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An instrumental is a musical composition
Musical composition

Musical composition is:* an original piece of music* the musical form of a musical piece* the process of creating a new piece of music...
 or recording without lyrics
Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song, either by speaking or singing. The word 'lyric' comes from the Greek word ,lyricos, meaning "singing to the lyre"....
 or any other sort of vocal music
Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without musical instruments accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece....
; all of the music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
 is produced by musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
s. This term is used when referring to popular music
Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
 rather than to other musical genres such as European classical music. In commercial music, instrumental tracks are sometimes renditions of a corresponding release that features vocals, but may also be compositions originally conceived without vocals.






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An instrumental is a musical composition
Musical composition

Musical composition is:* an original piece of music* the musical form of a musical piece* the process of creating a new piece of music...
 or recording without lyrics
Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song, either by speaking or singing. The word 'lyric' comes from the Greek word ,lyricos, meaning "singing to the lyre"....
 or any other sort of vocal music
Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without musical instruments accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece....
; all of the music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
 is produced by musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
s. This term is used when referring to popular music
Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
 rather than to other musical genres such as European classical music. In commercial music, instrumental tracks are sometimes renditions of a corresponding release that features vocals, but may also be compositions originally conceived without vocals. An instrumental version of a song which otherwise features vocals is also known as a -1 (pronounced minus one).

Instrumentals that have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard Single popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on airplay and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the airplay tracking-week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday....
 include

  • "Theme from A Summer Place
    Theme from A Summer Place

    The "Theme from A Summer Place" is a song with lyrics by Mack Discant and music by Max Steiner, written for the 1959 in film, A Summer Place , which starred Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue....
    " - Percy Faith
    Percy Faith

    Percy Faith was a Canadian-born band-leader, orchestrator and composer, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas music standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and continued well into the 1960s....
     (1960)
  • "Telstar
    Telstar (song)

    "Telstar" ? ? is a 1962 instrumental gramophone record performed by The Tornados. It was the first single by a United Kingdom band to reach number one on the U.S....
    " - Tornados
    The Tornados

    The Tornados were an England instrumental group of the 1960s who acted as in-house backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions....
     (1962)
  • "L'Amour Est Bleu (Love Is Blue)" - Paul Mauriat
    Paul Mauriat

    Paul Mauriat was a France conductor , specializing in light music. He is best known in the United States for his remake of Andr? Popp's "Love is Blue", which was #1 for 5 weeks in Hot 100 number-one hits of 1968 ....
     (1968)
  • "Grazing in the Grass
    Grazing in the Grass

    "Grazing in the Grass" is an instrumental composed by Philemon Hou and first recorded by the South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. It is recognizable by its prominent Cowbell part....
    " - Hugh Masekela
    Hugh Masekela

    Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpet, flugelhorn, cornet, composer, and singer....
     (1968)
  • "Frankenstein
    Frankenstein (song)

    "Frankenstein" is a Rock music instrumental by The Edgar Winter Group from their album They Only Come Out At Night. In live performances of the song, Edgar Winter further pioneered the advancement of the synthesizer as a lead instrument by becoming the first person ever to strap a keyboard instrument around his neck, giving him the on-sta...
    " - Edgar Winter Group
    Edgar Winter Group

    The Edgar Winter Group is a 1970s rock band founded by Edgar Winter. Notable former members include guitarists Ronnie Montrose and Rick Derringer, and pop singer Dan Hartman ....
     (1973)
  • "Love's Theme
    Love's Theme

    "Love's Theme" is an instrumental piece recorded by Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra and released in 1973. It is one of the few instrumental and purely orchestral singles to reach number one on Billboard 's Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, in early 1974....
    " - Love Unlimited Orchestra (1974)
  • "The Hustle" - Van McCoy
    Van McCoy

    Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an accomplished musician, music producer and arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is best known for his massive 1975 international hit "The Hustle ", which is still played on dance floors and radio today, nearly 30 years after his death....
     (1975)
  • "Theme from 'S.W.A.T.'" - Rhythm Heritage
    Rhythm Heritage

    Rhythm Heritage was a 1970s United States disco-funk Musical ensemble, best known for their 1976 United States #1 single "Theme from S.W.A.T. " They also recorded theme music for several other American Broadcasting Company television shows, including "Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow" from Baretta ....
     (1976)
  • "A Fifth of Beethoven
    A Fifth of Beethoven

    "A Fifth of Beethoven" is a disco instrumental recorded by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band. It was adapted by Murphy from the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No....
    "- Walter Murphy
    Walter Murphy

    Walter Anthony Murphy, Jr. is a pianist, composer, and arranger who had a massive hit with the instrumental, "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of some passages of the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No....
    " (1976)
  • "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band"- Meco
    MECO

    Meco may refer to:*Meco, a musician who released a very successful disco version of the Star Wars movie theme*Meco , a part of metropolitan Madrid, Spain....
    " (1977)
  • "Rise
    Rise (Herb Alpert song)

    "Rise" is a song written by Andy Armer and Randy Badazz Alpert, and first recorded by trumpeter Herb Alpert. The instrumental track was included on Alpert's solo album Rise and released as a single in 1979 in music....
    " - Herb Alpert
    Herb Alpert

    Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an United States musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass or as Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass or just TJB for short....
     (1979)
  • "Chariots of Fire" - Vangelis
    Vangelis

    Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou , is a Greek composer of electronic music, Progressive music, Ambient music and neoclassicism music, under the artist name Vangelis ....
     (1981)
  • "Miami Vice Theme
    Miami Vice Theme

    The song Miami Vice Theme was created and performed by Jan Hammer as the theme to the television series Miami Vice. It was first heard by the public in September 1984 and released as a single in 1985, peaking at the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100....
    " - Jan Hammer
    Jan Hammer

    Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. His compositions have won him several Grammy awards. He is probably best known for playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 70s, as well as his "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s United States of America television program, Miami Vice....
     (1985)


Since the release of the theme to "Miami Vice", no instrumental has reached the top of the Billboard chart.

