The Wildest!

Jazz standards by monkey guy from jungle book

Just a rip roarin good time. I want whatever drugs Louis is having.

Any album containing a song played by Marvin Berry and the Starlighters for the Enchantment Under the Sea dance is good enough for me! In a word though, this album is "joyous", end-to-end. It lands like a band of musicians who really are have a great time playing together and a band leader that is both putting on the act for the crowd and having fun goofing for the band itself. Even songs with titles like "(I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You" lands like playful teasing between friends. I'll definitely be coming back to this album again and again. Worth every star. Interesting aside, this is the first album where I noticed the wikipedia page pointed to the book that appears to be the source material for this site's list. Spoiler alert.

there’s only so much scatting one girl can take

I will not tell you how many songs in I was when I realized that Louis Prima voiced the orangutan king in The Jungle Book (facepalm). But this is my kind of cooking music! I particularly like the vocal quality of the female singer (Keely Smith I’m guessing?) and the harmony sections. Remarkable how many of these songs start with nearly the exact same walking bass line from the piano, just in different keys (listen to the first few seconds of #1, #3 and #6). There was an Italian grocery store down the street from our last apartment in Long Island and this is very much the type of music they played, so it was a nostalgic listen. Final thought - did “gigolo” mean something different in 1956?

It was unfair to take this photo while the man was yawning. Having said that, he has good top teeth. The bottom teeth are either missing or hidden.

I bet you this would've been super fun to see live. New Orleans truly has a fantastic music scene, and Mr. Prima must've been the absolute king. Love the sense of humor and the lively brass. Favorite tracks: "Buono Sera", "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead", "Jump Jive an' Wail"

Quite enjoyable from King Louis

Funny, energetic recording of Prima's legendary live show. It's loose and irreverent, uptempo and hilarious. Prima takes liberties with his own material and jazz standards to create a raucous big band experience that leans towards the coming RnB.

Love it, makes me want to dance. The oldest one yet and the funniest one probably

[Exterior: Brooklyn, New York. Summer 1961. We fade into a street level view of a working class neighborhood, a block of Brownstone, 3 story walkups. Boys clad in white t-shirts and slacks play stickball in the middle of the street. Girls skip rope on the sidewalk. In the distance, a fire hydrant has been uncapped, spraying water into the street for children splash around in: a welcome reprieve on an unrelentingly hot August day. The camera pans from street level and slowly zooms in on a window on the third floor of one of the Brownstones] [Interior: Third floor apartment living room with adjoining kitchen - A man, mid 40’s, wearing a ratty sleeveless undershirt sits in an armchair, listening to a record play on his console stereo. He is smoking a cigarette and reading the newspaper. A small silver metallic fan stationed on a nearby end table oscillates slowly, providing the slightest bit of relief from the punishing heat. His wife, Marie, is in the kitchen making a jello mold with the fruit she picked up at the market earlier in the day. The man taps his foot to the record…eventually his eyes light up, struck by an idea.] The man says to his wife: “Oh, Marie! Why didn’t you tell me there was going to be some porno jazz on this 1001 albums list?!? This is fantastic! I tell you what…you call the Lombardi’s, you tell them to get their asses over here at 7pm for dinner. They gotta hear this fuckin’ record…unbelievable! I’m gonna head down to the butcher, get some braciole, some gabagool…it’s gonna be a party!” [end scene]

I bet Louis Prima and David Lee Roth would have been fast friends. After listening to this album, I have a sneaky suspicion that Diamond Dave patterned his entire lead singer persona on Prima. We should have known this when one of the first things Roth did after leaving Van Halen was to cover "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody". You can totally picture Roth singing a lot of these lyrics scored to Eddie Van Halen's manic guitars and Michael Anthony providing the background vocals instead of Keely Smith. And I'm also guessing Diamond Dave's lifetime dream would be to voice an orangutan in a Disney movie. Similar to most things involving Roth, this thing is a freaking party. I love an album cover that tells you everything it's all about. Look no further to hear why Louis Prima was called The King Of Swing. What an absolute joy.

