The Top Instrumentals of the Rock Era, Part 4

You will find several lists of the top instrumentals so this one is far from being the only one.  It is, however, unique in that I tried to base it on what the public thinks, leaving my personal bias out of it.  For it doesn't matter what a so-called "expert" or professional in the music business thinks.  History will always record what the public likes.

So I base a good deal of this list on chart performance at the time, single and album sales to this point in history, and how the song holds up today.  I have put a considerable amount of time and effort into coming up with this list.  Although I believe it contains The Top 100 Instrumentals of the Rock Era*, it doesn't start getting great until the top 85 or so.  

What is great about instrumentals is that the songwriter is free to focus solely on the music.  Artists today have gotten away from that--when you strip the song from its jive and 21st century sound effects, all you have is the music.  By listening to these instrumentals, hopefully we'll get back to what matters when composing a song. 

 Of course, I do realize that beginning in the 1980's, we as a society began cutting music programs to the bone so really we have only ourselves to blame for the poor quality of "music" these days.  I know my own knowledge of music (I play the saxophone, clarinet and have played piano since age 5 and was in a group of 12 that was selected to sing at our church's world conference in Portland, Oregon and then toured throughout the country...) would not have been as great were it not for music education in the schools.  I hope we can get back to providing more funds for that, to stimulate our children's interest in music.

Getting back to the other "lists" you may see on the web.  They are great, but what is a music site without music?!  Thus, you actually get to hear the songs that are in the list.  Many I was not familiar with until I started researching for this special.

For navigation, the song titles are below the embedded YouTube video.  For ease of use, I have separated the list into 10 segments of 10 songs each.  Part Five will appear on this blog July 9.  I strongly recommend playing each song in order--with any luck (if I've done my homework (and I have!)), each one should sound better than the last.  At least that's the goal.

Enjoy!  (Make sure you pause, stop or finish listening to one song before you start another!)

70.      "The Entertainer" by Marvin Hamlisch

Hamlisch was a child prodigy and began playing songs he heard on the piano at age five.  At age seven, he was accepted into what now is the Julliard School Pre-College Division.  His first job was as a rehearsal pianist for "Funny Girl" starring Barbra Streisand.  Hamlisch  is one of only 12 people to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy and a Tony award, and one of only two to win all of those plus a Pulitzer Prize (the other is Richard Rodgers).  Hamlisch went on to produce scores for numerous films including The Way We Were, Ordinary People and Sophie's Choice.

This song was copyrighted December 29, 1902 by the famous ragtime musician Scott Joplin.  But it wasn't until the all-time classic movie The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, included six songs from Joplin that he received his due.  Hamlisch adapted Joplin's song into the movie and it became a huge hit.  The score to the album won a Grammy and Hamlisch did as well for Best New Artist.  "The Entertainer" reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #3 on the popular chart and sold over a million copies.

69.      "Teen Beat" by Sandy Nelson

Nelson attended high school with Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, who later were huge stars as Jan & Dean. Nelson was one of the best-known drummers of the 1960's and became a session musician in high demand. He played on "To Know Him Is To Love Him" by the Teddy Bears, "Alley-Oop" by the Hollywood Argyles and "A Thousand Stars" by Kathy Young and the Innocents. Nelson's style of mixing his drumming with cool guitar licks was a forerunner to the surfing hits that would follow. He was not an incredible drummer, but knew how to incorporate drum solos into rock hits.

"Teen Beat" became a national sensation, reaching #4 in 1959 and selling over a million records. Nelson eventually posted 10 solo hits, including another Top 10--"Let There Be Drums".

68.      "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer

Faltermeyer was born in Munich, Germany, the son of a homemaker and a construction businessmen.  He learned how to play the piano at age six.  Soon after, a music professor discovered that Harold had the gift of perfect pitch.  He began playing organ in a rock combo and studied piano and trumpet a the Munich Music Academy.  


In 1978, Giorgio Moroder discovered him and brought him to Los Angeles to play keyboards and arrange the Soundtrack to "Midnight Express" which Moroder was working on.  In fact, Moroder narrowly missed the Top 100 with "Chase", the theme to "Midnight Express".  Faltermeyer also did the same work on the Soundtrack to "American Gigolo".  Moroder and Faltermeyer continued their work together producing hits and albums for Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Glenn Frey, Blondie, Bob Seger, Billy Idol, Cheap Trick and many others.  Faltermeyer was well known for his attention to detail and development of the synthesizer sound.   

Faltermeyer would later score another Grammy for his work in the movie "Top Gun". "Axel F" reached #3 in March of 1985 on the popular chart and was a #1 song for two weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart. It would be the only solo release from Faltermeyer.

67.      "Because They're Young" by Duane Eddy

"Because They're Young" was the title song from the movie starring James Darren and Tuesday Weld, although an orchestra plays the song in the opening credits, not Eddy.  Eddy played "Shazam" while Dick Clark played a high school teacher in the film.


Eddy began playing guitar at age five and was famous for developing a technique of playing lead guitar on the guitar's bass strings to achieve a "twangy" sound.  He was elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and in 2004, was presented with a Guitar Legend Award from Guitar Player Magazine.  Among those who credit Eddy as an influence:  George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Davies of the Kinks, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and John Entwhistle of the Who.

66.      "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" by Sounds Orchestral

"Cast Your Fate to the Wind" was originally a jazz piece written and recorded by Vince Guaraldi.  It won a Grammy Award for Guaraldi for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963.  It has been remade several times, but never bigger than the version by Sounds Orchestral.  The group reached #1 for three weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart and #10 on the popular chart.  The single sold over a million copies.

    Sounds Orchestral in the background with Little Richard


Sounds Orchestral was a British studio band assembled by John Schroeder and featuring Johnny Pearson, who was band leader of the television show Top of the Pops for 16 years.  Sounds Orchestral went on to release 16 studio albums.