Mel Henke was a pretty straight-laced guy. He was a masterful piano player and earned his living scoring commercials and a few TV series from the late 50s and into the 60s.
Most of his studio albums were, to my ears anyway, pretty conventional arrangements of then-current-day hits. Nothing to write home about.
But his 1962 masterpiece, La Dolce Henke, is another thing entirely. It’s a bunch of jazzy compositions, mostly original works, punctuated by instrument-based sound effects peppered with suggestive double-entendre voiceovers. It’s classy stuff that may have been considered mildly scandalous back in the 60s to its intended audience of shorthairs.
Lucky for you it’s a part of Basic Hip’s free samples for a limited time. Grab it while you can. It’s definitely one of my favorites from the sharity scene.
Update: It’s been removed from the free samples. Out-of-business record label Scamp re-released it on CD back in 1997, and you can find it from a few sellers on Amazon: La Dolce Henke
