1955 to 1960 Instrumental Hits Quiz

Answer: Roger Williams

"Autumn Leaves" was composed in 1945 by Joseph Kozma, a Hungarian residing in Paris at the time. French lyrics were added by close friend, Jacques Prévert, and several recordings of their collaboration were released in Europe. English lyrics were written for the melody by Johnny Mercer and recorded versions were done by such artists as Bing Crosby and Nat "King" Cole, although none became commercially successful as singles. Then, in 1955, Roger Williams' instrumental recording was a monumental triumph, topping the Billboard Pop chart for four weeks. Thereafter, it became a staple in the jazz idiom. In 2012, Jazz historian Phillipe Baudoin concluded that it was the foremost non-American Jazz composition ever, having been recorded over 1,400 times, the eighth most in the history of the genre.

Williams (nee Louis Weertz) was born in Omaha in 1925 and as his mother was a music teacher, he started playing piano at the age of three. Growing up, he was inclined to more physical pursuits and while in the Navy during the latter stages of WWII, was the middleweight champion of his base. Several broken noses later, he decided a career in music was a safer option and completed studies at Idaho State, Drake University and Julliard, ultimately earning a master's degree in music. In 1950, he was to provide the accompaniment for a vocalist on Arthur Godfrey's Talent show, but the singer failed to show. He performed in lieu and so impressed Dave Kapp, the head of Kapp records, that he was signed to a recording contract. "Autumn Leaves" was his first hit and he would go on to have two more Top Ten hits - "Near You" at Number Ten in 1958 and "Born Free", Number Seven in 1966. More remarkable was his LP output, a total of 38 albums charting between 1955 and 1972, seven of them achieving Top Ten status. He continued as an active performer right up to his death in 2011 from pancreatic cancer.

Answer: Hugo Winterhalter

Hugo is not a very common name so I find it rather ironic that two people with that name should have big instrumental hits; Hugo Montenegro with "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in 1968 and Hugo Winterhalter who had a string of charting hits beginning in 1949.

Winterhalter was born in 1909 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He studied music at Mount St. Mary's in Maryland and the New England Conservatory of Music before turning professional in the mid-1930s as a sax sideman for several of the major orchestras of the day, most notably Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie. In the late 1940s, he focused his talents on musical arrangements backing the popular singers of the day for whichever label he happened to be working for at the time. Among them were Perry Como, the Ames Brothers, Dinah Shore and Eddie Fisher. With his Orchestra, he also had a string of 26 hits chart between 1949 and 1955, the most popular of which was his version of "Blue Tango". It peaked at Number Six in 1952. Leroy Anderson's rendition of the song was the bigger hit, Number One for five weeks. "Canadian Sunset", recorded with the song's composer, Eddie Heywood, was the final charting entry of his career and also his most successful, peaking at Number Two in 1956. It pipped Andy Williams' vocal recording of the song which only reached Number Seven. He continued working as an arranger for the Kapp Label until his death from cancer in 1973.

Answer: Bill Justis or Ernie Freeman or Billy Vaughn

Raunchy is defined as vulgar, dirty or earthy. Raunchy, in 1957 teen speak, meant "really good". Somehow, this instrumental could meet both definitions - indeed, it was good but interwoven within the notes, there was an underlying sinister feeling about it, like being somewhere you know you shouldn't be.

The song was enormously popular as 1957 was ending and is considered the first rock and roll instrumental hit. Other instrumental hits which preceded it in the rock era, post-1954, were considered pop or light jazz. Bill Justis had the biggest hit with it at Number Two but Ernie Freeman's version wasn't far behind at Number Four. Meanwhile, Billy Vaughn finished in the show position of this three-disc race at Number Ten. Both Justis and Freeman saw their recording enter the charts on Nov. 18, 1957 while Vaughn's was a little late to the dance party, as it were, making its first appearance two weeks later.

Fortunately, I happen to have all three versions in my music collection and was able to compare them. Justis' and Freeman's version are very similar, featuring sax, guitar, bass, piano and drums. Vaughn's version, typical for him, featured full orchestration with sax and guitar solos at the same spots in the score. I think older folks would have preferred Vaughn's version while the younger set would have opted for one of the others.

