Good instrumental tracks by bands/artists not known for instrumentals

Eric Clapton - Edge of Darkness

 

The OP mentioned Rush, but I don't think they qualify. Many of their albums have (at least) one instrumental track....but YYZ is their greatest instrumental.

 

+1 for Singalong Junk

Peter Frampton - Penny for your thoughts (studio version)

Two very nice instrumentals which work best in combination with their
neighbour tracks (with vocals) on the LP:

Tom Rush - Rockport Sunday (+ No Regrets)
Richard & Linda Thompson - Dargai (+ Dimming of the Day)

 

D'oh! Of course I do. Very silly.

 

at the Queen's service?

 

The Police Shambelle
ELO Fire on High
INXS 3 Sisters
Guadalcanal Diary Gilbert Takes The Wheel

 

Rainbow - Weiss Heim, Maybe Next Time, Anybody There, Snowman
Deep Purple - Son Of Aleric
Blackmore's Night - Carry On... Jon

 

"Circus" - The Jam

 

The Monochrome Set always managed to stick a couple of instrumentals on their first few albums and they were usually quite good.

Love's first album had a couple of nice instrumentals.

And early Fleetwood Mac (ca. Albatross and Then Play On) had a couple of great ones.

 

Small Faces - Grow Your Own, Wide Eyed Girl on the Wall
Doobie Brothers - Busted Down Around O'Connelly Corners

 

Dylan - Nashville Skyline Rag.
This cool " banjo tune" is frequently played by bluegrass bands.
The original's got the great Norman Blake on guitar.

 

I thought I saw him playing timpani back there.
James Brown has a lot of cool instrumentals..

 

With the exception of some short spoken material at the beginning and end, "Melody For An Unknown Girl" by Paul Revere & The Raiders.

 

Maggot Brain - Funkadelic

Heck that might be my answer to the question favorite guitar driven instrumental, or at least be neck in neck with Watermelon in Easter Hay (which I didn't mention as Zappa has a lot of instrumentals in his catalog).

 

Maceo Parker - Over The Rainbow is another. Maceo has done a good number of instrumentals, but his best known material all has at least some vocals.

 

The Ramones only recorded one instrumental, and it ROCKS!!

"Durango 95" .....

 

The Commodores are best known for launching Lionel Richie and a slew of ballads where MOR met Quiet Storm, but they started out as funkmeisters supreme with this instrumental smash, "Machine Gun." It still gets played a lot, and I'm sure a lot of people would be surprised to learn who was behind it.

 

Love - Emotions

 

Beatles - "Cry For A Shadow"
Mick Taylor (w/Lowell George) - "Giddy-Up"
Marshall Crenshaw - "Jaggedland"
Deep Purple - "And the Address"
John Lennon - "Beef Jerky"
Cactus - "Song For Aries"
Little Feat - "Lafayette Railroad"

 

British Glam Rockers "MUD" once had an instrumental single released as "DUM", it was a version of "In the Mood" and I used to like it in those days

 

Awesome instrumental by Death...Cosmic Sea. You all that can't deal with the "cookie monster" vocals of death metal should check this out.

 

Dokken had one instrumental with "Mr. Scary." Blistering Euro-metal guitar along the lines of "Into The Arena" by Michael Schenker with a bunch of Randy Rhoads(isms) thrown in the mix.

 

The Go-Go's : Surfing and Spying