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Hey there, Hit Parade listeners. Before

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we start the show, I want to let you

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know about a story coming up a

0:58

little later. It's from one of our

1:00

partners, SAP. Is

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your business reaching an exciting turning

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stick around to hear how the president

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of an e-sports league seized

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the moment. Hey

1:28

there, Hit Parade listeners. What

1:30

you're about to hear is part one

1:33

of this episode. Part two will

1:35

arrive in your podcast feed at the end

1:37

of the month. Would you like to hear this

1:40

episode all at once the day it drops?

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Sign up for Slate Plus. It

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supports not only this show, but

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all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and

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podcasts. Just go to slate.com

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slash Hit Parade Plus. You'll

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get to hear every Hit Parade episode

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in full the day it

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arrives. Plus. Hit Parade

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The Bridge, our bonus episodes

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with guest interviews, deeper dives

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on our episode topics, and pop

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chart trivia. Once again, to join,

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that's slate.com slash hitparadeplus.

2:14

Thanks, and now, please enjoy

2:16

part one of this Hit Parade

2:18

episode. Welcome

2:30

to Hit Parade, a podcast of

2:32

Pop Chart History from Slate Magazine

2:35

about the hits from coast to coast. I'm

2:38

Chris Melanthi, chart analyst, pop

2:40

critic, and writer of Slate's Why is

2:42

this Song Number One series. On

2:44

today's show, 38 years

2:47

ago, in the summer and fall of 1985,

2:51

songs without words were doing

2:53

very well on the charts. In

2:56

less than five months, three

2:58

instrumentals cracked the top 20 on

3:00

the Hot 100, including

3:03

German keyboardist Harald Faltermeyer's

3:06

theme from the film Beverly Hills

3:08

Cop,

3:09

Axel F. and

3:19

super producer David Foster's

3:21

love theme from St. Elmo's

3:23

Fire. Thanks

3:33

to movies and TV shows,

3:36

instrumentals have had a pretty

3:38

good first half of the 80s. But,

3:52

after Jan Hammer's number one hit,

3:55

Miami Vice theme, became

3:57

1985's third big instrumental.

4:10

We would never see so

4:12

many vocal free singles

4:15

placed so highly on the charts

4:17

again. To this day Miami

4:20

Vice theme remains the last

4:23

purely instrumental chart topper

4:25

in Hot 100 Sisters.

4:36

This was a surprising

4:38

turn in fortunes for instrumental

4:41

hits, which had been chart toppers

4:43

for decades, whether they were

4:46

easy listening,

4:52

or

4:57

soulfully grieving,

5:01

hard

5:08

rocking,

5:17

or beckoning you to the dance

5:19

floor with just a few instructional

5:22

words. After

5:34

the mid-80s, instrumental

5:36

hits were like comet sightings,

5:39

rare, fleeting, fluky,

5:52

and the rise of rap turned

5:54

instrumentals into beats.

6:06

Nowadays, instrumental hits

6:09

are less musical mementos

6:11

and more like means, but

6:14

it's possible that the rise of the

6:16

superstar DJ is bringing

6:19

the instrumental back.

6:28

Today

6:30

on History,

6:31

we will consider the strange

6:33

chart history of the instrumental,

6:36

its survival into the first decades

6:39

of the rock era, its symbiosis

6:42

with the big and small screens,

6:45

its rise during the age of disco

6:47

and the synthesizer, and

6:50

its descent into kitsch. And

6:53

speaking of kitsch, we will

6:55

also reckon with the man who sold

6:58

more instrumental recordings than

7:00

any artist, did it after

7:03

the genre had peaked, and

7:05

turned instrumental music into

7:08

a kind of athletic sport.

7:11

Yep,

7:11

I mean this guy.

7:22

And that's where your hit parade

7:24

marches today. The week ending July 11,

7:27

1987, when Kenny G. reached

7:31

number four on the Hot 100 with

7:34

Songbird, while his LP,

7:37

Duotones, became his first

7:40

platinum album. It most

7:42

certainly would not be his last.

7:45

But how did the man born Kenneth

7:48

Gorlick defy the odds

7:50

for instrumentalists in the 80s,

7:52

the 90s, and the 21st century? And does

7:54

his success explain anything?

8:00

about the trajectory for the

8:02

wordless hit across chart

8:05

history. We

8:15

will attempt to answer all

8:18

these questions, no matter how

8:20

mellow you're feeling. So, put

8:22

your feet up and pour yourself

8:25

a beverage. Maybe something

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with tequila? La.

8:36

And we will set a mood, drop

8:38

a groove, and provide a soundtrack

8:41

that's better than your dentist's

8:43

office. Stick

8:51

around.