Justis, a sax player himself, co-wrote the song and it was to be his only Top 40 hit. His version was highlighted by a "twangy" guitar solo, a feature that would soon be a trademark of the great Duane Eddy. Born in 1926 and a graduate of music studies from Tulane University in Louisiana, Justis worked with various jazz bands before winding up in Memphis and working for Sam Phillips at Sun Records as a music arranger for the likes of Orbison, Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. He remained in the business in that capacity for several labels until his untimely death of cancer in 1982.

Ernie Freeman was born in Cleveland in 1922 and was playing piano professionally as part of a family group in the mid-1930s. Eventually, he would earn a master's degree in music composition from USC and became a session man and music arranger before forming his own combo in the mid-1950s. This would be his biggest hit as a recording act but his career as an arranger far eclipsed his career as a performer. He would ultimately win two Grammys as an arranger. One was for Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" the other for Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water". He also died relatively young in 1981 after a heart attack.

Finally, Billy Vaughn had a long career in all components of the music business; singer, composer, musician, orchestra leader and arranger, and as an executive. With 28 Hot 100 hits from 1955 to 1966, he currently holds the record for the most instrumental hits of the rock era, a feat likely never to be equaled given the dearth of instrumentals being released these days. He passed on at the age of 72 in 1991.

Answer: Mantovani or Victor Young

I'm sure most people reading this are aware of the history of this title. A piece of science fiction written by Jules Verne in 1872, it followed the vicissitudes of one Phileas Fogg as he attempted to circumnavigate the world in less than 80 days to win a wager. It later became a stage play then a 1956 movie, winning the Best Picture Oscar for that year. It featured David Niven as Fogg with a veritable who's who of acting stardom appearing in cameo roles throughout the film.

Victor Young wrote the score for that movie and also won an Oscar for his work. The similarly titled main theme from the movie was not nominated for the award but still became a popular easy listening standard with several orchestral recording acts using it for album tracks for several years thereafter. Victor Young's release made it to Number 13 on the Top 100 chart while the "B" side of Bing Crosby's version with lyrics, of course, stalled at Number 25. Meanwhile, Mantovani's competing instrumental recording just nipped Young's version at Number 12.

Victor Young was born in Chicago in 1900 but was sent to Poland at the age of ten to live with an uncle and study music at the Warsaw Imperial Conservatory. He returned to America shortly after the conclusion of WWI, found work as a violinist with the Isham Jones Orchestra, honed his arranging skills under Jones' tutelage, then spent the rest of his career from the mid-1930s onward in Hollywood arranging movie scores. Sadly, Young's Oscar was won posthumously. He succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage in November 1956.

Mantovani was born in Italy in 1905 but spent most of his life in Great Britain. He formed his large orchestra in the 1930s and was a popular mainstay on the BBC and in live performances through to the end of WWII. Thereafter, he focused on conducting his orchestra on recordings and developed his trademark "cascading strings" effect. At the conclusion of the 20th Century, he stood in sixth place on the list of "most charted albums" with 50 and tenth place of "most Top 40 albums" with 26, both amazing achievements. He died in England in 1980, aged 74.

Answer: The Champs

A songwriter and guitarist, Dave Burgess, was given the opportunity to record one of his compositions, "Train to Nowhere", aptly named because that's exactly where it was bound. To record the "B" side, a group of session musicians (not the fabled "wrecking crew" this time) was quickly assembled for the purpose and it was decided to use a tune written by the sax player, Danny Flores, titled "Tequila".

It took the group just ten minutes to record the song. As happens more times than one would think, the "B" side became the hit, reaching Number One within three weeks of its first appearance on the Top 100 chart and maintaining that position for five weeks.

It would go on to sell more than a million units to earn a gold record and won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance. Almost immediately, the group started to splinter and group membership was in constant flux. Subsequent members included the likes of Glen Campbell, Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts and despite many attempts to re-create the "Tequila" mojo, the best they could muster was the Number 30 "Too Much Tequila" in 1960.

They soldiered on until 1965 before calling it a day and officially folding.

Answer: Perez Prado

Perez Prado, the Cuban born "King of the Mambo", returned to the top of the charts on July 28, 1959 with his second Number One hit, "Patricia". His first Number One hit, for ten weeks no less, was the immensely popular "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" in 1955 when the mambo craze was at its feverish heights. "Patricia" pretty much signaled the end of the craze - Rock and Roll was king now! In light of his changing fortunes, he retreated to his adopted home of Mexico City where his music was always in vogue. It was there that he moved to when he left Cuba initially in 1949 and it was there that he died in 1989, aged 72.

