Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/6-instrumental-tracks-that-became-chart-hits/
Pop radio runs on voices, so a song with no singer at all has a harder road to the top. Yet every so often an instrumental breaks through and sits among the most popular records of its year.
The six tracks below come from different decades and genres. Each one reached a major chart, and the details here come from well documented chart history.
Booker T. and the M.G.’s, “Green Onions”
Released in 1962 on Stax’s Volt label, “Green Onions” is built around a loose, bluesy organ riff from Booker T. Jones, with Steve Cropper on guitar. It reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart and climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song began as an improvised jam recorded during a break in another session. It has since turned up in films and commercials for decades, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.
Herb Alpert, “Rise”
Trumpeter Herb Alpert had success in the 1960s, but “Rise” came in 1979 and surprised many people. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1979, which made it one of the few instrumentals to do so in that decade.
Alpert’s nephew, Randy Alpert, and Andy Armer co-wrote it. The track’s smooth disco groove also gave it a second life when its sample was used in the Notorious B.I.G. hit “Hypnotize” in 1997.
Van McCoy, “The Hustle”
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-11-02 12:50:00
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