Crystal, Diane Arbus, Casey Jones, Rita Tushingham, Les Brown, Jasper Carrott, Jona Lewie and the gorgeous Ansel Elgort...

...and it would also have been the birthday of (another) "King of Lounge Music", the creator of the sound fondly known as "exotica" Mr Les Baxter!

On This Tacky Music Monday, here's a perfect way to awake from our dreams...

Les Baxter - Voodoo Dream

Have a good week, dear reader.

Fly me away

Considering it is June already - and in a couple of weeks' time it will officially be MID-Summer's Day - the weather is stubbornly refusing to co-operate. No sooner is one settled, feeling the warmth of sun on skin, then... whoosh! Dark clouds, rain and gloom descend.

Sigh.

Gripe over. Time, once again, to wallow in the lives of glamorous people in exotic locations, methinks - in the company of Mr Les Baxter:

Les Baxter - Shadow of Love

Oh, that's better...

Do do that Voodoo that you do so well

"Cocktail Lounge is the first step to their ruin..."

I do so agree - and here's the magnificent Les Baxter to prove it!

Les Baxter - Voodoo Dream

Now that's what Clare Teal on her Radio 2 show on Sunday nights would call "a trip to the dark side"...

Fabulous.