Joe Loss & His Orchestra - Wheels (Cha Cha)

ORIGINATION Latin À La Loss
LAST LISTENED TO early last year
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT teeny tiny
RATING

Joe Loss was an incomparible British band leader, who performed from the '30s through until the '80s. As you'd probably expect, Loss and his orchestra ran the full gamut of easy listening. Starting out in a kinda savoy jazzy way, they always moved with the times. In the early '60s all things latin were gaining popularity with both the easy listeners and the swingers and Loss, ever one for following fashion, jumped on that wagon.

Wheels had been originally been a bit of a hit for an instrumental rock'n'roll outfit from Texas called The String-A-Longs. Loss took their tune and easified it: he made it something that the older folks could dance to as well. It's got a lovely latin rhythm and a very proper-sounding brass section. A quite clean guitar. Really everything is just quite polite, but with the feeling that at the time it might've been just a wee bit racy. If you can imagine a fairly smooth WWII big band and the give it some tasty latin licks, you're pretty much there.

Loss' version was quite popular on the right side of the Altantic and there's a good chance that most folks from dear old blightly will know this tune, even though they'd never be able to tell you what it was. It's deep down in the British collective subconscious and we've no idea how it got there. In fact, to hear it even once it to never forget it and, most than likely, spend the best part of the following days humming it.