Instrumentals were my favorites through the years.  I found your list missing a lot of my favorites so I’ve listed a few more here.  Since you mentioned Top 40, I pretty much stuck to that for my list and left out The Dorseys, Liberace, Miller, etc.
 
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Lonely Bull, Taste Of Honey, Tijuana Taxi, Zorba The Greek
Apollo 100 - Joy
B. Bumble - Bumble Boogie
Baja Marimba Band
Baxter, Les - Poor People Of Paris
Magic Organ - Street Fair
Mr. Acker Bilk - Stranger On The Shore
Bill Combo Black's
Brass Ring - Dis-advantages Of You
Don Costa - Never On Sunday
Duane Eddy - Rebel-'Rouser
Bent Fabric ... Alley Cat
Ferrante & Teicher - Exodus, Midnight Cowboy
Jorgen Ingmann - Apache
Horst Jankowski - Walk In The Black Forest
Moe Koffman Quartette - Swingin' Shepherd Blues
Los Indios Tabajaras - Maria Elena
Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's Theme
Marketts - Out Of Limits
Frank Mills - Music Box Dancer
Perez Prado - Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White
Ramrods - (Ghost) Riders In The Sky
David Rose - The Stripper
String-a-longs - Wheels
T-bones - No Matter What Shape (Your Stomachs In)
Tornadoes - Telstar
Vangelis - Chariots Of Fire
Lawrence Welk - Calcutta
Mason Williams - Classical Gas
Link Wray- Raw-Hide, Rumble
 
As to what happened, they went the way of anything which might be considered music.  Pop music and R&R transitioned to protest and acid rock.  The norm had to be rejected.  Now for instrumental music, you tie trash can lids to your shoes and stomp around.

I too was a fan of the instrumentals A few more perhaps
A Swingin' Safari.......Billy Vaughn
Route 66 Theme.....Nelson Riddle
Mission Impossible......Lalo Schifrin
Watermelon Man....Mongo Santamaria
Washington Square.....Village Stompers
The Pink Panther Theme.....Henry Mancini
A Walk In The Black Forest.....Horst Jankowski
Take 5....Dave Brubeck
many many more

Beverly Cardinals wrote:

there's no profanity

and, a drum machine without bad poetry does not hip-hop make?
 

Last edited by gopher (May 8, 2020 12:14 am)

aflem wrote:

Two more obscure ones:

Keem-o-Sabe by Electric Indian (a studio group that reportedly included Daryl Hall of a future Hall and Oates) and Jerry "Piano" Smith, who hit with "Truck Stop" in 1969.

 
Got both of ‘em but my version of Truck Stop is by Magic Organ.
 
 

memphis boy wrote:

I too was a fan of the instrumentals A few more perhaps
A Swingin' Safari.......Billy Vaughn
Route 66 Theme.....Nelson Riddle
Mission Impossible......Lalo Schifrin
Watermelon Man....Mongo Santamaria
Washington Square.....Village Stompers
The Pink Panther Theme.....Henry Mancini
A Walk In The Black Forest.....Horst Jankowski
Take 5....Dave Brubeck
many many more

 
How could I forget Washington Square.....Village Stompers?  That was one I looked long and hard for on CD.  Found it on the disc “Havin a 60's Hootenanny”.  Don’t know what  Washington Square has to do with hootenanny.
 
Also looks like I missed a biggie in my list, Pipeline by Chantays.
 

Here are a few more..."Let's Go Trippin'" by Dick Dale & Deltones, a minor hit in late '61, but a long career for the artist.  I'll also mention his Cashbox #102 hit.  Not too much as a single but "Miserlou" was a key part of the 3X Platinum soundtrack LP from the movie "Pulp Fiction".  I still recall being in the theater and jumping to my feet when it came blasting out of the big house speakers behind the opening credits.
What?!? I didn't see any mention of "Wipeout", the two-times hit by the Surfaris.
Speaking of surf hits, I'll also throw in "Penetration" by the Pyramids,  a Top 20 hit in early 1964.
"Tuff" by Ace Cannon.
Gots to mention a big one, "Memphis" by Lonnie Mack

 

Last edited by Jim Southern (May 8, 2020 11:22 pm)

Beverly Cardinals wrote:

there's no profanity

the infamous exception being just past the one minute mark on Duane Eddy's "Forty Miles of Bad Road"
 

Just a quick note on how deep this can go.  I have two 3-pack CD's of instrumental hits, spotlighting the years 1961 & 1962.  All tracks were researched and actually made the Billboard Hot 100.
1961....86 hits
1962....92 hits

How could we forget Last Date? One of my mom's favorites
 

It's nice to see a mention of "Soul Coaxing" by Raymond Lefevre in this topic.  It was a staple of the old board with numerous discussions posted.  I seem to recall that it placed pretty high on the various charts that showed up on Labor Day and anywhere else.

I believe the last instrumental to make the Top Forty was "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis which was Number One for one week in May 1982.  Open to discussion

Another tune that comes to mind is one of my favourites, huge, in the late '50s/early '60s, a track which became Ahmad Jamal's signature song -- Poinciana.
It was also a lifesaver one night at CKKW in Kitchener-Waterloo.
I ran out of cigarettes, went down one floor to street level on the way to the restaurant a couple of doors up the street, as Jamal tickled the 88s.
The front door lock on the Dunker building clicked behind me, just as I realized I'd, yup, forgotten my keys.
Rushed to get ciggies and decided to climb the fire escape at the rear of the building, hoping the window in the music library was unlocked. It was. By the time I got back to Master, there was still about a minute to go on the record that clocked in at just over eight minutes.
Thank goodness for Poinciana.

mike marshall wrote:

Another tune that comes to mind is one of my favourites, huge, in the late '50s/early '60s, a track which became Ahmad Jamal's signature song -- Poinciana.
It was also a lifesaver one night at CKKW in Kitchener-Waterloo.
I ran out of cigarettes, went down one floor to street level on the way to the restaurant a couple of doors up the street, as Jamal tickled the 88s.
The front door lock on the Dunker building clicked behind me, just as I realized I'd, yup, forgotten my keys.
Rushed to get ciggies and decided to climb the fire escape at the rear of the building, hoping the window in the music library was unlocked. It was. By the time I got back to Master, there was still about a minute to go on the record that clocked in at just over eight minutes.
Thank goodness for Poinciana.

The thing I find amazing about this story is that even knowing that the door locked behind you and you could potentially lose your job for sneaking out if there was dead air, you still went to get the cigarettes first! I'd be more worried about getting back in, but then again, I'm not a smoker.

I love stories like this!

Last edited by aflem (May 16, 2020 9:06 pm)

Yes, instrumentals are great, but can they compete with the sounds of nature?
Listen to - Sweet People - "Et les oiseaux chantaient" (And The Birds Were Singing) (1978).

Magnificent Seven - Al Caiola