Top 50 Xylophone Solos

Define a "solo". Lots of great xylophone lines in the output of Japan and Thompson Twins but I'm not sure it any of it can be considered solos.

I'm reasonably certain Roy Ayers plays vibes, not xylophone.

49? Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone

I'm reasonably certain most of the solos listed here will be vibes or marimba.

48) Frank Zappa - St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast

This should be opened up to vibraphone - an excellent instrument - early solo Van Morrison, mid-period Tim Buckley, Dave Pike, Eric Dolphy, etc. Also, vibes, for me, conjure up that optimistic 50's hospital vibe, before everyone copped that barbiturates and antipsychotics were truly nuts drugs that weren't for handing out like sweets.

47. Robert Palmer - "Looking for Clues"
46. Starbuck - "Moonlight Feels Right"

Marimbas:

45. Crazy Cousinz, "Inflation"

Hideous Lump otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WYOn9snPso

(solo starts at 1:50)

Shocked that this thread petered out after six entries.

out-bloody-rageous!

wanted to respond to starbuck: one of the most simultaneously hilarious+awesome moments in pop music imo. his little forced laugh at the end of each verse, the anti-climax whimsicality of a xylophone solo in a romantic song that is supposed to be seductive, and the overall feeling that the song is much more enjoyable than it has any right to be ... i consider it, at very least, a personal cheese classic.

xpost- the short list may be on account of the specific naming of 'xylophone.' vibraphone much more common in pop music ime. (both very similar and nice sounds as well!)

On Pentangle's 1968 part-live album Sweet Child, the drummer Terry Cox performs a solo medley of three folk dances on the glockenspiel. Perhaps the audience's reaction was edited in from another point in the concert, but they certainly seem to go mad for it.

they had to clap cos they saw he had a glock on him

one time i saw appleseed cast they had a bell-lyre. have to admit i was impressed simply based on how they had made room for it on the stage.

I put out this compilation!

https://centuriesofsound.bandcamp.com/album/professors-of-the-xylophone-1897-1916

Hideous Lump otm

Probably not that impressive--between me and Bill E, we named the only 3 well-known rock songs with xylophone (or whatever) solos.

For penance, I'll go listen to the Lloyd Cole album Bad Vibes (which probably contains no vibes at all).

this revive made me go down a regrettable starbuck rabbit hole. what a strangely mesmerizing lead singer. austin otm that "moonlight feels right" is a cheese classic. the second that hairy-chested, be-jumpsuited virtuoso appears out of nowhere in the video you know it's going to be the best xylophone solo committed to tape.

these guys all do their solos like they're trying to keep a girl with their tongue skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_IULx7J0A4

ik, ik it's a vibrophone

VIBRAPHONE

Don't have any xylophone solos but I can let you all know (via Wikipedia) that 'xylophone' is derived from the Ancient Greek ξύλον (xúlon) 'wood' and φωνή (phōnḗ) 'sound, voice'; lit. 'sound of wood'. Maybe everyone knew that, I didn't.