This is wild alright! Also rich and engaging, I just ordered the vinyl.

I'm a big fan of this particular brand of swing music, where it's got this energy and gibberish and craziness to the lyrics. It feels like a party to me, and it connects with me a lot more than straight Jazz.

I actually enjoyed this more then I expected - but a whole album of trumpet-y swing is a bit much for me

Great 50's party music. The band is red hot and the lyrics are quite amusing. Hard to be depressed while listening to this stuff!

I like this way more than I expected. It sounds like people having a great time. The harmony in the brass and vocals is really satisfying, and their voices are really cool individually.

This was bloody awful. It was like listening to a whole album of Joe Dolce. I prefer Dave Lee Roth's version of Just a Giglio - and that's saying something. The only relief was when the instrumentals silenced the 'humour'.

I feel like you would have to hate music/fun not to enjoy this.

Love hearing him tell his band to let it rip on their solos - SING UP. The call and response songs are great too, especially the Lip. Some of them are funny as well - Glad When You're Dead and the twist at the end of Banana Split is hilarious.

eifach orang-utan moment ich lieb d rueh aber au lebensfreud wommer iwie us de musig ghört s albumcover passt au seeehr guet ich lieb wenner iwie nonsense singt BANANA SPLIT FOR MY BABYYYYY fuck es macht so spass hahahah aso geg de schluss hani chli abghenkt aber so es klars 4i

Pure fun! This is such a joyful album. I love Louis's voice and the playful way he engages the other contributors. Everything about this evokes carefree, don't take life too seriously fun vibes. I like it a lot!

Super fun and energetic! Great mix of traditional songs, comedy songs, and instrumentals. Holds up really well -especially with so much comedic content - for being from the 50s. Just jazzy enough without being overbearing and a great example of (mostly) using scat and ad libs without being annoying or overtaking the song. Several great tracks but Banana Split is a delight!

This is great party music. I'd heard David Lee Roth's cover of "Just a Jigalo", and I much prefer Louis Prima's version. But it's so cool to hear where that came from.

What a blast! Some good blues and jazz by the guy that voiced King Louie in Disney's Jungle Book? Sign me up! Starts out with Just A Gigolo, just an absolute fun time. For My Baby and Basin Street Blues were still good, and those were the weakest songs. The Lip, Oh Marie, and Buona Sera are just amazing. Body And Soul is an instrumental, normally I rate those a bit lower, but this was just incredible. Great trumpet music. And then there's the classic, Jump Jive An' Wail, always a great listen. Ending up on the funny You Rascal You. Normally I just listen to the album as it was released, but I ended up listening to the extended version of this one. All the songs are 3s and 4s, but overall the album is better than the sum of its parts. Such fun, I had a smile on my face the whole way through. Loved it! Best song: Just A Gigolo

My Dad LOVED Louis Prima and would play him w/ Keely Smith all the time. I think he imagined he and my Mom as a version of them. So I can't listen to this objectively, and it was great to hear him again, especially "The Lip" which I always loved. Here's to you, Dad!

So this site tells you what your favorite genres and artists and decades are after rating enough albums, and for the bulk of me doing it it's been telling me my favorite decade for music is the '50s? Which is funny because I listen to like, no music from the '50s. But I think it's because the sample size of '50s albums is much smaller, and all of the albums I've heard from this from the '50s so far have just been a lot of fun and perfectly pleasant and haven't been as strongly love or hate as the rest. So I guess my favorite decade will remain the '50s because this was so much fun. This is just really enjoyable and dancey swing music with some jazz and 12 bar blues thrown in too. This was fun!!

Great harmonies and great horns. It’s impressive that he could take one song that was 25 years old and another that was 40 and make them modern hits (that others have covered as recently as ‘17). This had me smiling and swinging, from start to finish. Keely Smith has great vocals in front and in harmony.

