VA - Take It Off! Striptease Classics (1997)

David Rose's "The Stripper," with its now instantly recognizable bump-and-grind blare, was a fluke number one hit in 1962. It leads off this collection of early-'60s instrumental music specifically made (and, more to the point, marketed) with burlesque titillation in mind. Roulette Records was spurred to devise two entire instrumental LPs of "The Stripper"-styled music, titled Ann Curio Presents: How to Strip for Your Husband/Music to Make Your Marriage Merrier and Ann Curio Presents: More How to Strip for Your Husband, Vol. 2/Music to Make Marriage Merrier. These were performed by the obscure Sonny Lester & His Orchestra; indeed, as material from those two LPs comprises 19 of this CD's 22 tracks, you might as well consider this a Sonny Lester compilation, rather than a general striptease one. It's as silly and harmlessly fun as you'd expect, with winking, showbizzy horn lines and sultry rhythms that look to "The Stripper" for inspiration, but aren't quite as memorable as that hit single. "The Stripper" is available on numerous compilations, and that sole track should satisfy most consumers. The disc does tack on a couple of singles in the strip mold: the Genteels' "Take It Off" (1962) has twangy guitar lines out of Duane Eddy, and Bobby Summers' "Pad" (1962) has more stuttering, modern rhythms than the ones deployed by Lester and Rose.