A James Ellroy Playlist – The Enchanters Edition

James Ellroy’s new novel The Enchanters is due to be published in September. Ellroy recently revealed to Michael Connelly that he will not be completing the Second LA Quartet as he had originally envisioned. Instead, the quartet will be remoulded into a Quintet with the remaining volumes set in the early 1960s. Ellroy initially planned for the entire series to be set during World War Two. Knopf are apparently delighted with this change of direction and, let’s face it, many readers will be as well. Perfidia and This Storm were a collective slog; challenging, maddening, sometimes brilliant, but they never left me with that compulsive urge to revisit them or read Ellroy’s next novel. Ellroy’s change of direction makes The Enchanters his most anticipated novel in over a decade, and we won’t have to read Kay Lake’s diary entries anymore!

The following piece is an attempt by me to predict the musical influences in The Enchanters, as part of my ongoing series on Ellroy and music. The tone below is speculative and a little playful, but as Ellroy’s biographer and one of the few people to have read the outline to The Enchanters, perhaps I know whereof I speak.

Papa Loves Mambo

Eddie Fisher is one of the real-characters who makes an appearance in The Enchanters. Ellroy’s opinion of Fisher is low, describing him as a ‘loser’ and ‘a faded recording artist’ in the novel’s 1962 setting, more famous for being Elizabeth Taylor’s husband #4 than for his singing ability. But a sleazy showbiz reputation is far from being a impediment to appearing in Ellroy’s world. It’s practically a qualification! Fisher was quick to cash in on the ‘Mambo Craze’ which began in New York in 1947, and lasted right through until the end of the 1950s. Mambo was naturally popular in Ellroy’s preferred setting of LA given the City of Angels’ sizable Latin population. Sadly, I don’t think Fisher had the panache to pull off mambo. Here he is singing a very ropey rendition of ‘Papa Loves Mambo’ on his musical variety series Coke Time with Eddie Fisher.

No wonder Liz Taylor left Fisher for the baritone-voiced Richard Burton.

Mambo Santa Mambo

The title The Enchanters was chosen by Ellroy to evoke the punchy definite article / noun titles of such Harold Robbins’ bestsellers as The Adventurers, The Carpetbaggers and The Inheritors. But it’s worth remembering that there was a doo-wop vocal group called the Enchanters who were active and popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The timing is important as Ellroy identified 1958-63 as a very formative time for him in terms of the music he absorbed. It remains the only time period which produced popular music Ellroy still listens to and enjoys. His tastes now veer almost exclusively towards classical music. Below is the Enchanters contribution to the Mambo craze, ‘Mambo Santa Mambo’.

Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy is published by Bloomsbury.