Oh this is a lot of fun. A lot of joy. It's a gem..5 stars.

This album has a song where the singer wishes death upon a friend who ate too many meatballs.

This album was so fun!!! I loved it from start to finish. Some of the lyrics even made me laugh out loud. The only way it could have been better is if I knew all the words by heart so I could have sung along.

The warmest, the strongest, the wildest! Fuuuck just a gigolo isch jo mol crazy guet. Gad zwei mol glost. For you I'd learn how to bake a pie, okee da isch scho no cute. I find amel chli schwierig wenn lüüt seged bring back the good times. Aber wenn hesch s letscht mol e pärli ghört zweistimmig scatte Uiii noone plays high notes like the lip! Wieso isch de song so funny? Nocher die nöchste paar sind meh chli standart songs. Sehr guet aber nöd meega bsunders. Uultra solids album und eifach en vibe wod nüm so ghörsch, dases so funny druf sind. Ussert in punk und so.

Całkiem zajebisty stary jazz.

i really liked this one! it's a good new orleans swing record. really fun and energetic. you can tell it would have been a great party record in the 1950s. louis' energy here is infectious and the entire band follows suit. some songs are sung by keely smith, who also does a good job but i feel like her solo songs are the more ballady, less fun songs. regardless, the album is a really joyful listen.

Overall fun

I love it!

kezdem nagyon nem szeretni ezt az öt csillagot, mert óriási menőség ez, rebellis meg hangos meg vicces, csak nem szerettem bele olyan olthatatlanul, hogy ötöst adjak. 😬

This is quirky. Jump, Jive, An'Wail is a rock solid rock steady standard. You Rascal You is also very fun.

Swingin’ jazz and blues that’s fun and full of energy. So many songs just erupt into a nebula of exuberant raucousness. Lead playing is very lyrical. Just a pleasant listen overall - it’s hard to imagine someone completely disliking it. That said, I’m not sure if this is something I’ll revisit or eventually forget about.

Makes me want to drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes

3 known tracks just a gigolo/I ain't got nobody, jump jive an wail and night train (enchantment under the sea dance ha!) . A fun album. Swing, big band and jazz influences.

A good jazz album. Pretty solid listening.

Music was fun enough to gloss over the occasional sexist or misogynistic lyrics that were endemic to the time period.

Lots of fun. 3.5* rounding up to 4.

Absolute primo dancing in the kitchen drink red wine album. Let also take a moment to appreciate the line, “when you’re dead and in your grave no more ravioli will you crave”

Amazing mood lifter! Grab your sweetheart and the gang for a swinging good time

Cool album Lots of twists and turns and mix of jazz rock n roll and blues

Fun swing/ragtime

Oh man. Louis Prima was lowkey a terrible human, but the energy of his big band is just fantastic. Keely has an awesome voice and Sam Butera is the perfect foil to his big personality.

Well this was quite a rollicking fun time. Trumpets, singing, happy vibes.

just a gigolo i aint got a nobody- a mashup im told. bouncy and charismatic, love the instrumental breaks with the brass where it seems like he gets so into the song he has to step off the stage to dance with the crowd. the lip- i cant tell if one line is racist but good storytelling. yip yip yip. basin street blues- FUCKS HARD love when he acts so drunk he cant get words out right you rascal you- fallout!!!

The Wildest! sent me into a reverie about the peculiar power held by recordings of party music made by and for the now-dead. This has the hoodlum energy of “Rumble” and would sit easily in a film like “Touch of Evil”, exuberant, suggestive, made for dancing, built from old structures, old instruments, edgy material in the day: the biker gang would move to this, Mexican Heston certainly not. Reckon Fatsuit Welles would side with the kids on this one. I think I’ll join him. (Most of those kids are gone now.)

