60s Instrumental Hits

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Do you remember the sixties? I do. I have put together a list of the best instrumentals for the decade of the sixties. I remember many of these great hits while going to high school and serving in the military. Some of these songs became background music for some great TV commercials.

This list was compiled by using the following formula: The highest position reached on the charts, number of weeks in the peak position, number of weeks in the top 10, number of weeks in the top 40, and finally the total number of weeks charted.

Here is the list of the top 100 greatest instrumental hits of the 60s. The list shows the rank, title, artist, peak position () and the year the record reached the peak position.

The Theme From A Summer Place/Percy Faith (1) 1960
Love Is Blue/Paul Mauriat (1) 1968
Wonderland By Night/Bert Keampfert (1) 1961
Telstar/The Tornadoes (1) 1962
Calcutta/Lawrence Welk (1) 1961
Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet/Henry Mancini (1) 1969
Grazing In The Grass/Hugh Mesekela (1) 1968
Stranger On The Shore/Acker Bilk (1) 1962
The Stripper/David Rose (1) 1962
Last Date/Floyd Cramer (2) 1960
The Horse/Cliff Nobles & Co. (2) 1968
Classical Gas/Mason Williams (2) 1968
Apache/Jorgen Ingmann (2) 1961
Exodus/Ferrante & Teicher (2) 1961
Walk Don't Run/The Ventures (2) 1960
Wipeout/The Surfaris (2) 1963
The Good The Bad And The Ugly/Hugo Montenegro (2) 1968
Midnight In Moscow/Kenny Ball (2) 1962
Washington Square/The Village Stompers (2) 1963
Wheels/The String-A-Longs (3) 1961
Last Night/Mar-Keys (3) 1961
Out Of Limits/The Marketts (3) 1964
Green Onions/Booker T & The MG's (3) 1962
No Matter What Shape/The T-Bones (3) 1966
Pipeline/Chantay's (4) 1963
Because They're Young/Duane Eddy (4) 1960
Java/Al Hurt (4) 1964
On The Rebound/Floyd Cramer (4) 1961
Yellow Bird/Arthur Lyman Group (4) 1961
Hawaii Five-O/The Ventures (4) 1969
The "In" Crowd/Ramsey Lewis Trio (5) 1965
Memphis/Lonnie Mack (5) 1963
Time Is Tight/Booker T & The MG's (6) 1969
Maria Elena/Los Indois Tabajaras (6) 1963
The Lonely Bull/Herb Alpert (6) 1962
Taste Of Honey/Herb Alpert (7) 1965
Alley Cat/Bent Fabric (7) 1962
Let There Be Drums/Sandy Nelson (7) 1961
Mexico/Bob Moore (7) 1961
One Mint Julep/Ray Charles (8) 1961
Walk Don't Run 64/The Ventures (8) 1964
More/Kai Winding (8) 1963
Wild Weekend/The Rebels (8) 1963
Asia Minor/Kokomo (8) 1961
Tonight/Ferrante & Teicher (8) 1961
San Antonio Rose/Floyd Cramer (8) 1961
Hang 'Em High/Booker T & The MG's (9) 1969
White Silver Sands/Bill Black's Combo (9) 1960
Our Winter Love/Bill Pursell (9) 1963
Theme From The Apartment/Ferrante & Teicher (10) 1960
Watermelon Man/Mongo Santamaria (10) 1963
Caste Your Fate To The Wind/Sounds Orchestral (10) 1965
Rinky Dink/Dave "Baby" Cortez (10) 1962
Percolator (Twist)/Billy Joe & The Checkmates (10) 1962
Red Roses For A Blue Lady/Bert Keampfert (11) 1965
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy/Cannonball Adderley (11) 1967
Hang On Sloopy/Ramsey Lewis Trio (11) 1965
Don't Be Cruel/Bill Black's Combo (11) 1960
Zorba The Greek/Herb Alpert (11) 1966
A Walk Through The Black Forest/Horst Jankowski (12) 1965
Quentin's Theme/Charles Randolph Grean Sounde (13) 1969
Tracy's Theme/Spencer Ross (13) 1960
A Swingin Safari/Billy Vaughn (13) 1962
Twine Time/Alvin Cash & The Crawlers (14) 1965
Fly Me To The Moon Bossa Nova/Joe Harnell (14) 1963
Shangri-La/Robert Maxwell (15) 1964
Desafinado/Stan Getz (15) 1962
Wonderland By Night/Louis Prima (15) 1961
Cotton Candty/Al Hurt (15) 1964
Beatnik Fly/Johnny & The Hurricanes (15) 1960
Perfidia/Ventures (15) 1960
Music To Watch Girls By/Bob Crewe Generation (15) 1967
Baby Scratch My Back/Slim Harpo (16) 1966
Keem-O-Sabe/Electric Indian (16) 1969
Blue Tango/Bill Black's Combo (16) 1960
Tuff/Ace Cannon (17) 1962
Soul Twist/King Curtis (17) 1962
Smokie Part 2/Bill Black's Combo (17) 1960
Batman Theme/The Marketts (17) 1966
Soul Finger/Bar-Kays (17) 1967
Soul Limbo/Booker T & The MG's (17) 1968
The Work Song/Herb Alpert (18) 1966
Josephine/Bill Black's Combo (18) 1960
Pepe/Duane Eddy (18) 1961
Penetration/Pyramids (18) 1964
Wade In The Water/Ramsey Lewis Trio (19) 1966
Never On Sunday/Don Costa (19) 1960
Let's Go/Routers (19) 1962
Look For A Star/Billy Vaughn (19) 1960
Bonanza/Al Calola (19) 1961
I've Got A Woman Part 1/Jimmy McGriff (20) 1962
I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman/Whistling Jack Smith (20) 1967
Hearts Of Stone/Bill Black's Combo (20) 1961
Groovin'/Booker T & The MG's (21) 1967
Mr. Lucky/Henry Mancini (21) 1960
Walk On The Wild Side Part 1/Jimmy Smith (21) 1962
Bumble Boogie/B. Bumble & The Stingers (21) 1961
Last Date/Lawrence Welk (21) 1960
Wiggle Wobble/Les Cooper (22) 1963
Caste Your Fate To The Wind/Vince Guaraldi Trio (22) 1963

If you were like me, I was quite surprised by this list. Maybe you have the same reaction. These are great songs in their own right. To make this list the song had to rank nationally in the top 40 which is quite a feat. Hopefully you have many of these songs in your collection.

If this list was of interest to you I have a list of the top 100 fifties instrumentals.

Happy listening!