Having grown up in the fifties and sixties I was exposed to a great deal of instrumental music. Those were glorious days filled with many an aural feast.
I remember the decade of the 60s having the most instrumentals ever charted. I remembered right. What a glorious decade! The year of 1961 has the most songs on the chart with 19. That was my high school graduation year. We were blessed.
Trivia Notes About The Top 100 Instrumentals
The year of 1961 has the most songs on the chart with 19.
The year of 1967 has the least number of songs on the chart with 5.
There were only 9 songs that peaked at the #1 position.
The artist with the most songs on the chart is Bill Black’s Combo with 6.
There were a total of 73 different artists that have a song on the chart.
There were three songs that tied for longevity Exodus #14, Stranger On The Shore #8, with 21 weeks on the chart.
For a song to make the top 10, it had to peak at position #2 or higher.
For a song to make the top 40, it had to peak at Position #7 or higher.
For a song to make the top 100 chart, it had to peak at position #22 or higher.
There were a total of 559 instrumentals to make the charts from 1960-1969, which is the most of any decade.
The Top 100 Instrumentals 1960-1969
Below are the top 100 instrumentals for the sixties. We have provided the rank, title, artist, peak position #, peak weeks (), year of release.
The Theme From A Summer Place / Percy Faith #1 (9) 1960
Love Is Blue / Paul Maurit #1 (5) 1968
Wonderland By Night / Bert Keampfert #1 (3) 1961
Telstar / Tornadoes #1 (3) 1962
Calcutta / Lawrence Welk #1 (2) 1961
Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet / Henry Mancini #1 (2) 1969
Grazing In The Grass / Hugh Masekela #1 (2) 1968
Stranger On The Shore / Acker Bilk #1 (1) 1962
The Stripper / David Rose #1 (1) 1962
Last Date / Floyd Cramer #2 (4) 1960
The Horse / Cliff Nobles & Co. #2 (3) 1968
Classical Gas / Mason Williams #2 (2) 1968
60’s Instrumental Hits Album CoverApache / Jorgen Ingmann #2 (2) 1961
Exodus / Ferrante & Teicher #2 (1) 1961
Walk Don’t Run / The Ventures #2 (1) 1960
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly / Hugo Monenegro #2 (1) 1968
Midnight In Moscow / Kenny Ball #2 (1) 1962
Washington Square / The Village Stompers #2 (1) 1963
Wipeout / The Surfaris #2 (1) 1963
Wheels / The String-A-Longs #3 (2) 1961
Last Night / The Mar-Keys #3 (2) 1961
Out Of Limits / The Marketts #3 (2) 1964
Green Onions / Booker T. & The MG’s #3 (1) 1962
No Matter What Shape / The T-Bones #3 (1) 1966
Soulful Strut / Young-Holt Limited #3 (1) 1969
Pipeline / The Chanty’s #4 (2) 1963
Because They’re Young / Duane Eddy #4 (2) 1960
Java / Al Hurt #4 (1) 1964
On The Rebound / Floyd Cramer #4 (1) 1961
Yellow Bird / Arthur Lyman #4 (1) 1961
Hawaii Five-O / The Ventures #4 (1) 1969
The “In” Crowd / Ramsey Lewis Trio #5 (1) 1965
Memphis / Lonnie Mack #5 (1) 1963
Time Is Tight / Booker T. & The MG’s #6 (2) 1969
Maria Elena / Los Indois Tabajaras #6 (1) 1963