8:56

This podcast is brought to you by Slate Studios

8:58

and SAP.

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So there I was one month

11:14

ago at the movies, settled

11:17

into my seat for the video

11:19

game meets car racing flick,

11:22

Gran Turismo. I've raced

11:24

this track a thousand times in the game.

11:26

Let me drive it my way. I

11:31

was on a break from researching

11:34

this instrumental hits episode

11:36

of Hit Parade and looking for

11:38

some loud, mindless entertainment.

11:42

And dear listener, while watching

11:44

Gran Turismo, I did

11:46

not expect to

11:47

see or hear this. Do

11:50

you hear this? Yeah.

11:59

Yeah. As

12:02

you may have heard, Gran Turismo

12:06

is based on the true story of video

12:08

gamer turned pro

12:18

racer

12:28

Jan Mardenboro. And

12:30

it turns out this scene is

12:32

not dramatic license by the movie

12:35

makers. Mardenboro

12:37

really did play Kenny G's

12:39

music to chill himself out

12:42

before a big race.

12:52

I couldn't

12:53

have asked for a better

12:55

illustration of the quiet potency

12:58

of instrumentals, even in

13:01

the 21st century. Now,

13:03

it must be said, Mardenboro

13:06

mostly liked Kenny G's music

13:08

for its mellow lilt, not

13:11

its lack of words. The film

13:13

also reveals that his other

13:16

favorite pre-race music is

13:18

Celtic new age queen Enya,

13:21

who does sing,

13:23

even

13:23

though many of her fans do

13:26

not always comprehend her

13:28

words. Enya,

13:39

like Kenny G, is what you

13:42

might call a pure mood.

13:45

In any case, Mardenboro,

13:47

who came of age in the

13:49

2010s, decades after Kenny

13:52

G's heyday, represents

13:54

how many young people regard

13:57

instrumental music in the streaming

13:59

age. age as functional

14:02

music for mood enhancements.

14:13

A recent billboard report estimates

14:16

the so-called functional audio

14:19

market, defined as, quote, not

14:21

designed for conscious listening,

14:24

engineered to help people achieve

14:26

a certain cognitive state, unquote,

14:30

as generating around 120 billion

14:32

streams annually. Some

14:36

of this functional music is

14:38

generated by an algorithm, and

14:41

some is associated with artists

14:44

who are not quite household names.

14:47

Lance Allen, an acoustic guitarist

14:50

who builds himself as the Guitar

14:52

Lancer, records soothing

14:54

covers whose Spotify plays

14:57

rival those of more famous artists.

15:00

Allen's 2020 cover of

15:03

Casey Musgrave's 2018 hit

15:05

Rainbow, thanks in part

15:08

to its inclusion on some Spotify

15:10

mood playlists,

15:12

has racked up 5.3 million

15:15

streams, a higher

15:17

total than some of Casey Musgrave's

15:20

own deep cuts. But

15:32

none of these algorithmically

15:34

friendly tracks are chart hits.

15:37

They don't generate the radio airplay

15:40

or single sales that fuel

15:42

the billboard charts. And

15:44

that's the main difference between

15:46

instrumentals today and

15:49

in generations past.

15:59

Now, I don't want to overstate

16:03

the case. The Top 40 was

16:05

not awash in dozens of

16:07

vocal-free hits back in the 60s

16:10

and 70s, but it was

16:12

more plausible decades ago for

16:14

catchy instrumentals, even

16:17

actual jazz like Dave

16:19

Brubeck's classic Take 5,

16:22

a number 25 hit in 1961, to score on the Hot 100. These

16:29

wordless hits were bops.

16:41

And about the word, wordless,

16:45

let's establish some ground rules.

16:48

Can we call a song instrumental

16:51

if it has some vocals? I

17:03

think of instrumental hits as

17:06

a little bit like one-hit

17:08

wonders. And not just

17:10

because composer Bill Conti

17:13

never scored another Top 40

17:15

hit after his one chart topper,

17:18

the rocky theme Gonna Fly Now.

17:21

As I explained in our one-hit

17:23

wonders episode of Hit Parade,

17:26

there are pure one-hit

17:28

wonders. Artists who really

17:31

did only hit the Hot 100 one

17:33

time, like Soft Cell or

17:36

Nena or Bismar Key.

17:38

And then there

17:39

are de facto one-hit

17:42

wonders. Artists who

17:44

can fairly be categorized as

17:46

such despite coming back with

17:48

a low-charting follow-up hit, like

17:51

Dexy's Midnight Runners or Aha. Similarly,

17:55

there are many pure instrumentals,

17:58

like Dave Brubeck's.

