Rock Instrumentals have a separate page.

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. This term is used when referring to popular music rather than to other musical genres such as European classical music. In commercial music, instrumental tracks are sometimes renditions of a corresponding release that features vocals, but may also be compositions originally conceived without vocals. An instrumental version of a song which otherwise features vocals is also known as a -1 (pronounced minus one). In addition Hip Hop instrumentals are at becoming more popular and more expensive as time passes by. A popular producer in today's hip hop industry is Drumma Boy from Memphis, Tennessee of the indie label drum squad productions. The previous price for one of his instrumentals is $30,000. The instrumentals music for movies can run anywhere from $500,000 to $950,000.

Instrumentals that have reached #1 on the Billboard charts during the rock and roll era but before the Hot 100 include

• "Autumn Leaves" - Roger Williams (1955)

• "Lisbon Antigua" - Nelson Riddle (1956)

• "The Poor People Of Paris" - Les Baxter (1956)

• "Moonglow And Theme From 'Picnic'" - Morris Stoloff (1956)

• "Patricia" - Perez Prado (1958)

Instrumentals that have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 include

• "The Happy Organ" - Dave "Baby" Cortez (1959)

• "Sleep Walk" - Santo & Johnny (1959)

• "Theme from A Summer Place" - Percy Faith (1960)

• "Wonderland By Night" - Bert Kaempfert (1961)

• "Stranger on the Shore" - Mr. Acker Bilk (1962)

• "The Stripper - David Rose And His Orchestra (1962)

• "Telstar" - Tornados (1962)

• "L'Amour Est Bleu (Love Is Blue)" - Paul Mauriat (1968)

• "Grazing in the Grass" - Hugh Masekela (1968)

• "Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet - Henry Mancini & His Orchestra (1969)

• "Frankenstein" - Edgar Winter Group (1973)

• "Love's Theme" - Love Unlimited Orchestra (1974)

• "Theme from 'S.W.A.T.'" - Rhythm Heritage (1976)

• "A Fifth of Beethoven"- Walter Murphy" (1976)

• "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band"- Meco" (1977)

• "Rise" - Herb Alpert (1979)

• "Chariots Of Fire - Titles" - Vangelis (1982)

• "Miami Vice Theme" - Jan Hammer (1985)

Other Billboard Top 20 Instrumentals

• "In the Mood - Ernie Fields Orchestra (1959) #4

• "Green Onions" - Booker T. & the MGs (1962) #3

• "Out of Limits" - The Marketts (1964) #3

• "A Taste Of Honey" - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (1965) #7

• "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Hugo Montenegro (1968) #2

• "The Horse" - Cliff Nobles (1968) #2

• "Classical Gas" - Mason Williams (1968) #2

• "Soulful Strut" - Young-Holt Unlimited (1969) #3

• "Hawaii Five-O" - Ventures (1969) #4

• "Hang 'Em High" - Booker T. & the MGs (1969) #9

• "Time Is Tight" - Booker T. & the MGs (1969) #6

• "Popcorn" - Hot Butter (1972) #9

• "Dueling Banjos (Theme from Deliverance)" - Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell (1973) #2

• "Also Sprach Zarathustra" - Deodato (1973) #2

• "The Entertainer" - Marvin Hamlisch (1974) #3

• "Tubular Bells" (Theme from 'The Exorcist') - Mike Oldfield (1974) #7

• "Rockford Files"- Mike Post (1975) #10

• "Nadia's Theme (The Young And The Restless)" - Perry Botkin, Jr. (1976) #8

• "Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - John Williams (1978) #13

• "Feels So Good" - Chuck Mangione (1978) #4

• "Music Box Dancer" - Frank Mills (1979) #3

• "Theme From Hill Street Blues" - Mike Post Featuring Larry Carlton (1981) #10

• "Hooked on Classics" - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1982) #10

• "Axel F" - Harold Faltermeyer (1985) #3

• "Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" - David Foster (1985) #15

• "(Theme from) Mission Impossible" - Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen (1996) #8

Borderline cases

Some recordings which include brief examples of the human voice are typically considered instrumentals. Examples include singles with the following:

• Short verbal interjections (as in "Tequila" or "Topsy" or "Wipe Out" or "The Hustle")

• Repetitive nonsense words (e.g., "la la ..." (as in "Calcutta") or "Woo Hoo" or "Uh! Oh!");

• A short spoken passage (e.g., "To Live is to Die" by Metallica);

• Wordless vocal effects, such as drones (e.g., "Rockit");

• Vocal percussion, such as beatbox B-sides on rap singles;

• Yodeling (e.g., "Hocus Pocus");

• Whistling (e.g., "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" or "Colonel Bogey March").

A few songs categorized as instrumentals may even include actual vocals, if they appear only as a short part of an extended piece (e.g., "Unchained Melody" (Les Baxter) or "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" or "Pick Up The Pieces" or "Fly, Robin, Fly" or "Do It Any Way You Wanna" or "Gonna Fly Now" (Bill Conti)). Falling just outside that definition is "Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes.

See also

• Instrumental hip hop

• Instrumental rock

• List of rock instrumentals

• Easy listening

• Post Rock

• Beautiful music

• Smooth jazz

• A cappella, vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment