What has driven me as a record collector since my youth is that indescribably wonderful feeling when you unexpectedly stumble across a true gem out in the wild. You never know what to expect when digging through a thrift shop or flea market. Nine times out of ten you walk away empty-handed – but then, out of nowhere, you suddenly hold a record in your hands you’ve never seen before, and your collector’s heart starts racing.

That’s exactly what happened a few years ago, when I came across this album by Kenny & His Beach Boys in a thrift store. The band had spent years playing at the Nassau Beach Hotel in the Bahamas. Because so many guests – locals as well as international tourists – kept coming back just to hear Kenny and his band, they decided in 1982 to record an album for their fans.

The highlight: Big Payback – a surprisingly tight version of James Brown’s The Payback. I can imagine James Brown’s immortal funk sound inspiring a hotel party band in the Bahamas.

But what fascinates me to this day is the thought: who was that Swiss couple who spent their honeymoon in the Bahamas in the 1980s – and brought this very record back home as a souvenir?

A wedding keepsake that, decades later, still smells of tropical funk. And who knows – maybe for them, Kenny & His Beach Boys really were the true highlight of the honeymoon.