19:53

White

20:00

Horse is quirky and sparse,

20:03

but it's got enough vocalizing

20:05

not to make the instrumental

20:08

category. Honestly,

20:10

this is not an exact science.

20:13

There is an element of, I

20:15

know it when I hear it, that is fairly

20:18

subjective. But for

20:20

the purposes of this podcast episode,

20:23

I am regarding Joel Whitburn's roster

20:25

of Billboard chart books as

20:27

my Bible for what songs

20:30

qualify as instrumental.

20:33

Even Moaning, as on Chukacha's

20:36

Top 10 1972 hit Jungle

20:39

Fever, doesn't disqualify

20:41

a song from instrumental

20:44

status. No, no, no,

20:47

I, I...

20:54

Now that we've got that out of the

20:56

way, let's travel back to

20:58

the mid-1950s and the start of

21:02

the Rock era. It's important

21:04

to keep in mind that, in Rock

21:06

and Roll's early days, the term

21:09

pop music, as most

21:11

listeners understood it, usually

21:13

involved a big band or an

21:16

orchestra. Which explains

21:18

how, just weeks into the

21:20

so-called Rock era, less

21:23

than three months after Bill Haley

21:25

topped the charts with Rock Around the Clock,

21:28

the number one song on Billboard's Best

21:30

Sellers chart was this. Autumn

21:44

Leaves by pianist Roger

21:47

Williams didn't sound anything

21:49

like Rock and Roll. Williams'

21:52

cascading keyboard runs were

21:54

meant to sound like falling foliage.

21:58

What was most notable about the first

22:00

instrumental number one of the rock

22:03

era. It topped the chart in

22:05

October 1955, was that it was

22:09

a new arrangement of a song written

22:11

with vocals both in French

22:14

and English. Traditional pop

22:16

singer Joe Stafford had

22:18

first recorded the English version

22:21

of the Jazzy Standard in 1950. This

22:37

was the deal with early

22:39

instrumental hits. The song

22:41

didn't have to be American, but

22:44

the melody had to feel instantly

22:47

familiar. For example, Cuban

22:49

bandleader and mambo king Perez

22:52

Prado also hit number

22:54

one in 1955 with

22:57

his arrangement of Cherry

22:59

Pink and Apple Blossom White. By

23:02

the way, Andrew Lloyd Webber

23:04

would later borrow this Latin

23:07

style melody for a track

23:09

in his 70s musical, Evita.

23:21

Instrumental music was, at

23:23

first, a respite from rock

23:25

and roll. Even after the

23:28

likes of Elvis Presley, Little

23:30

Richard, and Chuck Berry started

23:32

scoring hits in 1955 and 1956, Billboard's pop charts

23:38

were still topped by orchestral

23:40

easy listeners like Nelson

23:43

Riddle's shimmery take on the Portuguese

23:45

standard Lisbon Antigua,

23:58

or Les Baxter's the Poor

24:00

People of Paris, a twee

24:02

arrangement of a French song originally

24:05

called The Ballad of Poor Jean.

24:17

It took

24:18

until late 1956 for

24:21

an instrumental that sounded like

24:23

rock and roll to scale the charts.

24:27

That's

24:36

when R&B bandleader Bill Doggett

24:39

took his Honky Tonk to

24:41

number two on Billboard's Best

24:44

Sellers in Stores chart, a

24:46

predecessor to the Hot 100. Director

24:49

Dave Marsh later called Honky

24:52

Tonk the best rock and roll instrumental

24:54

of the fifties, and the recording

24:57

was inducted into the Rock and Roll

24:59

Hall of Fame. Honky

25:10

Tonk seemed to pry open

25:13

the charts for wordless rock

25:15

and roll jams. In 1957,

25:18

arranger and instrumentalist Bill

25:21

Justice helped pioneer the

25:23

so-called twangy guitar

25:25

sound with raunchy, another

25:28

number two best seller. Apparently

25:40

raunchy was a rite of passage

25:43

for young rock fans learning to

25:45

play guitar. In 1958,

25:48

famously, the story goes, a

25:50

teenage George Harrison auditioned

25:53

for a young John Lennon and Paul

25:55

McCartney to join the Beatles

25:58

by playing On the Top. of

26:00

a Liverpool double-decker bus, his

26:03

rendition of Raunchy. Other

26:13

early rock instrumentals included

26:15

the aforementioned tequila

26:18

by LA session group The Champs,

26:21

a number one hit in early 1958 that

26:24

was originally recorded as a B-side

26:27

and is now a party staple.

