On That Note - Instrumentals
- Thread starter MeanDean
- Start date
Just a little twist on the topic...Actually, I'm kind of opposite of Mean Dean...I'm often thinking, "If the singer would just shut up, I could hear more of the interesting subtleties going on in the background instrumentals". There is lots of good stuff in the backing tracks from the 60's and 70's, as there were great musicians in the Wrecking Crew, The Funk Brothers, Muscle Shoals, etc. who backed many of the singles we heard. Sometimes the backing track could darn near stand alone as an instrumental.
One of my favorites is below. Also, many of the great backing tracks that the Funk Brothers did for Motown have also been released, and are a great listen.
Below, at 2:05 there is a noticeable mistake in the bass line. I read an interview with Jerry Scheff, who played bass on "Along comes Mary". There were several takes made, and he was shocked when he heard the take containing his mistake in the released version. He said this mistake actually bothered him for several years, and he dreaded hearing the song. Then one day, he was in an elevator, where the musak version playing in the elevator actually duplicated his "mistake". Hearing that "relieved the burden" he had been carrying about "Along Comes Mary"...
One of my favorites is below. Also, many of the great backing tracks that the Funk Brothers did for Motown have also been released, and are a great listen.
Below, at 2:05 there is a noticeable mistake in the bass line. I read an interview with Jerry Scheff, who played bass on "Along comes Mary". There were several takes made, and he was shocked when he heard the take containing his mistake in the released version. He said this mistake actually bothered him for several years, and he dreaded hearing the song. Then one day, he was in an elevator, where the musak version playing in the elevator actually duplicated his "mistake". Hearing that "relieved the burden" he had been carrying about "Along Comes Mary"...
That guy in the back row (right) looks sorta familiar
. He looks like he could sing "Easy Like Sunday Morning" even.
I always categorized "Wipeout" as instrumental, since vocals come only as an intro to the piece.
A few other songs I classify as instrumental have some vocal refrains throughout, that's probably pushing the definition too far. (And I can't think of example off the top of my head right now).
Here's a favorite of mine...
Back in the late 60's and '70s, the movie studios also owned record labels, so when a big movie was released, the studio would have the record label release a track or two from the movie to help promotion. The track below is from the granddaddy of the 1970's disaster flick genre, Airport.
This is Vinnie Bell's cover of the Airport Love Theme. The original soundtrack version was released, and didn't do much on the charts. Vinnie Bell was doing some interesting things with guitar /stringed sound effects, so MCA had him cover the tune, and re-released it. Vinnie's version did much better, especially on the adult contemporary charts.
The 747 at 2:00 is cutting it a little close...
Back in the late 60's and '70s, the movie studios also owned record labels, so when a big movie was released, the studio would have the record label release a track or two from the movie to help promotion. The track below is from the granddaddy of the 1970's disaster flick genre, Airport.
This is Vinnie Bell's cover of the Airport Love Theme. The original soundtrack version was released, and didn't do much on the charts. Vinnie Bell was doing some interesting things with guitar /stringed sound effects, so MCA had him cover the tune, and re-released it. Vinnie's version did much better, especially on the adult contemporary charts.
The 747 at 2:00 is cutting it a little close...
Eleven year old me liked this in 1962. Mancini wrote it for the movie Hatari but I never really thought of it strictly as a movie tune/theme. Parents dragged us along to their friends and while they played poker I entertained myself playing the sound track album. Hundred years ago but still remember my mom or dad coming into the living room and asking if I had to keep playing that damn song. 
Great songs, and great topic. Here are few I like that haven't been mentioned:
Got a second life after "Pulp Fiction":
A cool, "garage rock" classic:
A few vocals on this, but mostly instrumental:
Got a second life after "Pulp Fiction":
A cool, "garage rock" classic:
A few vocals on this, but mostly instrumental:
I hope i"m getting this right. Wipeout was supposed to be the B-side. The other side is a non-instrumental called "Surfer Joe" and actually did chart. Kind of a humorous tale of a surf bum who ends up cutting his hair and joining the military. And if I remember correctly the opening laugh/wipe-out bit was not actually one of the band members. It was a manager or road guy or something on that order
Yeah, the Volt/Stax studio band was basically the MG's. Not sure how many but I also think they were on several/many of the Aretha Franklin hits. She came to Muscle Shoals to record at some point. And of course the whole Blues Brothers thing from SNL included some of those guys. Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn... Definitely right up there with Wrecking Crew and Funk Bros for top flight studio session guys.
Several I posted have some vocal stuff in them. Gonna Fly Now I almost didn't post because of that. Instead I threw in a little caveat at the beginning saying I was stretching it somewhat in those cases.
I was listening to "The Outlaw" on XM Radio a while back, and they were talking to Rick Hall, who owned FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. It's amazing the artists that performed there and the songs that were recorded there. I guess there's a documentary about it called "Muscle Shoals". I haven't seen it yet, but would like to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals_(film)
I purposely left him out basically thinking someone might post it. Or was going to post it later in the day myself. Along with this lesser known Zombies track - referencing back to my last post 2 weeks ago:
