The first instrumental song to reach number one
While instrumental music will always have a place in society, it rarely reaches the charts or gets heard on mainstream radio. Instead, it exists purely in its own eco-system and barely steps out of its comfortable echo chamber. However, occasionally, instrumental tracks trouble the charts and become unlikely hit singles.
Since records began, the Billboard Hot 100 has recorded 25 instrumental number one singles across its eight decades. In recent years, it’s become unheard of for tracks of an instrumental nature to storm the charts, and there hasn’t been a true piece of music of this nature to achieve this feat since 1985. Although, on a technical basis, Baauer’s 2013 viral ‘Harlem Shake’ does count as one of the 25.
During the 1960s and ’70s, it wasn’t uncommon for an instrumental song to rise to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. One track, almost annually, would become a surprise instrumental hit, with jazz largely responsible for the number of songs that smashed through the perceived glass ceiling. However, disco also became increasingly more accountable as the ’70s progressed.
The landmark first instrumental to reach the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100 was never initially intended not to feature vocals. However, on the day of recording the track in 1959, Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez, the artist behind the historic hit, lost his voice and was forced to improvise during the making of ‘The Happy Organ’.
At the time, Cortez was well known by fellow musicians but not by the wider general public. When ‘The Happy Organ’ climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, he was still working for Little Anthony and the Imperials as a session musician for $200 a week. However, Cortez did exit the tour following the success of his song.
‘The Happy Organ’ was released through New York independent label Clock, who were more surprised than anyone when it became a hit. Doug Moody, owner and producer with the label, later recalled to Songfacts: “Dave lost his voice that Saturday morning and could not sing ‘The Cat And The Dog’ The guys were restless and started jamming. Dave was at the piano and was doing a funky version of ‘Shortnin’ Bread’.”
He continued: “Our engineer (owner of the studio) had on one eye a rag top (which frequently slipped off) and yelled to Dave, ‘Try the organ.’ He went out and fired up the huge Hammond B3 in the corner. Dave could only play it in the key of C, and we did one take of an instrumental. I lived with it all through the Christmas weekend and called it ‘The Happy Organ’.”
Moody added: “I took it to Bobby Joyce at radio WLLY in Richmond, Virginia. Bobby played the acetate until it wore out, and then Jimmy Schwartz, the distributor, ordered 1000 records. We did not even have a B-side. ‘Rinky Dink’ was offered by Dave to us… I was out of the office on the road. But my father Wally said NO to Dave. Dave wanted off the label, didn’t talk to me. My father and he signed an agreement, and Dave gave up all future royalties and rights to recordings he had made for Clock.”
While ‘The Happy Organ’ didn’t lead to a string of hit records for Cortez, his only number one inserted him into the record books, and his name will never be erased.
Listen to the track below.