26:39

And I might add, for those

26:41

who think of the 1985 film

26:43

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure when this song

26:46

is played, rest in peace,

26:48

Paul Rubens. In 1959,

26:51

R&B organist Dave Baby

26:54

Cortez took his flukey

26:56

party jam, The Happy Organ,

26:59

to number one. Generally

27:10

the rougher the rock instrumental,

27:13

the less likely it was to top

27:15

the charts. Although looking

27:17

at the glass as half-full, it

27:20

is remarkable that guitar legend

27:23

Link Ray got all the

27:25

way to number 16 on the Best

27:27

Sellers chart in 1958 with

27:30

his classic coruscating rumble.

27:51

But arguably the first

27:53

rock guitarist to make a consistent

27:56

chart career out of the instrumental

27:59

was the man who branded himself

28:01

as the King of Twang, the

28:03

New York-born, Arizona-raised

28:06

electric guitar maestro, Dwayne

28:09

Eddy. On

28:19

his hit Rebel Rausser, which

28:22

ranked number six on the first ever

28:24

Hot 100 in August 1958, and

28:28

was credited to Dwayne Eddy

28:30

and his twangy guitar, Eddy

28:33

codified the reverb-heavy

28:35

style that would not only become

28:38

his trademark, but would define

28:40

the sound of the late rockability

28:42

years. All music's Richie

28:45

Unterberger called Eddy, quote, perhaps

28:48

the most successful instrumental

28:50

rocker of his time and

28:52

the man most responsible, along

28:55

with Chuck Berry, for popularizing

28:58

the electric rock guitar,

29:00

unquote. The

29:12

other thing about Dwayne Eddy,

29:14

who, by the way, as of 2023, is still with

29:16

us, is that

29:19

he generated hits. Between 1958

29:23

and 1961, Eddy scored a dozen top 40 singles, including

29:25

the 1959 number nine

29:31

hit 40 Miles of Bad Road. And

29:46

in 1960, his cover

29:48

of the theme to TV's Peter

29:50

Gunn, a number 25 hit. As

30:04

we discussed in our TV Tunes

30:07

episode of Hit Parade, the

30:09

hit Peter Gunn soundtrack was

30:12

the handiwork of composer Henry

30:14

Mancini, but many now

30:16

associate the song more

30:19

with Dwayne Eddy. He even

30:21

remade it in the 80s with

30:23

the alternative synth-pop group,

30:25

The Art of Noise. Dwayne

30:38

Eddy's success also helped

30:40

open the door to a wave of surf

30:43

guitar instrumentalists, including

30:46

Seattle guitar combo The Ventures,

30:48

who took Walk Don't Run to

30:51

number 2 in 1960.

31:03

And later on, California

31:05

group The Surfaris would reach

31:08

number 2 in 1963 with the iconic Wipeout.

31:12

But

31:23

as the 50s turned into the 60s,

31:26

the easy listening instrumental

31:29

wasn't disappearing. It was

31:31

morphing. Brooklyn duo Santo

31:34

and Johnny took their dreamy sleepwalk,

31:37

a steel guitar fantasia that

31:40

sounded like rock but lilted

31:42

like orchestral pop to

31:44

number 1 in 1959.

33:14

Or

34:07

the even-baudier The Stripper,

34:10

composer and bandleader David

34:13

Rose's Burlesque Anthem,

34:15

which hit No. 1 in the summer

34:19

of 1962, and lives on decades

34:22

later as a punchline in countless

34:24

movies and TV shows when

34:27

an actor is doing a comical

34:29

striptease. The

34:40

Stripper was one of three instrumental

34:43

No. 1 hits in 1962, the high watermark in Hot 100 History,

34:50

the other two No. 1s that year,

34:52

Mr. Acrebilch's Stranger on

34:54

the Shore, and the Tornado's

34:56

Tell Star can be heard in our

34:59

British Invasion episode released

35:01

earlier this year. As

35:04

you can probably tell, the

35:06

thing about instrumentals is

35:08

they adhered to no one

35:11

genre. They could be as sultry

35:13

as Wonderland by Night, as

35:16

silly as The Stripper, or

35:19

on the 1962 No. 3 hit

35:22

Green Onions by the Stax

35:24

Records session band Booker

35:26

T. and the MG's

35:28

Streddy.

35:40

In most cases, these

35:43

instrumental hits were hard to

35:45

follow up. Booker T. and the

35:47

MG's did have an enduring

35:50

career, but it took them several

35:52

years to return to the Top 10. Burke

35:55

Campford and David Rose didn't

35:58

return to the Top 10 at all. But

36:01

there was one instrumental

36:03

60s act that towered

36:05

above all others in terms of

36:07

chart performance. He, or

36:10

should I say they, cracked

36:12

the code. More

36:15

on them in a moment.

