instrumental music

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. This term is used when referring to popular music 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 include

• "Theme from A Summer Place" - Percy Faith (1960)
• "Telstar" - Tornados (1962)
• "L'Amour Est Bleu (Love Is Blue)" - Paul Mauriat (1968)
• "Grazing in the Grass" - Hugh Masekela (1968)
• "Frankenstein" - Edgar Winter Group (1973)
• "Love's Theme" - Love Unlimited Orchestra (1974)
• "The Hustle" - Van McCoy (1975)
• "Theme from 'S.W.A.T.'" - Rhythm Heritage (1976)
• "A Fifth of Beethoven"- Walter Murphy" (1976)
• "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band"- Meco" (1977)
• "Rise" - Herb Alpert (1979)
• "Chariots of Fire" - Vangelis (1981)
• "Miami Vice Theme" - Jan Hammer (1985)

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

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" or "Wipe Out" or "Topsy");
• Repetitive nonsense words (e.g. "Woo Hoo" or "Uh! Oh!");
• A short spoken Passage (e.g "To Live is to Die" by Metallica or "Gonna Fly Now" by Bill Conti );
• Wordless vocal effects (such as drones (e.g. "Rockit");
• Vocal percussion such as beatbox B-sides on rap singles;
• Yodeling (e.g. "Hocus Pocus");
• Whistling (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)").