Of trivial significance is the fact that this song was the last to top Billboard's Top 100 chart. Billboard published two charts in those days. The "Jockey's" chart was based on radio airplay and the "Top 100" chart was based on record sales and considered the more important of the two. They were replaced by a new "Hot 100" chart with "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson having the honor as the first Number One under this new system. Billboard also published a secondary "Best Sellers" chart for three more months but then abandoned it in favor of one combined definitive chart, The Hot 100. It remains thus in 2020. The first Number One hit on this comprehensive Hot 100 chart dated November 10, 1959 was "It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty.

Answer: MItch Miller

The name Mitch Miller, to many of us, conjures up the image of a mustachioed figure on TV waving his baton to a choir singing sentimental songs from a bygone era while a white ball bounces along to the lyrics so that we at home can sing along. Indeed, the "Sing Along With Mitch" TV program ran from 1961 to 1966 when it was canceled, probably in no small part due to the "British Invasion". Doubtlessly few viewers realized what an influential figure he was the world of music during the 1950s.

He was born in Rochester, New York in 1911 and was a classically trained oboist at the Eastman School of Music where he met Goddard Lieberson. For most of the 1930s and 40s, he played the oboe for various philharmonic orchestras until 1948 when he joined Mercury Records as their head of the classical music department. Then in 1950, Lieberson, now an executive with Columbia Records, enticed Miller to become the Artist and Repertory (A&R) man for the label's pop music division. In that capacity, he launched the careers of most of that label's significant talents like Guy Mitchell, Doris Day, Patti Page, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis and countless others. He also worked as a producer and was one of the first to use such innovations as overdubbing to enhance the sound of the recording. To some, like Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney, his "artistry" as a producer was gimmickry at its worst and that is what led to Sinatra leaving Columbia and signing with the Capitol label.

Although Miller survived that defection, he was a pretty stubborn fellow and there was one reality of the music business that he couldn't overcome - the popularity of rock music. He detested it! The British Invasion brought matters to a head at Columbia. He would not sign rock and rollers to the label, especially British ones. In 1966, Columbia signed The Byrds to the label and parted ways with Miller. Essentially, Miller retired from the music business altogether except for the occasional classical music recording. He passed away in 2010, aged 99.

As a band leader and performer, Miller recorded many, many albums of the type of music as presented on his TV program. His biggest hit, Number One for six weeks in 1955, was "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and very typical of his approach to music. "March From the River Kwai and Colonel Bogey" was a combination of two marches as the name suggests and was part of the score for the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai". Three chart versions of the song made Hot 100 appearances in 1958, Miller's doing the best at Number 20. Everyone was whistling along to the tune back then!

Answer: Santo and Johnny

In a previous quiz, I suggested that "Maria Elena" by Los Indios Tabajara was probably the prettiest instrumental song of the rock era. If that song had a competitor, "Sleep Walk" by Santo and Johnny Farina would surely be it.

While the boys' father was stationed in Oklahoma as a serviceman, he heard the sound of the steel guitar for the first time and enamored, vowed that when he returned home to Brooklyn, his boys would learn to play the instrument. Santo did and when his younger brother Johnny was old enough, he learned to play rhythm guitar and as a duo, would play at school and neighborhood functions. After performing late one night and unable to sleep, Santo was inspired to compose the melody he named, fittingly, "Sleep Walk". It took him nearly two years to find a label that would record it but the results were worth it. Storming up the Hot 100 chart, it finally reached the summit for two weeks in September 1959. A follow-up release, "Tear Drop" could do no better than Number 23 and subsequent releases did even worse. Although the brothers continued to record for some time afterward, whatever success they had was largely in foreign markets, most notably in Italy, their father's homeland. Their act ceased to be in 1976.

Answer: Dave "Baby" Cortez

David Cortez Clowney was born in Detroit in 1938. His father was a musician and encouraged his son's musical interests. Assuming the stage name of Dave "Baby" Cortez, he turned professional in the mid-1950s and performed with several groups during that period as a vocalist/keyboardist.

He co-wrote a song entitled "The Happy Organ" and secured studio time with a small indie record label (Clock) to record it. Originally intended to be sung with piano accompaniment, he was dissatisfied with the result. An organ was in the studio and recruiting a drummer and guitarist who happened to also be in the studio at the time, gave it another whirl as a straight instrumental.