36:20

Selena Quintanilla

36:21

was a force of nature.

36:24

But when a loyal friend betrayed

36:26

her, she met a fate she never

36:28

deserved. Even The Rich

36:31

is a podcast from Wondery that

36:33

tells you the stories of the crazy

36:35

lives of the greatest family dynasties

36:38

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36:40

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38:34

20th Century Studios and New Regency.

38:37

The creator, only Peter September 29th. Largate to a knock. She

38:39

would cut my helmet. You should never have let AI out of the box. From

38:41

the director of Rho One. Did you locate the weapon? Can't

38:43

be right. She's the kid.

38:44

Hey, you're my friend. She does, Rho

38:46

Phone. I can't do that. I'm sorry. I'm

38:49

sorry. I'm sorry. I'm

38:51

sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm

38:54

sorry. I'm sorry. I'm

38:56

sorry. I can't do this. The creator, next

38:58

screen is the movie event. Only Peter September 29th. Ready

39:01

Peter 13. Meet me in a portrait for children under 13.

39:04

Get to get to know.

39:18

As we discussed in our Millie

39:20

Vanilli episode of Hit Parade,

39:23

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana

39:25

Brass was one of the great fake

39:28

it till you make it bands

39:30

in pop history. When Alpert,

39:33

a Los Angeles based trumpeter, attended

39:36

a bowl fight in Mexico, he

39:38

was inspired to compose a

39:41

Latin flavored instrumental called

39:43

The Lonely Bowl. He

39:45

credited the track to the Tijuana

39:48

Brass, even though there

39:50

was no such group. Alpert,

39:53

who has no Latin heritage whatsoever,

39:56

recorded the basic track by

39:58

himself.

39:59

dubbing his trumpet to resemble

40:02

a full group of mariachis.

40:16

In the fall of 62, the

40:19

Lonely Bowl was a surprise hit,

40:22

reaching number 6 on the Hot 100.

40:26

Herbert now needed to form an actual

40:28

Tijuana Brass, which could record

40:31

in the studio and perform

40:33

on the road. Truthfully, Herb

40:36

Albert and the Tijuana Brass were

40:38

always Latin-adjacent.

40:41

Albert seemed to have picked up on the fact

40:43

that, after all those prior

40:46

number one instrumentals that were

40:48

vaguely French, vaguely Cuban,

40:51

and vaguely German, Americans

40:54

liked their instrumentals exotic,

40:57

not authentic. So,

40:59

for example, a typical Herb

41:01

Albert and the Tijuana Brass single

41:04

would be their Latin-inflected cover

41:07

of the American pop standard, A

41:09

Taste of Honey. Albert's

41:12

Honey was a number 7 hit in 1965. What

41:29

was more remarkable was what Albert's

41:32

albums did. The Tijuana

41:34

Brass scored five number

41:37

one LPs on the Billboard album

41:39

chart from 1965 to 1968,

41:43

more than any 60s act

41:45

except The Beatles. The

41:48

Brass's run was led

41:50

off by Whipped Cream and

41:52

Other Delights, an LP

41:54

more legendary for its cover

41:57

than its contents. Modeled,

41:59

deleted. Loris Erickson buried up

42:02

to her cleavage in a pile

42:04

of shaving cream. That

42:06

sexy cover helped Alpert

42:08

sell six million copies

42:11

of the whipped cream LP. When

42:14

a sixties dude bought a Herb

42:16

Alpert LP filled with swinging

42:19

instrumentals, he was buying

42:21

a piece of bachelor-friendly software

42:24

for his Hi-Fi hardware. In

42:27

other words, he was buying

42:29

a love style. Spanish

42:42

Flea, a number 27 hit in 1966

42:46

and, four years afterward, the

42:48

theme song to TV's A Dating

42:51

Game helped push Alpert

42:53

and the Brass's album Go in Places

42:56

to number one. Not long after

42:58

that, Team Alpert hit number one

43:01

again with the What Now My

43:03

Love album, whose title

43:05

track was a

43:06

number 24.

43:18

Alpert even recorded a James

43:20

Bond theme. Well, the theme

43:23

to a Bond spoof, anyway.

43:26

1967's Casino Royale,

43:28

starring Peter Sellers. The

43:31

Tijuana Brass's Casino Royale

43:33

single made the top 30 and

43:36

anchored yet another number one Herb

43:39

Alpert LP,

43:40

Sounds like. The

43:51

great irony of Alpert's career

43:53

was that he only finally scored

43:55

a number one single when

43:57

he sang on a record. 1968's

44:01

This Guy's In Love With You, which

44:04

we have referenced in several past

44:07

hit parade episodes. This

44:09

Guy's In Love With You anchored

44:11

the Tijuana Brass's

44:12

fifth and final number one

44:14

album, Beat of the Brass.

