I posted a clip of Dick Dale performing Misrilou in the thread about his passing and it brought to mind a version of the song predating Dale's version that was also very popular. In the 50s and 60s, there was a popular style of music known as "Loungire Music", which was mainly instrumental, and is sometimes referred to as "mood music'; a subset of "Lounge" was "Exotica", music based on styles from parts of the world such as the Middle East, South America, etc. A lot of the music of this type was pretty cheesy and about as authentic as the Disneyland Jungle Cruise. This clip is by a musician/bandleader/composer named Martin Denny whose Exotica compositions and adaptations were hugely popular; this is Denny's rendition of Misirlou:
This clip is a newer rendition of the same song I came across about a while ago when I was looking up the music of a female violinist whose composition I'd heard on radio; this isn't the person I was looking for, but this was a pleasant surprise, nonetheless:
<O>
__________________
__________________________________________________ __
|