My favorite things about this sound, is that it is exemplified by very physical verbs. Swing. Jump. Jive. Wail. Very true to how this makes you feel.

4.2 - Alright, alright, alright, alright! A swinging, bopping blend of big brass jazz and rock-n-roll. Stylish, energetic and fun. Not a stale doo-wop record, this one really pops.

Great mix of jazz, R&B, swing, and early rock and roll. This album is high energy until the very end. I have heard of Louis Prima before, but I'm glad to have become more familiar with his music. This album would have been very influential at this particular musical crossroads. Prima's embrace of the burgeoning rock and roll genre is a testament to his flexibility and openness.

Louis Prima uses his vocal command to weave a catchy record with an easy beat. It seems that this record begins to bridge the dinner club / big band era toward the next stage of being a jazz singer.

This is the good thing about this. Never in a million years would I have listened to a Louis Prima album! Good fun.

What can I say other than it's snappy, energetic and makes you want to dance. Love Louis and his collaborations with Keely Smith and Sam Butera. No one plays high knows like The Lip. (yip yip yip yip)

This was a surprisingly fun record. I did not expect to enjoy this album NEARLY as much as I did. It felt like the soundtrack to an old black & white film or a modern Pixar movie - in all the best ways. There's so much life and joy and energy here. It's just a blast. That said, it's definitely a particular vibe and I'm not usually in the mood for something likt that. But I'm making a note of this one to come back to when I AM in the mood because, when you want it, it comes in hot.

Just tryna test out the editing

Yeah ok better than I thought it would be

Of its time. Catchy lyrics and melodies. Some songs covered decades after this original release. Defintely a vibe. Louis Prima had a really nice singing voice.

The Wildest! This isn’t at all wild, but it’s very enjoyable in an Elf/LA Confidential/When Harry Met Sally soundtrack way. It’s a very easy listen with a nice sense of fun and playfulness, the New Orleans swing really gives it some movement and life. The horns aren’t overbearing as they often can be and I really like the combination of his and Keely Smith’s vocals, his growling jumpy exuberance and her chatty jazzy style have a nice carefree feel together. In the right mood I’d definitely listen again, but it probably won’t go into heavy rotation, making it a solidly enjoyable 3. 🦧🦧🦧 Playlist submission: (Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby)

Klassiker!

For the time it was a well respected album and very unique voice. Still pretty alright

норм

The only great thing David Lee Roth did in his solo career was to introduce a new generation to "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody". It's such a classic song, fun and bouncy. In 1956, a nearly 5 minute song was an opus like "Stairway To Heaven" was so many years later. "Jump, Jive, An' Wail" was a hit for Brian Setzer in the 90's. This is my first foray into a Louis P album, I know the name but not the catalog outside of the lead track. The horns are fun as hell, what a party his shows must have been back in the day. It felt like a live recording. Horn heavy and leaning hard on his female singing partner, Keely Smith, this is an enjoyable album with no tracks I felt I needed to fast forward over. A lot of it sounded very similar. Not sure what this album did to make the Top 1001 since I don't hear a long term impact on music, but maybe it changed music in the 1950's. With three big hits, including "Buona Sera", it has credibility for the time as it must have been huge back then. He's got a good voice, my fav track was "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead...". 3 solid stars for master hornsmanship, a frolicking beat and good energy.

As a teen of the 80s, I became familiar with medley of Just A Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody thanks to a (pales in comparison) cover by David Lee Roth. I had heard this version, and some of his other music, in movies over the years. The album is a collection of jazz/blues numbers (some familiar classics, some new to me) played with a swagger, instances of fun silliness, great call and response vocals/instrumentation, all wrapped around Prima's frenetic trumpet playing. If I were to imagine a 50s / early 60s party album, the Wildest would be it - a fun and up-tempo album that makes you want to dance, laugh and have a good time.

It was very humorous; I enjoyed myself!

God the 50s are fucking dreadful.