44:29

Even with that vocal anomaly,

44:32

Herb Albert had already

44:33

taken the instrumental further

44:36

than any prior artist, making

44:39

it a must-own for the age

44:41

of the long-playing album. He

44:44

would make an instrumental comeback

44:46

a decade later,

44:47

but by 1968, other artists on the Hot 100 were

44:53

ready to pick up the mantle of instrumental

44:56

pop.

45:07

Paul Marriot's Love is

45:09

Blue, a harpsichord-inflected

45:12

instrumental cover of a French

45:14

song that, in its vocal version,

45:17

had placed fourth in 1967's

45:19

Eurovision Song Contest,

45:22

was the stealth smash of 1968.

45:27

Love is Blue spent five weeks

45:29

at number one on the Hot 100,

45:32

and even came in second on

45:34

Billboard's Year End Survey, behind

45:37

only The Beatles' Hey Jude. One

45:40

can safely assume that Marriot's

45:43

Baroque arrangement of Love

45:45

is Blue jibed with the hippie

45:48

culture of the day. In

45:58

general, 1968, 2008 was

46:00

a good year for instrumentals. Classical

46:03

Gas, a classical folk and

46:05

flamenco instrumental by guitar

46:08

virtuoso Mason Williams,

46:10

was a number two hit in the summer

46:13

of 1968.

46:23

South African trumpeter

46:26

Hugh Masakayla took his

46:28

cowbell-inflected grazing

46:31

in the graph to number one

46:33

that same summer.

46:45

Masakayla's hit

46:47

was so popular

46:49

it inspired a rarity in the

46:51

world of instrumentals. A

46:53

hit cover that added

46:56

words rather than subtracting

46:58

them. R&B vocal

47:00

group The Friends of Distinction

47:03

wrote new lyrics to the song and

47:05

took it to number three the following

47:07

summer. By the way, if this

47:10

version of the song

47:11

sounds familiar, it's been

47:13

used in

47:13

numerous adverts over the years

47:16

as well as the Will Ferrell comedy

47:19

Anchorman.

47:24

As in the 1950s, the late 60s was

47:26

a good time

47:26

for earworms built out of catchy instrumental hooks.

47:36

The

47:40

Chicago Soul Jazz Ensemble

47:42

Young Holt Unlimited took

47:45

soulful strut to number three

47:47

in early 1969. Good

47:50

luck getting that horn riff out of

47:52

your head. It's been sampled literally

47:55

dozens of times across

47:57

hip-hop and pop.

48:08

The instrumental also

48:10

made a huge comeback at the end

48:12

of the 60s into the early 70s thanks to

48:16

movies and TV. As

48:19

we noted in a previous hit parade,

48:21

Henry Mancini took the

48:24

love theme from Romeo and Juliet.

48:27

His cover of Nino Rota's signature

48:29

melody from the Franco Zephirelli

48:32

film of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy

48:35

to number one in the summer of

48:37

16E. Surfrockers

48:48

the Ventures, remember them, made

48:51

a comeback in 69 with

48:54

their chugging theme to CBS-TV's

48:57

Hawaii Five-O.

49:10

And veteran piano duo

49:12

Ferrante and Tacher

49:13

took their arrangement

49:16

of the theme to the John Voight movie

49:18

Midnight Cowboy, winner

49:20

of 1969's Best Picture

49:23

Oscar, to number ten in

49:25

early 1970. Speaking

49:41

of John Voight, three

49:44

years later a fleet-fingered

49:46

song used in a memorable

49:48

theme in Voight's film with Burt

49:50

Reynolds, Deliverance, called

49:53

Dueling Banjos, became

49:56

a cultural phenomenon. Played

49:58

by bluegrass musician, John Voight, who was a

51:49

Scorpio,

52:01

a riff machine filled with drum

52:03

breaks that would later be sampled

52:05

heavily by rappers. Scorpio

52:08

peaked at number 6 in early 1972.

52:21

He borthed Billy Preston, who

52:24

famously backed the Beatles on

52:26

Get Back, became a 70s hit maker

52:29

with both vocal and instrumental

52:32

hits. Among his instrumentals

52:35

were Space Race, a number 4 hit,

52:38

Struttin', a number 22 hit, and

52:41

Out of Space, which got all the

52:43

way to number 2 in the summer

52:45

of 1972.

