Song ID: Instrumental hit, lots of horns, went Top 40 in U.S.

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.

Thanks in advance for any clues.

The first song that comes to mind is Feel So Good by Chuck Mangione.

“Feels So Good” was my first thought, too, along with Herb Alpert’s “Rise,” but both are outside the OP’s guess for the period.

How about Music to Watch Girls By?

I’m going to guess Herb Alpert.

Probably Spanish Flea.

I would guess Taste Of Honey by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.

How about The Crusaders? Lots of smooth horns here.

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”.

Tower of Power comes to mind.

Q

Perhaps you should spend some quality time with Shazam?
http://www.shazam.com/

The application listens to music though your microphone and determines which song it is.

That’s also what I thought of when I read the OP. Now I have a craving to listen to “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”.

Something by Morphine, maybe?

“The Stripper”?

NSFW Version

Soulful Strut by Young Holt Unlimited?

Probably not Java, by Al Hirt. There’s a Muppet sketch using this music.

Take Five?

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?

I don’t think this could be it, it’s too well-known, but it does sort-of resemble the description in the OP:

Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man.

About the only sort of thing that comes to mind that hasn’t been mentioned yet would be something by Mancini. Maybe something like Something For Cat?

“One Mint Julep” by Xavier Cugat?