It's also true that a guilty pleasure depends on what you usually listen to. When I was a kid, well, you know: Invasion, soul, garage, the basics. But because Top 40 radio was so open back then--and stations so competitive--that you could always hear all manner of music on the AM dial, from that kind of thing to easy listening, classical (WQXR, anyone?), and where I lived, you could pick up a handful of Canadian stations that, although they tended to play mostly US hits (because they were also
hits there, too), you'd sometimes here a native act and wonder, 'Who was that?' (which is how I first heard Joni Mitchell and "Night in the City").
There are those who think of the old true MOR--and Kaempfert was certainly among the best at that--and think of it negatively, but I'm sure there are those who would think Herb Alpert & the TJB, or Al Hirt, were similar, though I'd argue the former was creative and passionate enough to, at their best, simply make quality ear candy. Hirt was a New Orleans cat who went to Nashville and broadened his musical palate, and had a fair run of distinctive hits, first with "Java" and then "Cotton Candy" and others lesser known (his take on "Theme from the Monkees" is interesting listening, if nothing else).
Other enjoyable guilty pleasures: the early '50s siren Yma Sumac, whose exotic and strange music had a brief vogue; Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman, two guys who loved the Islands (well, anything Pacific, I guess) and recorded albums to fit that concept. Then there are all the big band guys still recording through the '60s though to an older and much smaller audience than at their '30s & 40s primes: Woody Herman, Xavier Cugat, Sammy Kaye, Wayne King, Guy Lombardo, Freddy Martin, Harry James, Les Brown, etc. Some actually adjusted a little to the 'new music,' while others just gave their aging audience what they wanted (as Mantovani did very successfully).
I was fortunate enough to be young and hearing some of that kind of music in my house growing up, while enjoying the music all us kids were buying. I appreciate some of it more now than I did then (like Sinatra), but my father was a big Alpert fan, and that stuff grabbed me, too.
ED