52:47

Instrumentals were where nerds

52:50

could

52:51

innovate. Popcorn, a composition

52:53

written to demonstrate the

53:03

capabilities

53:04

of the Moog synthesizer,

53:07

was covered by Moog player

53:09

Stan Free and his group Hot

53:11

Butter in 1972. Their

53:15

popcorn reached number 1

53:17

across Europe and number 9 in

53:20

America.

53:30

Avant-garde jazz arranger

53:32

Ymir Deodato took

53:34

his Prague Funk cover of

53:37

Also Sprach Varathustra by

53:39

Richard Strauss to number 2 in 1973.

53:42

Although Zarathustra was made famous in the late

53:48

60s as the theme to the Stanley

53:50

Kubrick film 2001 A

53:53

Space Odyssey, Deodato's

53:55

arrangement was a hit entirely

53:58

unaffiliated with the New York Times.

54:11

Mocchi instrumentalist

54:12

Edgar Winter took his riff-heavy

54:15

beast of a single, Frankenstein,

54:18

so named because it comprised lots

54:21

of different parts fused together

54:23

into one monster song,

54:26

to number one in the spring

54:28

of 73.

54:42

And speaking of riff rockers,

54:45

lodged in the top ten the same

54:47

week Frankenstein was number one

54:50

was Hocus Pocus by

54:52

Focus, a prog rock band

54:54

from Amsterdam.

55:04

Speaking at number nine

55:05

on the Hot 100, Hocus

55:08

Pocus by Focus, come

55:10

on, admit it, that's just fun

55:12

to say, was a truly

55:15

bizarre composition. It

55:17

featured not only heavy guitars

55:19

but also accordion, flute,

55:22

scat singing and, most memorably,

55:32

yodeling.

55:36

German synthesizer pioneers

55:38

Kroftwerk scored their

55:41

only American Top 40 hit in

55:43

early 1975, with

55:45

their celebration of the open road,

55:48

Autobahn, a number 25 hit.

55:59

The genre

56:00

that arguably benefited

56:02

most from the flurry of hit

56:05

70s instrumentals was disco.

56:08

Some have argued that the first

56:10

disco number one on the Hot 100

56:13

was Barry White's composition Love's

56:16

Theme. Credited to his

56:19

Love Unlimited Orchestra, the

56:21

plush, Philly-sole dance floor

56:23

hybrid, which reached number one

56:26

in February 1974, did

56:29

not feature even a word of

56:31

Barry White's legendary

56:33

bass voice. Later

56:45

in 1974, the

56:47

Philadelphia international

56:48

studio band MFSB

56:52

took their theme to TV's Soul

56:54

Train to number one. The chugging

56:57

T-S-O-P, or the sound

57:00

of Philadelphia, which featured

57:02

wordless vocalizing from R&B Troop

57:05

the Three Degrees, was,

57:07

like Love's theme, simultaneously

57:10

both Philly-sole and

57:13

proto-disco.

57:25

The following year, the Scottish

57:27

funk-rock combo Average

57:30

White Band took their syncopated

57:32

classic Pick Up the Pieces to

57:35

number one on the Hot 100. Again,

57:38

as with Love's theme and T-S-O-P,

57:41

Pick Up the Pieces was rooted in

57:44

vintage R&B, but pointing

57:46

the wall for disco.

57:59

Six months after Average White

58:02

Band, the Hot 100 was topped

58:04

by the ultimate dance floor instrumental,

58:07

and no one mistook it for anything

58:10

but disco. ["Disco

58:12

by The Dancers plays"] Van

58:22

McCoy was a songwriter,

58:24

producer, and A&R man

58:27

for more than a decade for

58:29

the likes of Gladys Knight, the Chorales,

58:32

and Aretha Franklin, before

58:34

he wrote The Hustle on

58:36

a lark. It was an

58:38

instructional record, capitalizing

58:41

on an elaborate form of partner

58:43

dancing that was taking off

58:45

in New York City nightclubs. McCoy,

58:49

a fan of classical and ballroom

58:51

music, admired the dance's

58:54

old-school steps. Written

58:56

and recorded in under an hour

58:58

while McCoy was finishing a session

59:01

with his Soul City symphony,

59:04

The Hustle became a phenomenon.

59:06

["The Hustle

59:17

by The Dancers plays"] Though it's spent only one

59:19

week at number one in the summer of 75,

59:22

The Hustle announced once and

59:25

for all that disco was

59:27

happening. It also opened

59:29

a lane for other, more shamelessly,

59:32

disco instrumentals like

59:35

Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven,

59:37

a number one in 1976. ["The

59:43

Hustle by The Dancers

59:46

plays"] And,

59:52

I kid you not, a disco arrangement

59:54

of the Star Wars theme by

59:57

Italian-American Domenico Monardo.

