Instrumental Top 20 Hits, 1988 - 2008

researching this i was amazed at just how many big trance-based hits there were between 1998 and 2002

*instrumental bump*

forgot about the Japanese(?) whispery bit in Windowlicker damn

will there ever be one again?

don't see why not, 99% of these are just dance music innit. Qutie surprised there's so few in fact. Only about two a year on average.

torn between 'da funk', 'chime', 'pacific'.

Was Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness" a hit only as the awful vocal edit and not as the original (vocalless) mix?

Anyway, lacking that I gotta for "Meet Her at the Love Parade". Such a wonderful anthem.

Went with "Doom's Night"

don't see why not, 99% of these are just dance music innit. Qutie surprised there's so few in fact. Only about two a year on average.

it seems to have become less likely for a record to go top 20 with no vocals at all - the trend of re-releasing club anthems with new vocals over the top seemed to become more de rigeur. things like Samim's 'Heater' may be as close as you'll get now (maybe i should've included it, can't remember what the vocal element consists of exactly).

i don't think there's been any instrumental hits at all in the top reaches of the US chart this decade? Kenny G had a couple in the 90s ha

Eple

Was Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness" a hit only as the awful vocal edit and not as the original (vocalless) mix?

i think both the Tweekin Acid Funk mix and the Jules & Skins Vocal mix (the awful one you're talking about i presume) go equal coverage when it first made the top 10 - the following year it was all about the Dex & Jonesey mix.

"Plastic Dreams" for me. A good "waiting for the biscuits to kick in" track, whose whole vibe feels anticipatory.

bear in mind it was the Dave Morales remix that charted tho (altho you'd have the original on the same release)

Lolectronica I guess was the other main source for these and that's now dead. What killed it?

No "Doop"? And I was going to say that instrumental hits were still happening, see Benga + Coki, cz I really thought it was one, until I checked and the internet said number 98.

Windowlicker bit is French ("j'aime faire les croquettes aux chiens" or something). Happy to overlook that myself, it's fairly unobtrusive.

I'm getting all nostalgic for pop-trance hits I didn't even like at the time, but daren't vote for any as I stuck "Flaming June" on recently (one I did like at the time) and it sounded pretty thin and dated. Will probably vote for Chime, The Box or Windowlicker in the end. Dooms Night and Flat Beat seem to have merged into one track in my memory, but it's an awesome track.

Wd happily blast a 2cd of all this instrumentals in the car (er, wait, I don't drive), though Robert Miles, X-Files and Vanessa Mae are gonna get skipped a lot.

Any speed garage instrumental hits? 187 Lockdown? Double 99? Did they all have just enough tuff ragga badbwoy chat to disqualify them? Or were none of them proper hits and I'm getting confused by "woho massive genre-defining/sellout anthem" buzz in music mags and the internet again?

Happy to overlook that myself, it's fairly unobtrusive.

I left out The Orb's 'Assassin' for it's similar v subtle speech snippet tho

xp Did they all have just enough tuff ragga badbwoy chat to disqualify them?

yeah think so, can't think of any completely free of this element tho there might be one

and Oxbow Lakes was a mistake (only got to #38) too

Chemical Bros - Star Guitar

Sadly, Kenny G's 'Songbird' misses the cut by only six months.

"Star Guitar" has vocals in it! At least, it has a vocal sample.

American version of this list looks like this:

Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., "Theme from Mission: Impossible"
Kenny G, "Auld Lang Syne"
Kenny G, "Forever in Love"
Kenny G, "Silhouette"
David A. Stewart ft. Candy Dulfer, "Lily Was Here"

And even then, Billboard chart scholar Fred Bronson says, "I don't know if we can consider Kenny G's "Auld Lang Syne" an instrumental. It was more of an audio pastiche, with spoken word passages."

http://tunecaster.com/charts/music/instrumental-top-10.html
lists every instrumental top 20 hit in the US

Any speed garage instrumental hits? 187 Lockdown? Double 99? Did they all have just enough tuff ragga badbwoy chat to disqualify them? Or were none of them proper hits and I'm getting confused by "woho massive genre-defining/sellout anthem" buzz in music mags and the internet again?

-- a passing spacecadet, Monday, 14 April 2008 15:38

Yeah, I wanted to vote for "RIP Groove".

: (

i should've included 'Theme from Mission: Impossible' (technically)

I found that site, too, Steve, but I'm not sure it uses Billboard chart data. Like, they list James Horner's "Southampton," but when I checked that against Allmusic.com (which does use Billboard data), it showed that it had made some inroads on the Adult Contemporary chart but none at all on the Hot 100.

maybe also 'Brown Paper Bag' (#20, Nov '97) xp

Didn't that have an MC on it?

original version didn't but yeah the video does

Was Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness" a hit only as the awful vocal edit and not as the original (vocalless) mix?

i think both the Tweekin Acid Funk mix and the Jules & Skins Vocal mix (the awful one you're talking about i presume) go equal coverage when it first made the top 10 - the following year it was all about the Dex & Jonesey mix

Why didn't you include it then?

because all of those mixes feature a vocal hook

The Tweekin' Acid Funk mix has a voice saying "welcome to the higher state of consciousness" once, in the beginning of the tune, and absolutely no vocals after that. That's hardly a "vocal hook"; some of the songs on the list have similar bit parts.

has a voice saying "welcome to the higher state of consciousness" once, in the beginning of the tune, and absolutely no vocals after that

no, you hear this later in the track too

Dooms Night, Da Funk, or Chime for me- a very difficult choice.

good poll BTW!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Too Late I know, but where is Fila Brazillia?
Chime or Pacific?

I'll go for

Apache - Shads - re released every year since '56

Rock Your Body Rock has lots of vocals! Anyway voted for adagio for strings, Ferry's finest moment. BTW it feels like some are missing. No ATB or Tiesto? No Superstring?

Also, according to wikipedia Armin - Communication reached #18 in 2000

all the ATB hits had (minimal) vocals so left them out. Tiesto never made top 20 here and only in 2001 did a remix/re-issue of 'Superstring' make the top 40 (#33 - altho i didn't know this!)

has a voice saying "welcome to the higher state of consciousness" once, in the beginning of the tune, and absolutely no vocals after that

no, you hear this later in the track too

Okay, I listened to the track, and you are right: the sentence "open[?] to the higher state of consciousness" (not "welcome to...", as I remembered) is said not once but three times during the tune. Still, it's hardly a vocal hook, especially since the track lasts 6+ minutes.

well tough fucking shit okay?

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

now there's a vocal hook

Voted for "Sandstorm".

Wot no Element Four?

i was trying to work out what the woman's voice says on that - plus the shouty "GO!" bit

Sadly, Kenny G's 'Songbird' misses the cut by only six months.

"Sadly", huh?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Vanessa Mae - Toccata And Fugue 1
Mark Snow - The X-Files Theme 1
Yomanda - Synths And Strings 1

haw

The top seven are all fantastic.