Frank Zappa famously said that he only wrote lyrics for his songs because Americans don’t buy instrumental music. There has been quite a bit of great instrumental music recorded over the years despite such commercial indifference. Here are a few examples.
The Three Suns “Beyond The Sea” (Bobby Darin)
There’s a very weird rhythmic bed that percolates throughout this song as various instruments take turns playing the melody. The Three Suns were quite popular in the 40s and 50s but the rise of rock and roll spelled the end of their career. They were largely forgotten until the lounge/exotica revival of the 90s but are now recognized in some corners of the music world for the talented craftsmen they were.
Book Of Love “Tubular Bells” (Mike Oldfield)
When I was doing college radio the station had the regular version of this album and the orchestral version. I liked to cue them both up and play them at the same time. It gave the music a real sense of depth.
This song is famous for being the theme to The Exorcist. I’ve never thought of it as dance music until now.
Pauline Easy “Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson)
This is from the descriptively-named album Pauline Easy Plays Uke. Which is exactly what she does, and she does it very well. I don’t know much about Ms. Easy since her MySpace page is in French and Google Translate never seems to do a very good job of translating French.
Christopher Scott “Walk On By” (Dionne Warwick)
There was a time when this sort of moog synthesizer stuff sounded modern and contemporary. Now, not so much. This is from the album Switched-On Bacharach. Because after you’ve done Bach, Burt Bacharach is the next logical choice.
Quadro Nuevo “Sabre Dance” (comp. Aram Khachaturian)
This is the closest thing in the classical music canon to speed-metal guitar shredding. If only all classical music sounded like this, Joe Satriani might have never taken up the guitar.
This is a pretty oddball arrangement, racing happily through various instruments and musical styles. There’s one part that sounds weirdly like klezmer music with a clarinet and accordion.
As one who has snared more than his fair share of cover tracks from your excellent site, I really needed to say “Go raibh mile maith aga,t a chairde”… hint…. its written “As Gaelige” i.e. a cover version of the Queens English saying… well over to you to fid out
Thanks again for all of the excellent covers! :)
Speed metal and Sabre Dance howz about my favorite version of it in “Family Guy” in the episode “Peterotica”, When Peter distracts Lois by whistling the tune and riding a unicycle!
Thanks again
Whoops apologies about theterrible spelling mistakes in my previous post!
A small correction in case you didn’t know: Bobby Darin actually covered “La Mer” by Charles Trenet when he recorded “Beyond the Sea”.
Stellar.
The one thing about the French is they are never short of something to say. Why use 5 words when you can use 15?
Translated: Pauline Easy has been playing ukulele since she was six years old. Aged 19 and heartbroken she left Hawaii to live in France, where she discovered the wider world of pop, rock, heavy metal and all types of music. Finding unexpected comfort in this, she spent her time replaying even the slightest tune that came within earshot no matter its age or style. Standards revisited by Pauline Easy, full of nostalgia and her own melancholy touch, have swiftly nested in the hollows of attentive ears across the world through the internet and a music blog with a good number of loyal listeners. After several months in France and plenty of recordings, Pauline took the plane for Hawaii one fine April morning. So that her time with us would not simply be relegated to being a lovely memory, a duo of ukulele players, the Pauline Easy Project, pay tribute on stage to Pauline’s work and her very particular style. You can come across them soon in Rouen, Hyeres, Reims or Paris…
Personally I don’t think they sound that great. Try these guys instead –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbPYmGq74eI&feature=related Uke version of “Tequila”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_35R8Surja4&feature=related
From what I can tell (and I wouldn’t call myself fluent) the Myspace page you linked to is for the Pauline Easy Project, which appears to be a sort of tribute to Pauline, who apparently went to France, discovered varieties of music, played music, and then went back to Hawaii. Now the members of the Pauline Easy project (Alio & Seb?) play… I’m not exactly sure. Songs she played? Songs she wrote? Songs she liked? Uncertain. They pay homage to her style of music….
Just throwing this your way; that’s what I got from it.
I seem to also remember Dave Edmonds doing Sabre Dance.
Although if I recall correctly he did a pretty straight version of it.
Thanks for the kind words, Mr. H. I didn’t know that Google Translate could translate to and from Irish.
Thanks for the info Maggie. I had no idea.
Greenockian and Elana, thanks for the info and translations. I wanted to include a link for Ms. Easy and a quick Google coughed up the French tribute band as the top result. Oh well…
Matt, I do have the Dave Edmonds version of Sabre Dance and while it’s decent enough, I think that Quadro Nuevo did more with the song.