Don’t forget Axel F (#3).
If “topping the charts” means reaching #1 on the Billboard charts, only a handful of foreign language songs have done that. The list includes:
Volare - Domenico Modugno
Dominique - the Singing Nun (Sister Smile)
Sukiyaki - Kyu Sakamoto
La Bamba - Los Lobos
Rock Me, Amadeus - Falco
Macarena - Los Del Rio
The following #1 songs are PARTLY sung in another language:
Before the Next Teardrop Falls - Freddy Fender
There have been far more instrumentals to reach #1. The list includes (I know, I know, SOME of these songs have a few words or a few sung syllables… I still call them instrumentals, but you may not):
Tequila - The Champs
Happy Organ - Dave “Baby” Cortez
Calcutta - Lawrence Welk
The Stripper- David Rose Orchestra
Telstar - The Tornadoes
Love Is Blue- Paul Mauriat
Grazing in the Grass -Hugh Masekela
Love Theme From “Romeo and Juliet” - Henry Mancini
Love’s The - Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)/“Soul Train” Theme - MFSB
Pick Up the Pieces - Average White Band
The Hustle - Van McCoy
Theme from “SWAT” - Rhythm Heritage
A Fifth of Beethoven - Walter Murphy
“Star Wars” Theme - Meco
Rise - Herb Alpert
“Chariots of Fire” Theme - Vangelis
“Miami Vice” Theme - Jan Hammer
The “Billboard” charts only date back to 1940 (first #1 was by the Tommy Dorsey band, with Frank Sinatra on vocals). A number of magazines published charts before then, but they often charted songs instead of individual recordings. Plus they were released fairly irregularly so they aren’t taken as seriously as today’s “Billboard” charts.
And the first official Gold Record was Chattanooga Choo Choo, by Glenn Miller, in 1942.
You left off the following Billboard Hot #100 instrumentals for 1955 to 1979 that reached #1:
Poor People of Paris - Les Baxter Orchestra (1956) (a few la-la-las)
Sleep Walk - Santo & Johnny (1959)
Theme From “A Summer Place” - Percy Faith (1960)
Wonderland By Night - Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra (1961)
Stranger on the Shore - Mr. Acker Bilk (1962)
Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group (1973)
Peter Gunn Theme - the Mancini one, not the blues brothers’ one
Theme from Taxi (Angela by Bob James)
I was just running down a long list of #1 singles and picking off the ones I recognized right away as instrumentals or as foreign language songs. I Was bound to overlook a few. And in a few cases, I just didn’t know the songs, and couldn’t identify them as instrumentals.
Here’s an interesting list of Foreign Language Films at the Box Office by gross. I have the feeling than unless it’s an Asian martial arts type flick, many Americans seem to just want to wait for the English version to be made.
I don’t dispute these numbers, but i question how much it reflects the reality of actual viewership. With premium TV channels and streaming Netflix, I watch far more foreign films than I ever saw at the theater, both in total numbers and as a percentage of my total viewing.
Sorry if I offended, as I was not trying to critique your post, I was just trying to point out there were more instrumentals than listed.
Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 had a pretty big hit with Mas Que Nada.
From what I’ve read, one of the singers was American and didn’t speak Portuguese so she learned the song phonetically. Damn good job I think!
I seem to recall the instrumentals for. . .
[ul]
[li]The Sting (The Entertainer/Maple Street Rag?)[/li][li]Star Wars (Theme from the Cantina Scene)[/li][li]2001 A Space Oddity (Thus Sprache Zarathustra?)[/li][/ul]
…were thoroughly overplayed every 15 minutes on the airwaves when those movies came out.
Also, as an aside, I remember my mother noting that “Sukiyaki” was a traditional musical passage lacking any lyrics at all but the overplayed radio piece was mostly popular because of the words that were added [Much like El Condor Pasa for S&G.]
—G!
[Standard lyrical quote replaced by an instrumental sound-bite here.]
I don’t know how I forgot Autobahn by Kraftwerk.
Surely some recent Reggaeton song has reached into the top 50. Or maybe it’s because I live in a heavily West Indian and Hispanic corner of the US that I hear this on the radio so much.
The writers of the song would be fairly surprised to hear that.
There was an instrumental cover of it that came out in the UK before the original did. That may be what your mother was thinking of. Also, and English language cover came out in the 80s.
(Also, El Condor Pasa wasn’t actually a traditional tune, either, though Simon was incorrectly told it was.)
How about Hooked on Classics?
Korean hit “Gangnam Style” has entered the Billboard Charts at #64.
It’s the #1 song on iTunes right now.
I don’t know from charts, but these all seemed to get a lot of airplay at one time or another.
Europa (Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile) by Santana
In Memory Of Elisabeth Reed by The Allman Brothers Band
The Gold Bug by The Alan Parson Project
Time Is Tight by Booker T and the MGs
Apache by Incredible Bongo Band
Day At The Dog Races by Little Feat
Newer (relatively)? Okay. Destined for greatness? Uhh…
I’m getting hungry for some Green Onions. That was a big one iirc. Don’t agree abut Americans being too dumb to enjoy foreign language stuff – aside from the bossa nova craze, most, e.g. French pop stuff is incredibly shitty, including stuff from francophone countries all over.
Eta I think I have an lp of groove Holmes playing star wars music. Late sixties, early seventies so much good stuff that got AirPlay. Chameleon of course but also shadow of your smile and all those great tunes that everyone knows how to play, as in they are standards.