Italian disco-rap-pop from the early eighties that instantantly puts a smile on your face and a spring in your step. Anybody know more of mr pino or of tracks in the same genre ?

The opening track from Acid House Kings' latest record "Mondays Are Like Tuesdays and Tuesdays Are Like Wednesdays". For me the song captures perfectly what a sunday morning should feel like : it�s gentle, light, clear blue sky, sun-drenched yet with a light breeze, a certain freshness. The song represents all that with a very light, transparent, mostly accoustic arrangement, enriched with some synth strings and guitar and with the charming voice of Julia Lannerheim including some nice ba-ba-ba's. The whole album is excellent and highly recommended.

somewhat of a classic. great little easy listening track..her voice sounds very sexy, and the lyrics are so unbelievably kitchy/catchy i just keep returning to it.

Blossom Dearie is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated jazz vocalists of all time. Dearie's phrasing and piano playing within the small group arrangements on this album of standards are very, very reminiscent of Mose Allison (who just so happens to be another of my all-time favorites). On this track in particular, she delivers a very charming performance, combining the innocent ingenue with the blase urbanite.

Although Buck's "ragged old man" routine can be charming, it usually comes off feeling more like a Tom Waits rip-off than a Tom Waits homage. "Sore" is my favorite track on "Talkin' Honky Blues" because it does away with the overly-cute oddball beat poetry that Buck often indugles in and offers a more sincere and unaffected portrayal of the wayfaring nomad / poor white trucker.

Buck's in a one horse town with a broken down pick-up, left to set up shop in a shoddy motel and reflect on his life. The lyrics are country gold all rapped up pretty: "I'm drawn to familiar environments and dangers / I look in my photo albums and all I see is strangers / What is my problem?"

I'm a sucker for good desolation-hop (unfortunately for me, there isn't much out there), and "Sore" fits the bill perfectly.

A beautiful piece of soft pop. Ok, it's corny - the chord sequence is kind of soppy and the lyrics are kind of obvious, but the arrangement and singing are so lovely that I can listen to this song again and again. Opening with a catchy picked acoustic guitar riff, the arrangement soon thickens with with a full orchestra. The singing is deadly serious and amusingly precious throughout the song, and the orchestral arrangement, heavy on oboes and flutes as well as strings, is anything but hip. Still, the song’s simplicity and innocence are really quite charming. I never really got into any of Chad and Jeremy's other songs nearly so much as this one, so any recommendations for similar songs would be welcome. Do me a favor and listen to this and tell me if I’m crazy to love it so much.

Club 8, consisting of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Johan Angergaard and vcalist Karolina Komstedt, started of in the mid 90s with a twee indie pop sound, with jangly guitars (Angergaard being a major Smiths fan) and simple instrumetation. With the release of their self- titled album in 2001 they added some electronica without losing the general tone of their music which is basically well crafted, melodic, gentle, airy, etheral, melancholic indie pop. Karolina Komstedt vocals are quite similar to early Nina Person of The Cardigans or Claudine Longet in their airy, angelic, dreamlike delivery. "The Next Step You'll Take" is a bossa nova influenced track, with gentle acoustic and electric guitars, some percussion and vibraphone. Nothing groundbreaking, but they combine well known elements in such a charming, delicate way i find them hard to resist.

The idea of a funky jazz harp rendition of this classic Jim Webb song is probably cheesy to some people, but trust me, this one works brilliantly. The opening shimmers delightfully with fender rhodes piano, strings, and a huge breakbeat. Dorothy's harp then takes over, and we move into a nice pop/funk/jazz take on the song. The relentless beat is pretty funny when you compare this version to others (e.g. the Glen Campbell hit version, also Nick Cave's classic stripped down version from 'Kicking against the pricks'), but it is really very charming, happy stuff. A similar funk/pop hybrid occurs on her version of 'Windmills of your mind' - highly recommended.

This song is a little more....soulful.. than lots of the stuff I listen to. I find it utterly charming though. Dusty was a goddess, and singing this lovely, simple Goffin/King song she completely slays me. It's a slow arrangement in which Dusty is accompanied by piano, light, gospel-style backing vocals and unobtrusive strings. There's nothing complex or especially clever here; just beautifully executed and perfectly distilled pop.

