The 1940s was the decade of fantastic instrumentals, great bands and swell music. Then came the 1950s and the rise of Rock & Roll and that was wonderful, but the fifties still continued to provide us a lot of instrumental hits, with many finding their place in the top 20 and even the top 10. With each passing decade, however, we saw fewer and fewer instrumentals that were memorable and have arrived today at a point where I can't remember when an instrumental made the charts. I don't think it's just because I don't listen as much to the music of the 1990s and 2000s; I think the instrumentals have just gone to their happy hunting grounds. But we have the memories of EARLY AMERICAN BANDSTAND, when in the late 1950s and early 1960s, we had the likes of: SLEEPWALK/Santo and Johnny~~TEQUILA /The Champs~~RAUNCHY /Bill Justis~~REBEL-ROUSER/Duane Eddy~~PATRICIA/Perez Prado~~TOPSY II/Cozy Cole~~LAST DATE/Floyd Cramer~~EXODUS/Ferrante~~APACHE/The Shadows~~YELLOW BIRD/Arthur Lyman~~THEME FROM A SUMMER PLACE/Percy Faith~~GREEN ONIONS/Booker T. and the M.G.'s~~and we could go on, but you are getting the idea. Check those wonderful pieces of music out and you will realize why they made the charts. If you enjoyed this blog, you might also want to take part in my latest poll which is choosing 1 of 10 of these popular instrumentals as your favorite.
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