Posted May 23, 201114 yr I'm writing an article about this pointing out that there haven't been big instrumental hits since the early noughties. Has there been an all instrumental (no vocals) top 10 single since 'Played a Live (The Bongo Song)' by Safri Duo? Can't recall any right now. I'm not collecting all the top 10 instrumentals since the day one but please name some if you remember them, especially from 80s to today. Edited May 23, 201114 yr by SKOB
May 23, 201114 yr Mike Snow The X Files Robet Miles Children Simon Park Orchestra Eye Level The Pipes & Drums of The Dragoon Guards Amazing Grace
May 23, 201114 yr You're right, there's been hardly any since the early 2000's. Here are a few that made the Top 20 since 2000 that I can think of, they're all dance songs: William Orbit - Barber's Adagio For Strings #4 (1999/2000) Element Four - Big Brother Theme #4 (2000) Hi-Gate - Pitchin' #6 (2000) Darude - Sandstorm #3 (2000) Schiller - Das Glockenspiel #17 (2001) PPK - Resurection #3 (2001) Safri Duo - Played Alive (The Bongo Song) #6 (2001) Minimalistix - Close Cover #12 (2002) Jurgen Vries - The Theme #13 (2002) Dirt Devils - The Drill #15 (2002) Royksopp - Eple #16 (2003) These were pretty much instrumentals, apart from the odd word here and there (usually the title of the song) - I'd still count them as instrumentals though! Watergate - Heart Of Asia #3 (2000) Storm - Time To Burn #3 (2000) Rank 1 - Airwave #10 (2000) Des Mitchell - Welcome To The Dance #5 (2000) Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 #2 (2000) Cosmic Gate - Fire Wire #9 (2001) Da Hool Meet Her At The Love Parade 2001 #11 (2001) Santos - Camels #9 (2001) But yeah it's weird how no-one releases instrumentals any more. I think the last time an instrumental was #1 must have been Mr Oizo with Flat Beat in 1999?
May 23, 201114 yr Didn't the Eastenders theme tune make the top 10? Anita Dobson made the top ten singing to the theme tune. The Big Brother theme tune reached number four in 2000.
May 23, 201114 yr Chicane - Poppoholli (or however you spell it :D) = Got to Number 8 couple of years ago
May 23, 201114 yr The Big Brother theme tune reached number four in 2000. I'm sure that has words doesn't it?
May 23, 201114 yr slightly old, but none the less notable: X4uLZcaRXcU Mile Oldfield- In Dulci Jubilo, a christmas instrumental that reached number 4 in 1975, real underrated gem imo :heart: I think the last full instrumental that was a hit was Poppiholla by Chicane in 2009 Edited May 23, 201114 yr by chart wizard
May 23, 201114 yr Yeah, Poppiholla is definitely the last instrumental top 10 hit. Not sure if there have even been any instrumental top *40* hits since then actually! And AFAIK only two instrumentals made the top 40 in 2009 (Poppiholla and Escala - Palladio). I may be forgetting some though.
May 23, 201114 yr Author Great stuff! I didn't remember Poppiholla either. What do you think, is Flat Beat instrumental because Flat Eric clearly makes some noise on it :P
May 23, 201114 yr Element Four's hit did have some random shouting IIRC. And Flat Beat does have some spoken words at the start. 2 other instrumentals that have reached the top 20 in recent years: Samim - Heater (#12 in 2007) Steve Mac - Paddy's Revenge (#17 in 2008 - in the top 20 at the same time as Pjanoo)
May 23, 201114 yr Wink - Higher State Of Consciouness - top 3 in 1996 BBE - 7 Days And One Week - top 3 in 1996 DJ Quicksilver - Free top10 in 1997 (just lyrics Free) Warp Brothers vs Aquagen - Phatt Bass top10 in 2000 close ones: Chicane - Offshore #14 in 1996 Gouryella - Gouryella top15 in 1999 York - The Awakening #11 Fragma - Toca Me #11
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