Warm fuzzy electronic-future sounds from Cee-lo and Dangermouse's collective. The song is beautiful and sticky-to-the-brain at the same time, telling a charming story that could have been told during any age of the Earth. Blind Mary, marry me...

As any other hippie leaning lad would, I dabbled in the sound of The Incredible String Band in the late 60s. However, I don't remember anything sounding quite this good. "Charming" would be the key word here as the voices intertwine with big a dollop of moaning added for extra atmosphere. "This moment... is different... from any before it".

Sparsely instrumented, bossa nova-tinged ballad by New York-based Indie-Pop trio Ivy. Very breezy, airy sounding due to a delicate muted trumpet riff and Dominique Durand's charming, accented vocals (reminding me of the even more accented singing Claudine Longet).

ICI records present a promotional tune for Savlon Babycare.One for astronauts who are missing their newborns.Jackie Lee whispers to a sleeping infant as
an Hawaiian guitar gently guides sleeping child to distant imaginary galaxies,presumably peopled by grass-skirted aliens.More space commodity than Space Oddity,but all the more charming for that.

This is from a great album that I recently received as a gift. Andalucia opens with a beautiful echoey acoustic guitar. It's a tender, simple song, with delicate guitar playing, entertaining lyrics (like 'Andalucia - when can I see yer'), and a great melody. The atmosphere is enhanced by a steel guitar and some nice multitracked vocals. I guess Cale's voice is an acquired taste, but I find him rather earnest and charming.

If Burt Bacharach would produce a hawain cabaret/ukulele band under the supervision of David Lynch with songs written by aliens and Paul Mcartney they could come close to the music of John Southworth. Confused ? well, but canadian popster Southworth defies description. And it´s not just orginality for orginalitys sake. Southworth is just as interested in crafting a fine melody. Maybe his whiny voice is offputting for some but i find it all the more charming. Girl on the moon is taken from his marvelous debut album (which he sadly hasn´t topped yet although the new Yosemite comes close) Mars, pennsylvania and i believe you can find it for just 1 dollar on amazon. So, what are you waiting for ?

Always a marriage made in heaven: the voice of Karie, a J-pop queen with a whispery, heavily accented turn of phrase and the convoluted, utterly expressive lyrics of Momus.

She positions herself as Tudor successor to Catherine Parr and, although adopting a cavalier attitude to the facts of English history ("his first six wives had their heads chopped off" - er, no they didn't) the image of a vastly overweight and gout-ridden Henry playing Greensleeves on a lute to a waifish Japanese woman is charming.

Plenty of what I'm presuming are geniune Tudor instruments such as the Hand-Pumped Regal, Sackbutt and Dulcion, performed by the Dufay Collective.

This record always raises my temperature. Honest, charming, and always a delight to hear. The same chemistry that Burt Bacharach crafted comes across here without pretension or compromise. Great mix of loungey now sound and blue eyed soul. A timeless classic, and it doesn't stop there!

While miss boot's version isn't as sugary as I want it to be, this one succeeds. It starts off with the three singers giggling like the Powerpuff Girls tickling each other, and leads into the verses cooed in french, only to swing into harmonies on the chorus. The backing is like a tinkling country stroll in candy land... Very Charming.

The trio is Canadian, I believe. I tried to get the original for ages on ebay before I found this tasteful reissue from Gear Fab. I picked it up for the great scat number "Jazz A Go-Go", but this track is great for fans of Lee & Nancy and french pop.

A really nice cinema-pop gem from the team that brought us The Windmills of your Mind. Sung by Sally Stevens, one of Hollywoods great voices. Such a charming little song. It's one of those things you instantly play again after the first time you hear it. It's more or less a song about freedom, with lyrics that still sound fresh today:"...Bullets fly like popcorn on the screen, recommended wholesome nice & clean, making love's the thing that can't be seen... Why?"

Found it on this sort of cash-in LP for LeGrand's UA soundtrack work from 1970. Originally from the soundtrack for "La Piscine", which is harder than hell to find on it's own. The LP is awsome for fans of LeGrand for it has 3 tunes from "The Thomas Crown Affair" , "La Piscine" , "The Young Girls Of Rochefort" & the jazz theme from "Play Dirty".

