Santo & Johnny

Canadian-American issued the brothers’ debut LP Santo & Johnny in 1959 after the single “Sleep Walk” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Santo Farina plays steel guitar; Johnny Farina plays electric guitar. The hit is a slow instrumental ballad — reverb, melody, no vocals — cut for Brooklyn pop radio rather than Balboa surf contests.

The album surrounds “Sleep Walk” with other instrumentals and standards (“Tear Drop” followed as a hit). Later Waxtime and Jasmine physical editions keep the debut program (or the first two stereo LPs) easy to buy; the site Buy link is a close remaster sold under the Sleepwalk title.

Home tiki playlists often want one misty steel track between Denny dinners and Dale volume. This is that record: Hawaiian-tinged steel vocabulary without a Waikiki showroom singer or a Misirlou sprint.