How I Got Into Instrumental Music

I've started documenting a little about me and how I got into music. I grew up in a musical household. Mom had very eclectic tastes, but my older brother and sister were more into the pop music of the day. There was a lot of music you could hear on the radio, but there was also instrumental pop.

Two bands that really grabbed me from the beginning were The Ventures and Johnny and the Hurricanes. The Ventures are forgotten legends now in America, but are still big in Japan, where they've reportedly sold twice as many records as the Beatles. With 100-plus million sales worldwide, they are the most popular instrumental pop group ever. They mainly covered hits of the day, like "Tequila" or the theme from "Hawaii Five-O." We had a copy of their album "The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull," and I wore that thing out. Although they were known as a guitar band, on this release they made use of organs and trumpets (and some wordless vocals). It was here that I think I got my first sense that the melody mattered more than the words. Their version of "Telstar," which was first a hit for the Tornados, is still one of my faves.

Johnny and the Hurricanes were peaking about the time I became musically aware. They were similar to The Ventures in their approach, but where the Ventures did rock-and-roll versions of contemporary popular songs, Johnny and the Hurricanes did cover versions of old folk songs like "On Top of Old Smoky" and "Bluetail Fly." Their biggest hit by far was "Red River Rock," which charted in the Top 5 in the U. S. They were actually more successful in Europe than America after about 1960, but eventually their shtick became, well shtick. More's the pity, because some of their B-sides were quite good on their own merits. One of those B-sides was a tune called "Buckeye," a tribute to their (and my) home state of Ohio ("the buckeye state"). Half a century later, I still get goosebumps everytime I hear the opening guitar riff.

From here I moved on to other stuff, but these two bands planted the early seeds for my lifelong love of instrumental music. In the last few years I found a CD with both The Ventures' "Telstar/Lonely Bull" and "Ventures in Space," which really pushed the envelope of sound back in the day. I also found a 2-CD set with a lot of Johnny and the Hurricanes' singles and B-sides, and that has been a real treat. Obviously, this was long before I found out about John Cage. Another time, I guess.