Paloma Blanca

Personnel: George Baker (vocals, trumpet).
It had been almost six years since "Little Green Bag," when George Baker and his gang landed their second and final American Top 40 hit, "Paloma Blanca," in 1976. That single's on this LP, naturally, and both it and the other tracks make the zippy pop/rock of "Little Green Bag" seem as tough as Jimi Hendrix in comparison. Paloma Blanca is frothy, anonymous European pop, marrying chipper romp-in-the-country melodies with beats that borrow from disco, polka, mariachi, and pseudo-Eastern European gypsy music. Echoes of faux country music are heard sometimes as well, in tunes like "As Long as the Sun Will Shine." It ends up sounding like those hack bands you see grinning away in the "it's a small world after all" corners of amusement theme parks, the commercial success of this stuff being the most notable difference. ~ Richie Unterberger