There were many instrumentals through the 1960's and 70's. I enjoyed most of them.

Bert Kaempfert had several: Wonderland By Night, That Happy Feeling and Treat For Trumpets to name three. Paul Mauriet with Love Is Blue, Village Stompers with Washinton Square, Kenny Ball and Midnight In Moscow, Raymond Lefevre with Soul Coaxing, too many to mention from Herb Alpert. And that's just a small sample. What I loved about top 40 radio during those days is a station would play a Rolling Stones rocker and follow it with Love Is Blue. What a great diverse playlist there was.  

MOR instrumentals or CFRB type music was also a factor back in the 50's into the 70's.  So called rock and roll stations actually playlisted a fair bit of MOR music which was still popular at the time.  Even Lawrence Welk had a  hit on top 40 radio in 1961 with Calcutta. 

Not only did instrumentals disappear, so did novelty records. I think Weird Al was the last one to make a dent with one of them. There were tons of them in the 60s and 70s (Dickie Goodman's "Mr. Jaws" was #4 for weeks.) I don't think any have hit the charts in decades. 

Loved Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells.
Jessica by the Allman Brothers Band I hated and still hate with the fire of a thousand suns.
I seem to remember buying a 45 of a few hit singles and there'd be the instrumental version as the B side?

Last edited by betaylored (February 19, 2023 3:20 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

I couldn't agree more. You might get The Rolling Stones followed by Mama Cass. Or Blue Cheer's rocked out version of "Summertime Blues" which aired just before a Carpenters' record. How about a double play of Bubble Puppy and John Denver? A variety of hits and styles that would be almost impossible to imagine today, even on many oldies stations. That's what made Top 40 so great in its heyday.

It's one of the reasons I loved CKFH so much. They would play everything. Check out this example from a random week in 1970. 

Hate to be a stickler but Blue's Cheer's version of Summertime Blues was a hit in the summer of 1968 and the Carpenter's first hit the charts in 1970. Bubble Puppy was on the charts in the fall of 1968 and John's Denver's first chart hit was in 1971 I think. I do get your point however and the songs could have been played as oldies. I am still a proud owner of both the rock 45's and I actually remember when The first John Denver album was played on CHUM FM.

 

Last edited by Fitz (February 19, 2023 4:17 pm)

Fitz wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

I couldn't agree more. You might get The Rolling Stones followed by Mama Cass. Or Blue Cheer's rocked out version of "Summertime Blues" which aired just before a Carpenters' record. How about a double play of Bubble Puppy and John Denver? A variety of hits and styles that would be almost impossible to imagine today, even on many oldies stations. That's what made Top 40 so great in its heyday.

It's one of the reasons I loved CKFH so much. They would play everything. Check out this example from a random week in 1970. 

Hate to be a stickler but Blue's Cheer's version of Summertime Blues was a hit in the summer of 1968 and the Carpenter's first hit the charts in 1970. Bubble Puppy was on the charts in the fall of 1968 and John's Denver's first chart hit was in 1971 I think. I do get your point however and the songs could have been played as oldies. I am still a proud owner of both the rock 45's and I actually remember when The first John Denver album was played on CHUM FM. 

Now here is a combination of songs that could have been played back to back to back in September 1968. The Sept 7 CHUM Chart that year had Jeannie C. Riley's Harper Valley PTA at #1, 1,2,3, Red Light by the 1910 Fruitgum Company at #3 and Street Fightin' Man by the Stones at #5. Country, Bubblegum and Rock! What a combination.

One of the local stations here in the Tampa Bay area has a Music of Your Life format. Just yesterday they played from 1962, Telstar by the Tornados

No one remembers Green Onions by Booker T and the M.G.'s ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Onions

This one was huge and very influential in the UK. Somewhat of a throwback to earlier instrumentals like Santo and Johnny's Sleepwalk. Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac:



I found this playlist inside a reel to reel tape I acquired from somewhere long ago. Not from the radio but a home recorded mix tape made in midwestern USA and it features a later Fleetwood Mac instrumental "Sunny Side of Heaven" plus ELP's Hoedown which was also an instrumental. Strange to see tracks from the first Blue Oyster Cult album alongside John Denver: She's as Beautiful as a Foot meets Rocky Mountain High.



 

A couple of lost instrumentals occasionally resurrected by Pat St. John at Sirius-XM:
You’ve Got to Pay the Price - Al Kent
Hungry for Love - The San Remo Golden Strings

The latter group was a fascinating mix of members from both the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Funk Brothers.

It's telling that you almost never hear any of the songs you cited played on the radio anymore. 

Theme From S.W.A.T. was done originally by Rhythm Heritage and they had the hit in the US with it, but the Canadian group THP Orchestra covered it and they had the hit version here. TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) was a hit for MFSB with The Three Degrees. The Love Unlimited Orchestra had a big instrumental hit with Love's Theme. 

RadioActive wrote:

And then there were the weird hybrids - instrumentals that had at least a small bit of vocals. I'm thinking of Van McCoy's "The Hustle," which was a huge hit and contained singers chanting, "Do The Hustle" several times in the middle of the song.

Interesting about the hybrid aspect. Brings to mind "Rock & Roll Part 2" by persona non grata Gary Glitter, a great sports anthem in earlier days with cheering and "Hey" in it.

"Oh Yeah" by Yello, "Pump Up the Volume" by MARRS or that Art of Noise song with Max Headroom, "Paranoimia" were all charting singles but had much more talking/vocal samples in them and based heavily around instrumental licks but probably wouldn't qualify even as hybrids.

I didn't see "Popcorn" mentioned by Hot Butter, a staple jam.
 

Actually, Paranoimia was a Top 40 hit in both Canada and the U.S., charting at #31 (RPM) and #34 (BB Hot 100), respectively. I was surprised by its chart peak in Canada, because I don't recall it getting a lot of airplay on this side of the border. I do remember Rock 102 in Buffalo played it quite a bit when it came out. The Art of Noise's previous single, Peter Gunn (featuring Duane Eddy, a cover of the Henry Mancini tune) was a truer instrumental in the sense that it didn't have any singing or talking, although it did have some unusual vocal sounds. This version peaked at #14 in Canada, but missed the Top 40 in the U.S., peaking only as high as #50. It was also one of the new entries on the "phantom" final 1050 CHUM chart, dated June 14, 1986 (the chart that was prepared but never published), entering in at the #28 spot.


PJ

I noticed on the 1961 CHUM chart posted by Doug Thompson that Bill Black’s Combo listed at #23 with “Blue Tango.” As a kid, when I saw the Beatles’ first show at Maple Leaf Gardens Sept 7/64, the opening act was Bill Black’s Combo, the band apparently being requested by The Beatles to do the tour with them. Black had quite a musical history, which included backing up Elvis Presley in his very early days, and was a heck of a musician. You can locate more info on him, and listen to “Blue Tango” as well. It’s always interesting learning a bit more about the people behind the many instrumentals that once made the playlists.
Oh, and Booker T & The MG’s “Green Onions,” from 1962, is considered to be one of the best known rock/blues instrumental tunes ever recorded, a classic 12-bar, 3-chord arrangement. Booker T. Jones penned it when he was 17.