RateYourMusic, my beloved resource for all things in esoteric music has some... dubious genres. What is Pigfuck supposed to mean? Zolo??? Yass????? Two of my favorites of these microgenres are the evocatively named and almost intrinsically linked "crime jazz" and "spy music." So, what the heck is that supposed to mean? Well, pretty much exactly what you expect. A healthy helping of jazz mixed with lots of chase scene bongos, James Bond-esque guitar, Pink Panther ass saxophones, you get the picture. For the most part, it's a genre of soundtracks, as you might expect. But one enterprising guy by the name of Irving Joseph decided in 1960 to release Murder, Inc., an album of original music dedicated to recreating the sounds of Peter Gunn, spy thrillers, and crime dramas. Basically, the pre-Beatles era was the wild wild west of album-length releases where labels and artists outside of Serious Jazzmen(trademark) didn't really know what to do with the LP format. So that's how we get delightful oddities like this! It's not the greatest collection of songs I've ever heard, but it does really evoke a specific time and place, and it's just begging to be used as samples for The Alchemist or Madlib for an enterprising rapper who's not afraid for their beats to sound a little cartoony!

1959,

There are many to choose from, but this is my all time favorite version of the Peter Gunn theme.

Barry Adamson - The King Of Nothing Hill

(2002 album)

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Barry Adamson - The Negro Inside Me

(1993 album)

Bandcamp | Spotify

1972.