Borderline cases


Some recordings which include brief examples of the human voice are typically considered instrumentals. Examples include singles with the following:
  • Short verbal interjections (e.g. "Tequila
    Tequila (song)

    "Tequila" is a 1958 in music Rock music instrumental by the band The Champs. The title of the song constitutes the entire lyrics, and is spoken three times during the song....
    " or "Wipe Out" or "Topsy");
  • Repetitive nonsense
    Nonsense

    Nonsense is a Linguistics or Writing which resembles a human language or other symbolic system, but in fact does not carry any identifiable meaning....
     words (e.g. "Woo Hoo
    Woo Hoo

    "Woo Hoo" is a rockabilly song, originally released by The Rock-A-Teens in 1959 in music. The song is distinctive for its lack of lyrics apart from its title words, which gave it popularity around the world as it is not subject to language barriers....
    " or "Uh! Oh!
    Uh! Oh!

    For other uses, see Uh OhUh! Oh! is a series of children's picture books, based on Jewish festivals. On each page, there are 4 items that the reader has to search for , while still giving important information, songs, and Jewish books to educate, as well as entertain....
    ");
  • A short spoken Passage (e.g "To Live is to Die" by Metallica
    Metallica

    Metallica is an American heavy metal music band that formed in 1981 in Los Angeles. Founded when drummer Lars Ulrich posted an advertisement in a local newspaper, Metallica's line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich, rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, while going through a number of bassists....
     or "Gonna Fly Now
    Gonna Fly Now

    "Gonna Fly Now", also known as "Theme from Rocky", is the theme song from the movie Rocky, composed by Bill Conti with lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins, and performed by DeEtta Little and Nelson Pigford....
    " by Bill Conti
    Bill Conti

    Bill Conti is an Italian American film music composer who is frequently the conductor at the Academy Awards ceremony....
    );
  • Wordless vocal effects (such as drones
    Drone (music)

    In music, a drone is a harmony or monophony effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout much or all of a piece, sustain or repetition , and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built....
     (e.g. "Rockit
    Rockit

    ----"Rockit" is a song recorded by Herbie Hancock. It was released as a Single from his 1983 album Future Shock . The song was written by Hancock, bass guitarist Bill Laswell and synthesizer/drum machine programmer Michael Beinhorn....
    ");
  • Vocal percussion
    Vocal percussion

    Vocal percussion is the art of creating sounds with one's mouth that approximate, imitate, or otherwise serve the same purpose as a percussion instrument, whether in a group of singers, an instrumental ensemble, or solo....
     such as beatbox B-sides on rap singles;
  • Yodeling
    Yodeling

    Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto voice, making a high-low-high-low sound....
     (e.g. "Hocus Pocus
    Hocus Pocus (song)

    "Hocus Pocus" is a 1971 song from Moving Waves, the second album by Netherlands rock group Focus . It was written by guitarist Jan Akkerman and flautist/keyboardist Thijs van Leer....
    ");
  • Whistling
    Whistling

    Human whistling is the production of sound by means of expelling, and sometimes inhaling, a stream of air through the mouth. The air is moderated by the tongue, lips, teeth, or fingers to create turbulence, and the mouth acts as a resonance chamber to enhance the resulting sound, thus acting as a type of Helmholtz resonance....
     (e.g. "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" or "Colonel Bogey March").


A few songs categorized as instrumentals may even include actual vocals, if they appear only as a short part of an extended piece (e.g. "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)

"T.S.O.P. " is a 1974 hit recording by MFSB featuring vocals by The Three Degrees. A classic example of the Philadelphia soul genre, it was written by Gamble and Huff as the theme for the United States musical television program Soul Train, which specialized in African-American musical performers....
").

See also

  • Instrumental hip hop
  • Instrumental rock
    Instrumental rock

    Instrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features no or very little singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, like Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, The Shadows, Jeff Beck, Paul Gilbert, Jean...
  • List of rock instrumentals
    List of rock instrumentals

    The following is a list of rock instrumentals, including live music performances and drum solos, organized by artist name....
  • Easy listening
    Easy listening

    Easy listening music is a style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the mid-20th century, evolving out of Swing music and big band music, and related to Beautiful music and Light music....
  • Post Rock
  • Beautiful music
    Beautiful music

    Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental radio format that was prominent in United States of America radio from the 1960s through the 1980s. "Mood music", "easy listening", and the often derogatory "Muzak" and "elevator music" are other common terms for the format and the style of music that it featured....
  • Smooth jazz
    Smooth jazz

    Smooth jazz is a sub-genre of jazz which is influenced stylistically by Rhythm and blues, funk and pop music.Beginning in the early 1970s, it was an evolution into jazz with a modern, electronic sensibility....
  • A cappella
    A cappella

    Acappella music is vocal music or singing without musical instrument accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance music polyphony and Baroque concertato style....
    , vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment