5 instrumentals that never, ever let me down

Most of the songs I listen to are conventional — that is, they have lyrics. I might even sing along to them as I putter about the house, or drive anywhere.

But I’ve always had a soft spot for instrumentals.

Here are five of them that have been showing up in playlists (often in mixtapes and burned CDs before that) as go-to energy boosts.

Hope you like them.

Speaking of playlists … scroll to the bottom for an update of the Dot Dot Dot playlist, featuring tunes mentioned here on the blog since I relaunched it this winter.

Hey Ya, Booker T.

Hey Ya, as in the Outkast, and Booker T., as in the leader of Sixties legends MGs. Organ wizard Booker T. Jones (that’s him above) covered Outkast’s 2003 upbeat hit about heartbreak for his album 2009 Potato Hole. It’s a tune I have on multiple playlists; it’s great for walking, a gym workout, cooking dinner, whiling away the chores of a Saturday morning. Fun note: the guitar is played by Neil Young, and the backing band is the Drive-By Truckers. The organ, though …. stunning.

Cocktail de Medianoche, Kevin Fingier Collective

The Argentinian bandleader Kevin Fingier seems to be obsessed with retro things: mod culture and Northern soul from the U.K., Sixties Latin grooves like boogaloo, percussion and piano that feel like they were written decades ago. This track — it translates to Midnight Cocktail — was a B-side to a single in 2022 and has appeared on a Fingier EP and album since. My walking pace always speeds up when I hear it.

Last Night, the Mar-Keys

Memphis in a bottle. Last Night is not an instrumental in the very strictest sense. That’s because you can hear saxophonist Floyd Newman saying “Ohhhhh … yeah!” on the track, plus the song’s title before his solo. The Mar-Keys were the house band at Stax Records, and this went Top 5 across the U.S. in 1961. Members of the Mar-Keys ended up in other configurations, including Booker T. and the MGs (see above) and the Memphis Horns.

Bring Down the Birds, Herbie Hancock

Its opening notes are probably better known for having been sampled in Deee-Lite’s Groove is in the Heart. Bring Down the Birds also has a strong movie connection: it features prominently in the movie Blow-Up, used when David Hemmings is photographing a model in his studio. Groove and groovy, as it were.

A Whiter Shade of Pale, King Curtis

I was unaware of this version of the Procol Harum soft-rock classic until we went to see Withnail and I in 1987. King Curtis’s live, soulful rendition is the soundtrack of the opening sequence, where we see the “I” of the film (played by Paul McGann) and the late-Sixties squalor of his London flat, where he lives with the larger-than-life Withnail (the role that launched Richard E. Grant’s career). Years later, I tracked down Live at Fillmore West, the 1971 King Curtis album that included the recording. For context, I have pasted below the start of the film. Such a great opening.

The Dot Dot Dot playlist

Since relaunching (or maybe re-imagining) my old blog Dot Dot Dot in January, I’ve been building a playlist on Spotify that includes all the the tunes I’ve mentioned in various posts. It’s filling up, with more than 60 tracks in there now. Feel free to save it.