Various Artists Destination Lust - Songs of Love, Sex And Violence (3-CD)

This bundle brings together all three volumes of Bear Family’s “Destination: Lust” series in one coherent, historically grounded collection. Three CDs, over 90 tracks, approx. 220 minutes playing time – a direct, unvarnished look at love, desire, eroticism and their musical expressions between 1951 and 1965.

What was officially taboo in the postwar decades found its outlet in music, burlesque shows, strip clubs and back rooms. People didn’t talk about sex – they sang about it. This series documents exactly that: eroticism as cultural evidence, not cheap provocation.

The bundle combines hits, curiosities and a large number of rare recordings, many previously unreleased on CD. Novelty songs, double-entendre ballads, cheeky humor, burlesque instrumentals and orchestral striptease themes alternate throughout. The tone ranges from playful to explicit, from nostalgic to daring – always authentic to its time.

Featured are international sex symbols, film divas and powerful voices of the era:

Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Ann-Margret, Mamie van Doren, Lizabeth Scott, Elke Sommer, Hildegard Knef, Lola Albright, Dinah Washington and many more.

Add to that key tracks by Elvis Presley, The Midnighters, Big Jay McNeely, and a wealth of defining studio orchestras and musicians.

Thematically, the set moves from smoky club fantasies and burlesque aesthetics to exoticism, gender roles and contemporary flashpoints such as the Kinsey Report or the story of Christine Jorgensen. Music here functions as a mirror of social tension – often more honest and revealing than public discourse of the time.

All three CDs come with extensively illustrated booklets (over 60 pages in total), featuring song-by-song annotations by Bill Dahl and Marc Mittelacher, plus period photos, illustrations and memorabilia. Informative, contextualized, and unsanitized.

This is not a cheap “sexy” compilation, but a musically and historically solid document of how desire and sexuality entered popular culture – subtly, boldly, sometimes crude, always true to its era. Essential for collectors, cultural historians, and listeners who understand music as social history.