In the heyday of the music business, when DJs actually had an enormous amount of control over what did and didn't become a hit, many radio personalities spun instrumentals to kill a minute or two before heading into a commercial or a traffic report. Maybe that's why these five songs, which originally had singable words, somehow became instrumental hits instead. Click on a song title to hear the hit -- and the "Hear it with vocals" link to see how it was supposed to sound!
1. "Ooh Poo Pah Doo (part 2)," Jessie Hill
Former Professor Longhair drummer Jessie Hill made his name by adopting a local tune by a piano player named Big Four and giving it some words, intriguing the men behind the New Orleans startup label Minit. The result was a major R&B hit which became beloved to fans of NOLA soul, not to mention Mod and Northern Soul fans (it was a fixture of the Who's very early sets). However, it was the instrumental flip side that was a hit on the pop charts, and as such is the one included for years on oldies compilations. Which is really odd, since Hill's not doing much of anything on it, not even playing drums. (Allen Toussaint is on piano, of course.) The same exact thing happened four years later with Longhair's own "Big Chief." Hear it with the vocals!
2. "Soulful Strut," Young-Holt Unlimited
In 1968, Chi-Lites lead singer Eugene Record wrote and produced a song for his wife, singer Barbara Acklin, called "Am I The Same Girl," figuring it would be the perfect followup to her big pop/R&B hit "Love Makes a Woman." However, the label wasn't pleased with the result, and since the rhythm section, formerly of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, had already scored a minor hit in 1966 with an instrumental called "Wack-Wack," it was decided to remove all the vocals and let the group's pianist solo over it, just as he'd done with the earlier hit. The result was a smash, prompting the Brunswick label to go ahead and release Acklin's vocal version anyway. It wasn't a hit. (Acklin had several solo hits afterward, however, not to mention writing the Chi-Lites' greatest hits with Record.) Hear it with the vocals!
3. "The Horse," Cliff Nobles & Co.
The story of this instrumental hit is much the same as that of "Soulful Strut": Nobles, a fine soul singer, put together a band specifically to land a vocal hit with a song called "Love Is All Right." The terribly named Phil-L.A. of Soul Records loved it, recorded it, and pressed it -- but having no b-side, they wiped the vocals and released the instrumental on the flip as "The Horse." No one knows why they chose that title, but Cliff's performance, while admirable, doesn't do much for the song; the dramatic horn section hook sells this one. DJs thought so too, and flipped it over at a time when instrumentals were as hot as they'd ever be -- The song that kept it from hitting #1 was Hugh Masekela's instro version of an earlier vocal hit called "Grazing in the Grass." (The horn section got their due, eventually, becoming the "MFSB" house band horns for Philadelphia International and landing their own wordless hit with "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)." Hear it with the vocals!
4. "Sleepwalk," Santo and Johnny
This slack-key instrumental classic was never recorded with vocals -- at least, not by Santo and Johnny. But they had originally written lyrics for it, and Bette Anne Steele, a pure pop singer who'd scored a minor hit with "Mr. Wonderful," got the chance to record those lyrics under the name Betsy Brye. The vocal version didn't make it very far up the charts, probably because the words aren't nearly as distinctive as that guitar: "Sleep walk / Instead of dreaming / I sleep walk / 'Cause I lost you / And now what am I to do / What to do / Can't believe that we're through." Several other artists, perhaps noting this, have come up with their own sets of lyrics over the years! Hear it with the vocals!
5. "Rock and Roll Part 2," Gary Glitter
Gary Glitter was a glam rock sensation in the early 70s in the UK, but his only US hit -- which sports fans in stadiums all over the country know as the "HEY!" song -- doesn't have vocals OR a chant of "Hey!" In fact, the A side was a pretty typical ode to recapturing the fun spirit of pre-Beatles rock and roll, not an uncommon theme among glam rockers, who were reactionary towards things like psychedelia. But the flip side, as you may have guessed, wiped the vocals almost entirely, left off the "Rock and rooooolll!" chant of the chorus, let the guitars do the work, and inserted those tribal "HEY!" shouts to keep things interesting. Part 2 immediately became the US hit, though given Glitter's recent notoriety for his pedophilia convictions, one has to wonder how long he'll make Americans shout in a good way. The UK has already banned his songs from airplay. Hear it with the vocals!