The result? A Number One smash hit! It took a while but three years later, he would have another hit with the Number Ten "Rinky Dink" on the Chess label.

However, several other releases made little impression on the charts, if they charted at all, and by 1973, he had faded into obscurity.

Answer: Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy had 15 Top 40 Hot 100 hits between 1958 and 1963 and certainly he was the predominant solo instrumentalist of the rock era. I couldn't decide which of his hits to select for the quiz so rather than flipping a coin, I decided to highlight two of them!

The music world's awareness of Duane Eddy's twangy guitar began with his debut hit single "Rebel-'Rouser" which shot up the charts to Number Six in the summer of 1958. It was co-written with Lee Hazlewood and inspired by an old folk song Eddy had recalled from a Tennessee Ernie Ford disc, "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet". Never heard of it! One year and four top thirty songs later, he worked his way back into the Top Ten with the Number Nine "Forty Miles of Bad Road". I would have assumed it was named after a stretch of highway just north of the North Dakota border in Saskatchewan on the way to Regina. But no! Lee Hazlewood, who produced virtually all of Eddy's tracks, overheard a conversation between two Texas cowhands when one of them offered this insult; "Your girl has a face like forty miles of bad road". Ouch! Not a bad song title, though.

Eddy continued to string out his hits until 1963. He never showed much in the way of versatility and with few exceptions, his songs continued to stress that twangy sound without any other innovations. The advent of the British Invasion sounded the death knell of his charting days and he largely turned his attention to record production while still engaging in the odd concert performance for his faithful fans, mostly in Great Britain, ironically enough.

Answer: Johnny and the Hurricanes

Johnny and the Hurricanes were formed in 1957 in Toledo, Ohio, although at the time they were called the Orbits. The principle players were leader Johnny Paris (nee Pocisk) on sax, Dave Yorko on guitar and Paul Tesluk on organ. They were able to line up behind a local rock-a-billy singer named Mack Vickery for some recording sessions and a couple of music promoters, impressed with their sound, signed them up for recordings of their own and became their managers. Their first release, "Crossfire", did quite well peaking at Number 23 on the Hot 100 and one of their managers who had a fondness for old time music, suggested they follow it up with a rocking version of "Red River Valley". It became "Red River Rock" and their biggest Hot 100 hit at Number Five, doing even better in the U.K. at Number Three. They would have two further Top 40 hits on the Hot 100 with "Reveille Rock" at Number 25 and "Beatnik Fly", a rocking version of the folk standard "Blue Tail Fly", reaching Number 15. Both were bigger hits in the U.K. as were all their subsequent charting hits. As such, the band went on tours abroad and early in 1962, performed at the same Hamburg club as the Beatles who in fact were THEIR opening act!

Their debut album featured both "Crossfire" and "Red River Rock" and was the second album I proudly purchased and played incessantly. What I liked about the group was that Paris, Yorko and Tesluk all had significant and equal solos in all their songs which seemed to me to be unique compared to other bands. However, the constant touring started to impact the group and Paris was apparently becoming an overbearing leader. By 1965, the other group members quit but, undaunted, Paris recruited another crew of sidemen and carried on almost exclusively in Europe for four decades. He died of septicemia following surgery in 2006. Prior to his death, he estimated that more than 300 musicians had performed as Hurricanes under his leadership.

Answer: Percy Faith

Percy Faith was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1908. When his hands were badly burned in a fire, his budding career as a virtuoso musician dashed, he turned to conducting and honed his skills with the CBC, performing live on radio before moving to the U.S. in 1940. He started recording for Columbia in 1950 and would remain with that label for the duration of his career. His peak years were between 1950 and 1963 when his lush orchestrations of popular music sold millions of LPs. The advent and growth of rock and roll naturally resulted in a decline in his popularity but he still held his own with older generations into the 1970s before succumbing to cancer in 1976.

Two of his recordings demand special attention. In 1953, his "Song from Moulin Rouge" controlled the top of the Billboard charts for ten weeks. Then in 1960, "The Theme From A Summer Place" duplicated that feat and as such, his was the only recording act to achieve that double honor for the pre and post rock era. One wonders how many of his session musicians, if any, contributed to both recordings.

