ABSTRACT
The anonymity of easy listening’s uncredited arrangers and meaningless monikers (the Sunset Strings, the Midnight Strings, the Button Down Brass) contrasts sharply to the clarity and specificity of the genre’s use of themed albums (London Souvenir, Mancini Magic: Harpsichord Mood, Electric Hair) and popular repertoire (The Rolling Stones Song Book, The Doors Songbook, The Baroque Beatles Book) as sales points. Easy listening albums were signposted to sell mass quantities, rarely to promote the musicians who actually recorded them.
