Does Ferranti and Teicher count? I’ve probably misspelled their names, but back in the ancient days of the 70s, they were two pianists who took all of the popular rock tunes and put them into piano music. They had some records out and I’ve still got a couple.
Then the Ventures. They took popular songs of the late 60s and early 70s and played them strictly with guitar, no singing or anything.
'Course, that’s not exactly what you mean, but it’s as close as I can get.
Rhino Records did a very nice series of CD releases about ten years back called ROCK INSTRUMENTALS.
There were five installments: the 1950s; the 1960s; the 1970s; Soul; and Surf.
I owned 'em all except for the 1970s…I have no need to ever hear “A Fifth of Beethoven” again.
To repeat Nocturne…Hugh Maskela’s “Grazin’ in the Grass” is one nifty little side. It appeared on the “Soul” CD.
Let’s not forget Tubular Bells (the Exorcist), the Miami Vice theme and the theme from Chariots of Fire.
And from the disco era, Walter Murphy’s Fifth of Beethoven.
Another great surf instrumental no one has mentioned is “Penetration” by The Pyramids.
Speaking of which, one of my favorite albums of all time (and believe me, that covers A LOT of territory) is “The Ventures In Space.” As an adjunct to surf instrumentals, there has always been a parallel thread of generally other-worldly or spooky-sounding stuff a la “Out of Limits” and the “Twighlight Zone” theme. Both of these are on this album, along with a whole bunch of other great tracks of this sort (including their version of “Penetration”).
Very, very cool – and as the original liner notes pointed out: “All of these unusual and other-worldly sounds have been created with musical instruments rather than electronic gimmicks.” I just learned last week that much credit goes to pedal-steel session man Red Rhodes, who later worked with Mike Nesmith in his First National band.
This may possibly be “Buckaroo,” which was a #1 hit on the country charts for Buck and his backup band (The Buckaroos!) in late 1965. Out of Buck’s 75 Top 40 records on the country charts, this is the only one listed as an instrumental.
Of course, The Buckaroos also cut entire albums of instrumentals on more than one occasion, but if you heard this on the radio, chances are it was this track.
Not sure if this is what you have in mind, but there’s also “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by Cannonball Adderly, later made a vocal hit by The Buckinghams (who, of course, were white guys, not Motown artists).
This brings up one of my favorite trivia questions:
The songs “Grazing in the Grass” and “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” have TWO very specific things in common. What are they?
One is obvious from this thread…they both were hits first in instrumental versions and later as vocals, reversing the more common trend of a vocal hit later being covered in an instrumental version. (In the case of “Grazin’ in the Grass,” Hugh Masekela did the instrumental, The Friends of Distinction the later vocal.)
But can anyone guess the second thing they have in common? I’ll give it a day or two and come back with the answer if no one has got it.
It just hit me what song you’re probably thinking of here: “The In-Crowd.” First a vocal hit by Dobie Gray (who was black but not a Motown artist), then later a piano-based instrumental by The Ramsey Lewis Trio.
Gosh, at one time I owned NINE (Count 'em!) NINE ** Ventures ** albums and heartily second ** Bigstar303 ** in appreciation of the Ventures in Space album. Trivia buffs will recall that they repackaged their 1960 #1 hit “Walk Don’t Run” to a #3 hit four years later with “Walk Don’t Run '64”. If they had continued, no doubt we would have had “Walk Don’t Run: The Quickening” somewhere in there.
Speaking of repackaging, we have the rock version of a theme from “The Nutcracker” known as ** Nutrocker** which reached #23 in 1962 for ** B. Bumble and the Stingers ** and #70 ten years later for ** ELO **
Intstant cover versions of hit songs were a lot more prevalent in the 1950s. For example ** Raunchy ** was a #2 hit for ** Bill Justis ** in 1957 but also inspired a #4 version the same year by ** Ernie Freeman ** and a #10 version by ** Billy Vaughn ** and his orchestra
By the way, Mr. Vaughn’s version of ** Melody of Love ** in 1955 reached #2, beating out Frank Sinatra’s version among others.
**msrobyn ** mentioned Henry Mancini’s ** Pink Panther ** but he had a whole slew of them, including
** The Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet ** 1969
** Moon River ** 1961
** Them From Love Story ** 1971
** Mr. Lucky ** 1960
** Theme from “Hatari” ** 1962
And ** Lawrence Welk ** had ** Baby Elephant Walk ** which is from Hatari also in 1962. Anybody remember if it is indeed the same as the Theme from Hatari?
BTW, ** Nocturne ** was talking about ** Last Date ** which was a huge hit (reached #2) for country-based piano player ** Floyd Cramer **. Haven’t figured out the connection yet, though.
Probably it’s another thread, but there were many, many songs that SHOULD have been instrumentals, so we wouldn’t have to gag at the words. ** Bobby Goldsboro ** and ** Honey ** come to mind…
One song I didn’t see mentioned is another song that started out as an instrumental and was later remade with words.
The original song was “Soulful Strut” by Young-Holt Unlimited from 1968.
This was later given lyrics and retitled as “Am I the same girl?” by Barbara Acklin (later covered by Swing Out Sister)
Chris W.
“I would have made this instrumental but the words got in the way” – A. Partridge
Not to hijack too much, but SOS did a pretty passable cover of the Fifth Dimension’s “Stoned Soul Picnic” on their Shapes and Patterns album.
Robin
Herb Alpert has been mentioned, but no one’s mentioned some of his better ones:
A Taste of Honey
Tijuana Taxi
and of course,
Spanish Flea
Hugo Montenegro - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Let’s not forget “Wheels” by the String-a-longs.
Another oldie instrumental would be “Groovy Grubworm” by Harlow wilcox and the Oakies.
and then there was that song “Joy” by Apollo 100 back in the early 70’s. I think it was a take on a Mozart classic.
I cannot remember any instumental oldies.
(postcount = postcount+1)
“Frankenstein,” by the Edgar Winter Group, from 1973.
That would be a #2 hit in 1956 for ** Hugo Winterhalter and Eddie Haywood **
There must have been a vocal version as well, because ** Andy Williams ** took it to #7 that same year.
Speaking of orchestral instrumentals, how about A Walk in the Black Forest by Horst Jankowski which reached $12 in 1965?
Actually it was a version of J.S. Bach “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.
Thanks Hometownboy - my screw-up.
The Theme from “The Rookies” was a hit in the 70’s.
Also, didn’t the Theme from “Taxi” and the Theme from “Hill Street Blues” make the charts?
Oh yeah, and how could I forget The Star Wars Medley, the Theme from Close Encounters and A Fifth of Beethoven?
My favorite Herb Alpert is “Zorba the Greek” but I don’t know if it was a hit.
What about “Nadia’s Theme” (used by the gymnast for her floor routine). I don’t think it was a #1, but it got quite a bit of play. I don’t remember the actual title.
The theme from Hawaii Five-0