The smoky haze clears to reveal a middle-aged couple on a one-foot high stage, prattling on about the weather or Watergate before launching into a serviceable cover of Burt Bacharach’s “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?” Tens of thousands of such combos littered restaurants, cruise ships, casinos, lobbies, and cocktail bars throughout the ’60s and ’70s, but far fewer cut a record worth buying from the stage, much less listening to on the home hi-fi. Gathered here are 14 lounge originals from across the entire easy listening spectrum. A spent matchbook’s worth of crooners, bossa nobodies, seafood jazzers, and Donca-Matic enthusiasts all in search of their ticket out of a red leather booth hell.

Blue Eyed Soul Ain't No Weight
The Do's and Don'ts No One to Talk my Troubles To
Jan Tober & Ron Satterfield Focus
Richard Powell World of Ecstasy
Chuck Senrick Kids
Justen O'Brien & Jake These Moments Now
Terri Schmidt Closer to Your Heart
Joey Edmonds Blue
Tom Dae Just as Long as You Are Mine
Nick Gillette Why
Mike Munoz Old LA
James Moonset
Cleveland Jones In Spite of Myself
Mood Mystics The Winds of Mars