Destination Moon is almost worth the price for its cover art, which shows the tuxedoed
Ames Brothers inspecting moon rocks in front of a painted rocket ship and moonscape. The album is, indeed, a thematic one with song titles that range from campy ("Music from Out of Space") to merely nocturnal ("Count Every Star"). Unfortunately for novelty lovers, the album isn't as far out as the cover suggests, but the title track delivers to an extent with a rocket countdown and space-age lyrics. The instrumentation, courtesy of
Sid Ramin, is
the Ames' typical orchestral backing -- the brothers' performances of the pop standards "It's Only a Paper Moon," "Beyond the Blue Horizon," and "Stella By Starlight" are no different from the sorts of things you'd hear on their other RCA Victor albums. Nevertheless, the theme is fun, and "No Moon at All" and "Destination Moon" manage to be fairly hip. At the very least,
Destination Moon is an interesting space-age souvenir and a mildly adventurous departure for
the Ames Brothers.