The Lonely Bull / Herb Alpert #6 (1) 1962
Taste Of Honey / Herb Alpert #7 (2) 1965
Alley Cat / Bent Fabric #7 (1) 1962
Let There Be Drums / Sandy Nelson #7 (1) 1961
Mexico / Bob Moore #7 (1) 1961
One Mint Julep / Ray Charles #7 (1) 1961
Walk Don’t Run 64 / The Ventures #8 (2) 1964
More / Kai Winding #8 (1) 1963
Wild Weekend / The Rebels #8 (1) 1963
Asia Minor / Kokomo #8 (1) 1961
Tonight / Ferrante & Teicher #8 (1) 1961
San Antonio Rose / Floyd Cramer #8 (1) 1961
Hang ‘Em High / Booker T. & The MG’s #9 (2) 1969
White Silver Sands / Bill Black’s Combo #9 (1) 1960
Our Winter Love / Bill Pursell #9 (1) 1963
Theme From The Apartment / Ferrante & Teicher #10 (3) 1960
Watermelon Man / Mongo Santamaria #10 (2) 1963
Caste Your Fate To The Wind / Sounds Orchestra #10 (1) 1965
Rinky Dink / Dave “Baby” Cortez #10 (1) 1962
Percolator (Twist) / Billy Joel & The Checkmates #10 (1) 1962
Red Roses For A Blue Lady / Bert Keampfert #11 (2) 1965
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy / Cannonball Adderley #11 (2) 1967
Hang On Sloopy / Ramsey Lewis Trio #11 (2) 1965
Don’t Be Cruel / Bill Black’s Combo #11 (1) 1960
Zorba The Greek / Herb Alpert #11 (1) 1966
A Walk Through The Black Forest / Horst Jankowski #12 (1) 1965
Quentin’s Theme / Charles Randolph Grean Sounde #13 (2) 1969
Tracy’s Theme / Spencer Ross #13 (1) 1960
A Swingin’ Safari / Billy Vaughn #13 (1) 1962
Twine Time / Alvin Cash & The Crawlers #14 (2) 1965
Fly Me To The Moon-Bossa Nova / Joe Harnell #14 (1) 1963
Shangri-La / Robert Maxwell #15 (3) 1964
Desafinado / Stan Getz #15 (2) 1962
Wonderland By Night / Louis Prima #15 (2) 1961
Cotton Candy / Al Hurt #15 (2) 1964
Beatnik Fly / Johnny & The Hurricanes #15 (1) 1960
Perfidia / Ventures #15 (1) 1960
Music To Watch Girls By / Bob Crewe Generation #15 (1) 1967
Baby Scratch My Back / Slim Harpo #16 (2) 1966
Keem-O-Sabe / Electric Indian #16 (2) 1969
Blue Tango / Bill Black’s Combo #16 (1) 1960
Tuff / Ace Cannon #17 (2) 1962
Soul Twist / King Curtis #17 (2) 1962
Smokie Part 2 / Bill Black’s Combo #17 (2) 1960
Batman Theme / The Marketts #17 (2) 1966
Soul Finger / Bar-Kays #17 (1) 1967
Soul Limbo / Booker T. & The MG’s #17 (1) 1968
The Work Song / Herb Alpert #18 (2) 1966
Josephine / Bill Black’s Combo #18 (1) 1960
Pepe / Duane Eddy #18 (1) 1961
Penetration / The Pyramids #18 (1) 1964
Wade In The Water / Ramsey Lewis Trio #19 (2) 1966
Never On Sunday / Don Costa #19 (1) 1960
Let’s Go / The Routers #19 (1) 1962
Look For A Star / Billy Vaughn #19 (1) 1960
Bonanza / Al Caiola #19 (1) 1961
I’ve Got A Woman Part 1 / Jimmy McGriff #20 (1) 1962
I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman / Whistling Jack Smith #20 (1) 1967
Hearts Of Stone / Bill Black’s Combo #20 (1) 1961
Groovin’ / Booker T. & The MG’s #21 (3) 1967
Mr. Lucky / Henry Mancini #21 (1) 1960
Walk On The Wild Side Part 1 / Jimmy Smith #21 (1) 1962
Bumble Boogie / B. Bumble & The Stingers #21 (1) 1961
Last Date / Lawrence Welk #21 (1) 1960
Wiggle Wobble / Les Cooper #22 (1) 1963
We’ve been edified!