Good thread! Thanks, jean!

I LOVE instrumentals. My all-time favorite sing...bar none...is "Theme From A Summer Place". Percy Faith, one of the great Canadian musical minds, did everything perfecvt on that one. I grew up on hard-cre, Traditional Country muisc. My father always said I didn't need to learn minor chords because "good" music (meaning old time Country) didn't need them.

Well, as you know, I compose and record in almost all genres. And 70%, or more of what I compose, is instrumental music. I've heard a number of people say they aren't fans of instrumental music. My reply is to imagine the next movie they go to without a soundtrack. How would "Shaft" have been without a soundtrack? Not nearly as good, I would suggest!

I think most peole don't realize how often they hear and enjoy instrumentals. What about the jingles behinf commercials? Those are instrumentals. Most commercials are bad enough...but imagine them without musical soundtracks...ughhh! And what about when the news and weather comes on...those soundclips are instrumentals. Instrumentals are everyhwere. People just don't think of them as such.

But, i think jean is asking about full instrumental songs for commercial airplay. As a composer with a mediocre voice, instrumental composition opens up a whole new avenuye for my creatiuve sklls. Unlike Marc, and a lot of folks here and other places, I am not blessed with a wonderful voice. However, I have God-given talent for musical composition not requiriung vocal talent. Have you ever heard Burt bacharach sing? If you haven't, consider yourself very fotunate! However, he has composed some of the most wonderful music of all time. Without Burt Bacharach and Hal David (no relation) it is very questionable that Dionne Warwick would ever have had a career. Bacharac composed some of the most wionderful music of the 60s, 70s and 80s. And he is one person whom I can honerstly say sings much worse than I do.

Music runs in cycles, as do most things. The flavor of the decade changes as it rotates it different faces. Instrumentals, as discussed here, are not a full face, but they are part of one face of music. When that face comes up in rotation, I think we will once again see more interest in instrumentals.

One instrumental that almost everyone recognizes when played is "Suicide Is Painless". Don't recognize the name? It's the theme from the TV show "M.A.S.H.". It's probably one of the most reconizable instrumentals of the past 30 - 35 years. Yet, how many of you honestlty knew its name? if more than 20% of you said yes, you really did know that, i would be surprised.

So, instrumentals are still with us in a big way. We just aren't recognizing them as such. Good post, Jean!

Alan