"Take It Off!"
Various Artists, 1997
If
you ever wanted a collection of those classic bump-and-grind tunes, "Take
It Off" is the album for you. This Rhino release
puts together two of the best strip-at-home hi-fi records ever--"How
To Strip For Your Husband" Vol. 1 & 2 by Sonny Lester
& His Orchestra. This disc also includes a few other gems like
the instantly recognizable "The Stripper" by David Rose & His
Orchestra.
With the release of
the Kinsey Report in the 1950's, sex was taken from roadside grindhouses
to suburban bedrooms. This move to a more sexually open society made it
easier for record companies to market music that was once considered strictly
back room stag material. Add to that the advent of hi-fi technology and
the growing how-to movement and you've got the perfect album for all those
wives who wanted to add some spice to their marriage. The idea was that
maybe a wife could keep her man from visiting burlesque houses if she could
co-op some of the glamour and sexuality of dancers like Lili
St. Cyr,
Tempest Storm,
Lilly
Christine, and Blaze Starr.
The music on "Take
It Off" is fun to listen to because it invokes all those old archetypal
images of strippers and their boas, flaunting what they've got, and knocking
men off their chairs with a bump of her hips. As a side note, Rhino
has outdone themselves with the packaging of the CD. Besides great liner
notes, the cover contains one of those optical trick that if you look at
it one way the woman is a pretty blue poka dot dress, but if you tilt the
CD cover, you can see the dress disappear with the women left wearing only
her underwear. (The scan of the cover above doesn't do it justice.)
Buy this album from
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