Whenever a recording dominates the chart for so long, this question could be raised; was the song that superior to its competition or was it a case of a merely good song outlasting inferior competition. I think the former was true for his 1960 recording but I'll let you form your own conclusions. These were the songs that could not oust "The Theme From A Summer Place" from the apex, stymied at Number Two: "Handy Man" by Jimmy Jones for one week; "He'll Have To Go" by Jim Reeves for three weeks; "Wild One" by Bobby Rydell for one week; "Puppy Love" by Paul Anka for two weeks, and, "Greenfields" by The Brothers Four for one week. The tenth week belonged to "Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning which dropped to Number Two after being deposed at the top by Faith's song. It was Elvis who finally bumped Faith from the Hot 100 summit with "Stuck On You". The first three listed were all million selling, Gold Record earners. What do you think?

Answer: The Ventures

"Walk - Don't Run" was originally composed in 1954 by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith and adapted and recorded by Chet Atkins in 1956 or 1957. That's how the members of The Ventures were first exposed to it and when they finally were skilled enough to warrant a recording contract, this was the piece of music they chose for their debut release. It ran, not walked, up the chart all the way to Number Two, denied the top spot by Presley's "It's Now or Never". When they released an updated version in 1964, it also performed admirably settling in at Number Eight.

I would posit that The Ventures defined guitar driven, small group instrumentals during the rock era... for the U.S.A. and Japan, two jurisdictions where they had immense popularity. Now if your focus is the U.K. and Europe, The Shadows would be hands-down winners.

Let's do a little comparing of achievements. Both groups were formed in 1958. The Ventures would have a total of 14 releases chart on the Hot 100 during the 1960s, the years during which they were most active. The Shadows would have 32 charting hits on the U.K. charts, five of which were Numbers Ones, and performed as the backing musicians for Sir Cliff Richard who also had enormous success in Britain. They also first charted in 1960 but persisted as a charting entity until 1982. The Ventures have been in continuous existence since their formation albeit with several line-up changes. Most, if not all, of the original members are now deceased. The Shadows broke up on three different occasions; from 1968 to 1972, 1991 to 2004, and finally have been inactive since 2015. Over their many years, they too have endured several line-up changes. To roil the debating waters, neither group were very successful on the other's turf. I'd give The Shadows the wide edge on achievements, The Ventures the nod for longevity and, perhaps, fame from a global perspective. Let's call it a draw!

Answer: Don Costa

"Never on Sunday" was the title song for the 1960 movie of the same name and it won the Academy Award for its composer, Manos Hajidakis, for "Best Original Song". It was the first time that an Oscar in that category was won by a foreign language film. Hajidakis had also written lyrics for the song in Greek and was sung in the movie by Oscar nominated actress Melina Mercouri. Many covers of the song in different languages were released throughout Europe, most notably by the French/Italian actress and vocalist, Dalida. It was first released in North America as an instrumental by Don Costa in 1960, peaking at Number 19 then re-released a year later when it could advance no higher than Number 37. In the U.K., it managed a Number 27 placement in 1960. English lyrics for the song were provided by Billy Towne and a vocal version by Lynn Cornell competed with Costa's in the U.K. coming up a tad short at Number 30 but didn't chart on the Hot 100. The vocal version that did chart, however, was released by The Chordettes in 1961 and they took it to Number 13.

Like many other recording artists in this quiz, Costa ran the gamut of roles as he advanced in the industry; musician, composer, band leader and arranger, and finally, for the last 24 years and most significant segment of his career, the A&R man for United Artists. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1983 at the age of 58.

Answer: Al Caiola

Of all the artists in this quiz, Al Caiola probably would be the most obscure to many. However, his recording of "The Magnificent Seven" is among the 45s in my collection and when I watched the movie just recently, I was reminded at what a stirring and energetic song it was and just had to include it in this quiz. As it only could manage a chart placement of Number 35 on the Hot 100 (37 in Britain), I thought it best to pair it up with his only other hit, "Bonanza" which peaked at Number 19. It failed to make an impression on the British chart.

Caiola was largely employed as a well-regarded session guitarist on many big hits from the 1940s into the early 1960s before joining United Artists as an arranger and orchestra conductor under Don Costa's helm. For the balance of his career there, he recorded numerous easy listening LPs then did more of the same for other labels until 2005 when he retired at the age of 85. He died in 2016, aged 96.