Vanilla Pop: Sweet Sounds from Frankie Avalon to ABBA | 
| Author: Joseph Lanza
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.83
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 892699
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 1556525435
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42164
EAN: 9781556525438
ASIN: 1556525435
Publication Date: February 1, 2005
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Condition: BRAND NEW!!!
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Product Description
This pop culture history serves up the soda fountain sound of the musical form that pervaded popular culture from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s: vanilla pop. The argument that vanilla, rather than being the absence of flavor, is a unique, identifiable, and underappreciated characteristic of pop music is presented. Paying tribute to vanilla pop’s mild-mannered, soft, soothing, sweet-tempered vision, the key components of this sound that freshens the ear with its extreme studio processing, high-register vocals, and sparkly acoustics are highlighted alongside its primary artists, including Frankie Avalon, Pat Boone, the Four Preps, the Carpenters, Doris Day, ABBA, and even the early-1990s balladeer Tommy Page. Beloved songs from this era such as "A Shoulder to Cry On," "A Summer Song," "For All We Know," "Johnny Angel," "Sealed with a Kiss," and "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" are also profiled. This definitive history pays tribute to a pop music in danger of being forgotten and is a gallant attempt to challenge fashionable misconceptions and refocus the world's pop sensibility to the sounds, as well as the artists, traversing the vanilla extreme.
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| Customer Reviews:
Excellent November 3, 2007
Joseph Lanza did something brave and integral with this book by dismissing the notion that American black suffering in music is a panacea for good taste and audio appreciation. Lanza not only made affluent white guilt seem ridiculous and empty, but he put forth all the flavors that made '50s and '60s white pop, rock and romanticism so great.
Doubtful anyone at this point would argue that early black jazz, blues and R&B are powerful evocations of American life in the first half of the 20th Century. Lanza, however, goes beyond viewing white pop music as a mere novelty of '50s naivete. The Norman Rockwell notion of songs like "Sh'Boom" or various Mitch Miller Singers albums are appreciated for their sonic beauty and delectible arrangement. These songs are as much flight-of-fancy... full of good times... as they are relics of a bygone era. Lanza's text holds works by the Ray Conniff Singers, the Lettermen, the Cascades and Harper's Bizarre up as All-American pieces of pop-art, giving them historical context and some good old journalistic insight on how to enjoy the music.
For my money, I haven't seen a better chapter written about producer Curt Boettcher yet. Here's hoping a Boettcher book is somewhere in the works. Until then, pick "Vanilla Pop" up and find out about the celestial sounds that inspired and sustained Boettcher and other creative minds.
 Joseph Lanza's Vanilla Pop tantalizes you taste buds June 24, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Vanilla Pop is revolutionary ! Of all the music books out there, this is the ONLY book that covers the careers of such popular artists as the Lettermen, the Four Preps, Brian Hyland and much more. He also goes into great detail about the production. There are already enough books written about the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Nirvana, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. Mr. Lanza dares to be different in a biased society where these artists are considered lame and whitebread by critics and the public alike. As much as i like rock, heavy metal, soul and disco, I also like most of the artists in Mr. Lanza's book. His writing style is excellent and is filled with wit. He also covers some cult artists, such as Sagitarius, Joe Meek, Claudine Longet and the Sandpipers. Any true fan of music should read this book, it is essential.
VANILLA ME...PLEASE!!!! June 21, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I picked up this book because of the Fabulous Cover!...With a smile on my face, I turned to the back and saw that it was about the BEST music from the 50's and 60's...I couldn't believe someone was resurecting this happy part of Music History!...I thought it was lost but now I FOUND!!!...What a TREAT...behind the scenes happening..the producers and the risk takers..to make the 60's Scene absolutely a DREAMY etching in Our Plexes!...Cool Pics to go with the info!...I've finished..but I take it to bed and read one chapter a night for a Shot of Nostalgic Smiles!...Thank You Joseph Lanza!!!
 Sweetness w/o Equal January 26, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Funny that "Vanilla" should be such a rarefied taste, yet seekers of information on the musically arcane have few other places to turn if they want to learn more about Claudine Longet, Curt Boettcher, the Mike Curb Congregation, Harpers Bizarre or the Doodletown Pipers. The man who wrote the definitive volume on elevator music is back with a survey course on the sweet AM radio fodder that has been unfairly dismissed as MOR schlock but has come back into vogue thanks to folks like the Aluminum Group, Cinerama and even Belle & Sebastian. I find the writing at times somewhat ponderous for a sound that is lighter than air, but Lanza's sly wit helps alleviate his pedantic tendencies. He titles his chapter on the sweet'n'sour sound of the Carpenters "Someone Left the Cake out in the Rain" and his chapter on ABBA is called "Vanilla Ice." You'll likely learn something as you read both.
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