Background music, nothing special

słuchało się lepszych albumów z tego okresu

This isn't for me. It's harmless enough, though ridiculously repetitive, but that borders on the annoying. I would never choose to listen to this, but I wouldn't complain too much if it were on in the background in a shop or elevator.

Energetic swing-jazz belters. Sounds like kid's party music in places, just drivel and/or terrible lyrics. Louis Jordan with a lobotomy. Again, you can see why rock'n'roll was so exciting in the late 50's by contrast.

Niet helemaal mijn stijl, beetje meh

das album hält, was es verspricht (the wildest;)) unglaublich tanzbare gute laune musik. tolle stimmen, tolle instrumente, tolles zusammenspiel, toller groove, toller jazz!

an absolute classic

This Album is fun. A lot of well known songs perfectly arranged.

Fantástic

Love the energy. Love the instruments. Love Louis Prima.

Great fun to listen to

I mean, no notes. Great songs. Fantastic instrumentals. Could listen to this every day and not get tired of it.

Loved it. Fun all the way through and his wife Keely's voice complements his well. I would listen to this again in a heartbeat.

Such a fun album! Had me dancing and smiling the whole time. Will 100% play again

Classic

I love this sound of the 50's so happy and upbeat and a little bit silly. Definitely makes you want to dance. I'm giving this 5 stars

Love!

Likely an under researched claim, but for me, Just a Gigolo is one of the finest recordings pre 1960, its very impressive on a technical level and a great song to top it off. It also helps that some of my favourite standards are on here, and performed with the flair that stays consistent accross the album.

This guy bops. Upbeat and fun. I would not mind finding this one on Vinyl. Think I'll put the classic, "Jump, Jive, an' Wail" on the 1001 playlist. ~ 5 Stars

love it

I LOVE LOUIS PRIMA AND KEELY SMITH!!! This album is like being at a gangstered up Las Vegas casino in 1958. I’m smoking cigarettes, drinking martinis and dancing the night away.

Lost my notes :( but I think I said this gets 5 stars for the novelty. I like the genre and it kept my attention throughout. Hoping for more oldies like this.

Feeling great after this!

good

I read that the album cover matches the vibe of the music and I couldn't agree more! The Wildest! offers a very fun set of songs, and the charismatic personality and voice of Prima help make this collection of swing very memorable and enjoyable.

Very fun. Great for cooking and date night any time of year. As with older genres sometimes in danger of just being theme music but some secure distinctive tracks

04/06/2025 I actually found this surprisingly enjoyable.

This was a really good album that I probably wouldn’t have found on my own. Of course, I’ve heard “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody” before, but I never really looked into it further. It turns out, the whole album is just as good. It’s a blend of swing, jump blues, and jazz. Swing isn’t something I know much about, and I didn’t even know jump blues existed until now. This album feels like a great starting point to explore more of Louis Prima’s catalog.

Exciting 1950's music.

I have never heard of this. Let's go Oh okay I'm gonna like this haha. Yeah this is great, just plain fun. The end of I Ain't Got Nobody is so good. The second song keeps the quality going. The Lip was good too. But I have to say, that first track left way too high a standard. Body and Soul is the jazziest song so far (not a complaint). The instrumentals are still fun and have a sort of personality. Lovely. Oh Marie goes offfff, I loved this, second best so far. Next track, another medley, is probably my least favourite so far. I still liked it, but found myself not paying as much attention. Next track, while still fun, didn't captivate me that much. The lyrics do remind me that it's the 50's haha. Buona Sera is another highlight. Night Train, another instrumental, is good and actually manages to carry itself like Body and Soul did. The closer brings back the vocals and with them comes the same feeling the first few tracks had. Even if he's singing about a rascal and his eventual death, this is so much fun. This album was, to repeat myself, a lot of fun! But then again, I don't think I can trust you if you don't like swing. I was dancing along to all these songs, and I can see myself continuing to do so in the future. Great stuff. Bye