I've had this 45 for many years. I've never understood the lyrics (and never really wanted to if truth be told) but have enjoyed getting what I can make out of them them stuck in my head from time to time. I know nothing about the band (Los Gatos Negros translates as 'The Black Cats') but I have always been intrigued by the cover. I really can't help think that the sulky looking bloke, second from the left holding the cigarette, isn't really in the mood for this photoshoot. I like to think he thinks of himself as the serious one of the group; that he found himself out-manoeuvred when the lead singer's girlfriend joined the band and they suddenly started recording frothy pop ditties like Juanita Banana instead of the heavy, weird, experimental stuff they were doing before. Maybe, just maybe, we're looking at a Spanish anti-Yoko Ono. I've no idea. Maybe he's just allergic to bananas.

I don't even know when this record was made. There are no copyright dates anywhere on the disc or the sleeve.

All that I do know about Juanita Banana I learned in the last few minutes by reading this informative blog entry:
http://poparchivesblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/juanita-banana-phenomenon.html
wherein you can access some of the other versions.

But to me this is the original and best.

A side:
Juanita Banana

B side:
Raska-Yu

I've had this LP around for a few years now and never got round to listening to it. (Though the scary plastic skull with the scary plastic eyes holds a certain horrible fascination when it stares out at me as I flick through my increasingly disordered collection.)

I will admit I had never heard of most of the shows before either, but I've been listening to a lot of 'Crime Jazz' and TV themed music recently. The incredibly catchy compilation Music for Espionage and Space Defense gets a lot of my eartime at the moment. I thought it was time to explore some of my own Themes From TV Trash Cache.

Of the tracks here, Echo Two Four is the best. A pretty terrific bit of urgent, big-band, cop show theme music - but then I have a real soft spot for kettle drums. Sadly The Avengers theme is not the great Laurie Johnston music that was used in later series. In 1961 John Steed was partnered by the less than Emma Peelish Ian Hendry and the show opened with a less than memorable bit of bland jazz by Johnny Dankworth.

Side 1
Route 66
Tightrope
The Roaring Twenties.
M-Squad
Ghost Squad
Sucu-Sucu (Theme from "Top Secret")

Side 2
Perry Mason
Maigret
The Avengers
Echo Two Four
77 Sunset Strip
Johnny Staccato