A highly enjoyable song on many levels. Firstly, the words are ridiculous. 'Don't you know I understand you're a man, and you've got to have your kinky love' is pretty funny, but that's nothing compared to 'baby take me inside, and let the honey slide'. Musically, it's really rather charming as well, opening with just Nancy's voice and a cool watery guitar sound, building beautifully with some great strings. Even though I find myself laughing at the lyrics, she sounds very vulnerable and serious; her voice seems to break at certain points. All in all, this is really every bit as enjoyable as her superb 60s material.

Dreamy, sweet, bossa nova track with a Mexican twist. This cover of the Juao Gilberto song runs during the opening credits for the Mexican film "Duck Season," which is equally charming...

A super-simple, super-charming innocent indie pop song from the hazy summer of 1990. The popguns were a nice jangly guitar band with a female singer and the old drummer from the Wedding Present. Their best songs really are excellent; I'm slightly surprised to find myself still enjoying them after all these years.

However you look at it, this song is simply too good to have not yet been recommended by me on this site. The final track on Ride's 1991 debut, this is simple, formulaic even, but very nicely executed. It opens with the same nice chord sequence that makes up most of the song, played on a solo guitar. Mark Gardner's vocals are wavering and delicate (ok, they're a little out of tune as well), but charming. The drum beat hints at the indie-dance sensibility of the time, and is extremely catchy without being ridiculous.

The real hook of the song for me lies in the harmonies introduced by the string parts which periodically underlay the chords. As the song builds, these string arrangements become more full. The rest of the band fades away and leaves them at the end. I'm surprised at how much I still enjoy this.

This is not a typical Scott track in any sense, but is still very enjoyable. Scott's take on the often-covered 'Stormy' is charming, breezy, and (unusually for Scott) funky. The arrangement is very full, but there is a strong rhythm section which prevent the prominent strings from becoming overbearing.

Sylvie Vartan is supposedly one of the cheezier "ye ye" singers, yet I am so in love with this French cover of an American pop classic. It's so charming, the seriousness with which Sylvie Vartan approaches the song. "Must ... Locomotion ... NOW!"

A charming little song which clocks in at around 35 seconds, opening the superb 'Friends' album. In a way which complements the superb Beach Boys track 'our prayer', 'meant for you' has a slight hint of a religious, hymn-like tone, with a prominent organ sound and uplifting words. The overall effect is a very warm, beautiful track which you keep wanting to hear again.

By 1965, Brian Wilson's professional and personal lives were in such a state of constant panic that it was almost inevitable that he would turn to readily available forms of rock star relief. While his self-medication (and underlying mental illness) would ultimately render him into a poster boy for an imaginary DARE campaign, the early, merely marijuanic phase of his regimen yielded a brief but vivid string of almost absurdly gorgeous pop masterpieces. While a couple of these are permanently stamped into the forebrains of all radio listeners over a certain age ("God Only Knows," "Good Vibrations"), some remain almost unknown. Which brings us to "Wonderful," found on the Beach Boys box set, and remade a few years ago as part of the Don Was hagiography. It is a curious, brief (2 minutes) tune, austere in production (harpsichord and vocal) but staggeringly rich in harmonic interest. The melody evokes pure serenity and has no noticeable roots in any previous American pop style. Van Dyke Park's lyric is typically insane; what little one can make of it seems to dovetail with Wilson's growing religiousity, yet feels entirely physical, even pagan -- a sort of boy-loves-wood sprite nature idyll making the first movement of a really great ballet with set design by Maurice Sendak. Or something.

this is the story of... a very literate and charming band.

charming, catchy norwegian mid-60's beat pop, complete with heavily accentented vocals, simplistic lyrics and mouth harp solos.
not an important recording in any way, but it kind of rocks my boat right now, so i thought i'd share it:)

Wanna hear a demented story about a eloping teenage couple that gets eaten by a monster? Sure, I did too. And The Violent Femmes create a funny, charming story that will either leave you with a chuckle or a cringe.