59:59

AKA Mako.

1:00:02

Mako took his medley Star

1:00:05

Wars theme cantina band

1:00:07

to number one in late 1977, the

1:00:11

year anything affiliated with

1:00:13

Star Wars couldn't fail. By

1:00:26

the late 70s, instrumentals

1:00:28

were still frequent chart visitors,

1:00:31

generating hits for instrumentalists

1:00:34

from all corners of pop. Jazz

1:00:37

flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione

1:00:40

took his indelible soft rock

1:00:42

jam Feel So Good to

1:00:45

number four in the summer of 78. I'll

1:00:48

bet King of the Hills Peggy Hill was

1:00:50

so pleased.

1:01:07

Canadian pianist Frank Mills

1:01:10

scored his own top five

1:01:12

flute hit a year later with

1:01:14

Music Box Dancer, an easy

1:01:17

listening staple that reached number

1:01:19

three in May 1979.

1:01:32

And later that same year,

1:01:35

none other than Herb Alpert

1:01:37

made an improbable chart comeback

1:01:40

at number one, this time with

1:01:42

an actual instrumental.

1:01:44

As I explained in our

1:01:47

TV toons episode of Hit

1:01:49

Parade, Alpert's sultry

1:01:51

Rise rode a recurring

1:01:54

plot

1:01:54

on the soap opera General

1:01:56

Hospital between the characters

1:01:58

Luke and Laura.

1:01:59

all the way to the top of

1:02:02

the hot line.

1:02:13

Rise hit

1:02:14

number one in October 1979, just

1:02:18

as disco was petering out

1:02:20

on the charts. And while

1:02:23

dance music would continue to

1:02:25

produce

1:02:25

instrumental hits, like

1:02:28

Giorgio Moroder's influential

1:02:30

Italo disco and techno pop classic

1:02:33

Chase, a number 33 hit.

1:02:44

The dance floor

1:02:45

would not be the main venue

1:02:47

for instrumentals in the 1980s. You

1:02:51

might say the most influential

1:02:53

instrumental at the end

1:02:55

of the 70s was

1:02:57

instead Morning Dance,

1:02:59

an easy listener by the jazz

1:03:01

fusion band Spyrogyra.

1:03:13

Though it only reached

1:03:16

number 24 on the Hot 100, Morning

1:03:19

Dance topped Billboard's adult

1:03:21

contemporary chart in the summer

1:03:23

of 79, foreshadowing

1:03:26

the next wave in mass appeal,

1:03:28

instrumental pop. But that

1:03:31

wave would take several more years

1:03:34

to materialize. When

1:03:44

we come back, smooth instrumentals

1:03:47

morph into smooth jazz,

1:03:50

as the top 40 evolves toward

1:03:52

lyrical technicians and away

1:03:55

from lyric-free pop. And

1:03:58

one

1:03:58

curly-haired man,

1:03:59

sells truckloads by

1:04:02

giving the people the mellow melodies

1:04:04

they crave. Non-Sleep

1:04:07

Plus listeners will hear the rest of this

1:04:09

episode in two weeks. For now,

1:04:11

I hope you've been enjoying this episode

1:04:14

of Hit Parade. Our show was written,

1:04:17

edited, and narrated by Chris Malanfy.

1:04:20

That's me. My producer is Kevin

1:04:22

Bendis. Derek John is executive

1:04:25

producer of narrative podcasts, and

1:04:27

we have help from Joel Meyer. Alicia

1:04:30

Montgomery is VP of audio

1:04:32

for Slate Podcasts. Check

1:04:34

out their roster of shows at flate.com

1:04:37

slash podcasts. You can

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If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts,

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please rate and review us while you're there.

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It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks

1:04:55

for listening, and I look forward to leading

1:04:57

the Hit Parade back your way. We'll

1:05:00

see you for part two in a couple

1:05:02

of weeks. Until then, keep

1:05:04

on marching on the word.

1:05:05

I'm Chris Malanfy.

1:05:24

During the 50th

1:05:26

anniversary of hip-hop, I am absolutely

1:05:29

honored to partner with Budweiser to celebrate

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the legacy of one of the greatest to ever

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do it, Notorious B.I.G. They've created

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a limited edition run of Word Up! magazine

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in his honor, where you'll find an article

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by yours truly. The issue drops September

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13th in New York City. It's

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a great show. It's a great show. It's

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a great show. It's a great show. It's a great

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show. It's a great show. It's

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and Eric Bridesmaids and Fantastic

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Four. I'd like to personally invite you

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