Al Stewart’s Year Of The Cat features three instrumental solos, one after another: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and saxophone. In fact, if you count the string section soli before the acoustic guitar solo, it has four solos.
This is the highest number of separate instrumental solos I can think of in a mainstream pop song, besides The End at the end of the Abbey Road medley which has three guitar solos and a drum solo.
Are there others that have a high number of solos? I’m mostly confining this question to mainstream pop music (no jazz, jam bands or obscure indie music, unless it’s a song that has widespread recognition.) If you know of a non-mainstream song that’s notable for having many solos, feel free to mention it, but I’m mainly curious about mainstream pop songs.
Well, invoking the “feel free to mention it” clause, I’d like to mention that there are many bluegrass songs that have separate fiddle, mandolin, guitar and/or dobro, and upright bass solos.
Would you consider something like Jethro Tull’s Bourrée in E minor? It’s an instrumental, so I don’t know if it counts. Anyway, I think it’s got flute, guitar, and bass “solos”.
It would be hard to top “Hocus Pocus” by Focus (which is “mainstream” by virtue of having been a Top 40 hit). Interspersed among statements of the two main themes are no fewer than eight separate drum solos, three guitar solos, a scat vocal solo, a flute solo, and a whistling solo–all in a five-minute song.
The first time I heard The Darkness’s song, I Believe in a Thing Called Love, I was astonished to hear three separate guitar solos (all played by the same guy, but separated by singing sections). Astonished because of the previous trend of heavy rock songs with no solos.
Even in their short version of “Whipping Post,” the Allman Brothers have two guitar solos and an organ solo. Probably a drum solo, too.
But the real champion is the Bonzo Dog Band’s “The Intro and the Outro:” at least 32 instruments (or more, depending on how you wish to count it). They include drums, rhythm pole, bass guitar, piano, saxophone, tenor sax, trumpet, xylophone, guitar, spoons, vibes, sousaphone, clarinet, violin, harmonica, ukelele, bass sax, euphonium, horn, accordian, bongos, triangle, trombone, harp, bells, banjo, percussion, gong, and Trigger.
I can’t cue it up right now to confirm this so I’m going by memory but I fairly sure the long version of the Doors’ “Light My Fire” has both organ and guitar solos.
The last part of the Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” has guitar and sax solos.
Hell, even the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK” has two guitar solos - one after the second chorus, one after the third. So does Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.”
“Strange Kind of Woman” by Deep Purple. There are probably a few other Deep Purple songs where Ritchie, John, Ian and Ian [insert other members here] have some kind of solo.
The long interlude goes from rhythm set up on guitars to vibes then lead guitar, saxophone solo coupled with drum solo / outro before returning to opening stanza. There are a few notes from a police whistle in there as well.
