Weekend Getaway

Pack up your kit bag and fill up the tank — we're taking a Weekend Getaway, a "Sentimental Journey," courtesy of Doris Day and company to a time when you could hop on the open road, find some Nat "King" Cole on the dashboard radio, and "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66." Along the way, we'll stop at a roadside joint, pop a nickel into the jukebox and have a dance and a cocktail to the sailin' sounds of Bobby Darin and "Beyond the Sea," and when the shadows fall, let the mellow tones of Chet Baker and "Let's Get Lost" guide us to wherever they may.

The weekend's young — get more getaway greats in Next Steps.

OK, so maybe Tom Petty's honky-tonkin' holler "Big Weekend" and Enya's atmospheric Amazonian soundscape "Orinoco Flow" aren't technically retro, but we're talkin' mood here — that free, fresh, wind-in-your-hair feeling that you get from a weekend getaway, even if you're traveling only as far as a sun-soaked patio or a hammock in the shade. Sammy Davis, Jr. & Carmen McCrae may know where "There's a Small Hotel," and the Drifters might be having the time of their lives "Under the Boardwalk," but with Beck's bossa-nova beauty "Tropicalia," your mini vacay is wherever you want it to be.

Hey, the weekend doesn't have to end — not when you've still got Deep Cuts to keep it up.

Trips south of the border are in order as the Lady with the Tutti-Frutti Hat, Carmen Miranda, packs some snacks on top of her head for a frolicking "A Week-End In Havana," while sultry smooth-jazz crooner Michael Franks plans a much more intimate "Rendezvous In Rio." Meanwhile, over on the Continent, groovy French masterminds Air get all trippy on a synth-soaked "Le Voyage de Penelope," and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble mellow out on the beachy blues "Riviera Paradise."

"Come Fly With Me," swings Frank Sinatra, and who are we to say no to the Chairman of the Board? Everybody loves a weekend getaway, whether it's jazz great Sarah Vaughan digging "Autumn in New York," puff-cheeked trumpet titan Dizzy Gillespie hailing a Latin-spiced "Trinidad, Hello," or American treasure Tony Bennett longing for a visit to the City By the Bay on his signature standard "I Left My Heart In San Francisco." This is your time to power up the Ray Charles and "Let the Good Times Roll," to "Sail Away" to folky fun with troubadour David Gray, or merely go "Wandering" with piano explorer Oscar Peterson. Can't leave home? No worries. Make your own "Shangri-La" right where you are with some help from Wayne Newton, and let Sade help you create your own at-home exotic-pop "Paradise."