Big Bad Voodoo Lou hit the nail on the head as usual.
Speaking as a nearly 40 year old instrumental music fan (via Link Wray, I’m going to plug a few more…
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet (now Atomic 7)
Huevos Rancheros (now The Ramblin’ Ambassadors
and
Removal
Wow, no one mentioned The Ventures! They pretty much own the genre. (Well, there’s The Shadows in the UK.)
I think the instrumental had it’s heyday when real DJs made their own programming choices, and they didn’t always time their shows exactly, which forced them to slap on their personal fave new instrumentals near the end of the hour and/or their shift. That’s precisely what made “Wild Weekend” a hit a couple of years after it was recorded.
The best series of albums I know of for great old obscure instrumentals is Strummin’ Mental .
I have no less than 6 versions of “Apache” from the 60’s… my fave one is Jorgen Ingmann’s…
I still say that the finest instrumental album is Mark Bonilla’s EE Ticket.
Out of print. New copies are unavailable. Didn’t get the attention it deserved.