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Instrumentalism

November 19th, 2009 | File Under music, Sound | No comments yet

You know that instrumental song that you hear everywhere, but you never hear the name of because … well, because it either has no words or the famous part of it has no words? Well that bugs me, so here for the sake of reference are those songs:

  • That mid-tempo groove track with the electric organ that you hear going to and from commercial on that late night talk show is “Green Onions” by Booker T. & the M.G.s.
  • That big band swing number that starts out with a drum solo is “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Louis Prima, the Benny Goodman recording.
  • The haunted house music is “Toccata and Fugue in D minor for Organ” by Bach.
  • The circus music is “Entrance of the Gladiators” by Julius Fučík.
  • The bagpipe song that isn’t “Amazing Grace” is “Scotland the Brave” and is traditional.
  • The “Kill Bill” tune is “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” by Tomoyasu Hotei.
  • The plate-spinning tune is “The Sabre Dance” by Aram Khachaturian.
  • The Elvis intro-music is “See See Rider” and is probably traditional.
  • The loud melodramatic music in the commercial for the lousy movie is “O Fortuna” by Carl Orff.
  • The gunslinger music cue is the main theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” by Ennio Morricone.
  • The twangy rock-a-billy song with the saxophone is “Rebel Rouser” by Duane Eddy.
  • The dramatic cue from the old suspense movie is one of several by Ronald Hanmer, most likely “Menace.”

Did I forget any? Describe it in the comments and I’ll add it to the list.