It’s a song I hear from time to time in unexpected places. I’m not sure if “jazz” is the right genre, exactly … sounds like “loungey jazz”, if that makes any sense. The song is pretty much nothing but horns, with a good number of drawn-out notes.
The song sounds like it should be the official theme song for 1960s Atlantic City or Las Vegas. You hear the tune, and you can just imagine Frank, Sammy, and Dean strutting through a casino. It definitely hit the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, because there’s a local Top 40 station that stays strictly with Top 40 material, and they play it now and then.
Timewise, I’d place it in the mid-to-late 1960s. Maybe early 1970s. Lastly, I think ESPN, at one time, used the song to class up their billiards & pool broadcasts.
Well, there’s “Casino Royale”, from 1967, by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (skip the first 20 seconds, that never gets played on the radio). Does that have the same basic sound? Another one by them is “The Lonely Bull”.
Thanks for the suggestions, all. None of these were it.
Alpert’s trumpet is very distinctive. Mangione’s too. 99.99999% sure neither of those guys played on the tune I have in mind.
It’s a much more bombastic tune than any so far proposed. Maybe when I wrote “loungey”, I gave the wrong impression. It’s almost bombastic to the point of being cheesey, which made me think “lounge”.
Nope, still no hits. This is a truly tough one! With no lyrics to go by, it’s all the more difficult.
I can say that I don’t believe the main horn sound of the tune is a trumpet. Trumpets are too “warm” sounding. And the main horn is also not a saxophone … nowhere near that souldful.
The song I’m thinking of is fairly “cold” if that makes any sense. It’s just a pure blast of horn, and something fairly high-pitched – well higher than, say, a tuba. Maybe a trombone?