Marc Myers give Pete Rugolo, Jack Marshall and Shelly Manne some overdue props:
http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/11/stereo-experiements-west.html

Rugolo's 35mm albums were recorded at Bill Putnam's United Recording, and one of them might have 
been done at Radio Recorders. Rugolo also made some great "stereo spectacular" albums out there and, 
I think, in Chicago, at the very dawn of stereo, mostly working with Bill Putnam.

I highly recommend those Jack Marshall/Shelly Manne albums on a purely musical basis. Those guys 
were spot-on aces. The Contemporary album, recorded by Ray DuNann, has amazing sound, some of the 
best percussion recordings I've ever heard.

All of the albums shown were chasing the success of Command Records. Command invented the "Stereo 
Percussion" genre, and then got into stuff like "Reeds and Drums" and the like. I would say the 
Mercury PPS and f:35d series were shameless copies. Am-Par went as far as to steal Terry Snyder 
away, to record a knockoff of "Persuasive Percussion" with almost the same personnel (including the 
same studio). Capitol and Contemporary put more of a west coast vibe on things, but they were still 
chasing Command's tail. It's a safe bet that Enoch Light saw the irony in all this, because he had 
started out as a record-label executive by quickly recording hit-of-the-minute knockoffs on 
"extended play" late-era 78's, and sometimes peddling the records door-to-door.

None of this takes away from the fact that some of these records hold up very well, musically. 
Others definitely don't, but I think the whole lot of them get stereotyped (pun intended), and so 
the better, more swinging records get lumped with "ping-pong bachelor pad music," which correctly 
describes only a some of them.

-- Tom Fine