INSTRUMENTALS, turned into songs with lyrics

Phil Manzanera's "All The While" from 2012's Nth Entities was used by Tim Bowness as the basis for "Where You've Always Been" on Stupid Things That Mean The World. Tim basically used Manzanera's actual master and added vocals and a couple of overdubs. Great song(s) too.

Sticking with the wonderful Tim Bowness, the backing track to no-man's song "Together We're Stranger" was actually Bass Communion's "Drugged". And if you've never heard "Drugged" it's a brilliant ambient piece in three parts. One of my most played tracks ever.

 

I believe "Bound to Fall" (I assume a Chris Hillman tune) off the album Manassas:



Original version:

 

The tune was composed by jazz pianist Roger Grant and bari sax player Pat Patrick in 1963 and Santamaria included it on his 1963 albums. Interesting note: Patrick was Sun Ra's baritone sax player for well over 20 years. He is also the father of former Mass governor Deval Patrick.

But the main point is it was given lyrics by Jon Hendricks and sung by Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan and was released on their Newport '63 album. The album was a big seller in jazz circles. Fame covered that version but gave it his own arrangement (although I'm not sure who exactly arranged it. It might have been one of his hornmen, But it's a good arrangement.

 

Dave Mustaine wrote the instrumental Hook In Mouth in 1984, and played it live often, but it wasn't until 1988 that he added lyrics to it when it was finally studio recorded for 'So Far So Good So What'. Whilst 'Hook In Mouth' was not a single, Megadeth have played it live constantly for 30-odd years.

 

Good catch!

 

John Norum
Endica was an instrumental on his Face The Truth disc (1992)
Endica (Revisited) was a fully formed song on the Worlds Away disc (1996)

Both are great!

 

Most Deep Purple ...They often write instrumentals and Gillan adds the lyrics over the top.

 

Mercy Mercy Mercy was also written by Joe Zawinul. His tunes seem to lend themselves to vocal adaptation.

 

The tune 'Les Fleurs', Minnie Riperton recorded this with vocals on the 'Come Into My Garden' lp (1970), but it makes an earlier appearance as an instrumental on a Ramsey Lewis lp from 1968.

 

Mark Murphy "On the Red Clay". Such a cool tune regardless of who is playing it, but Murphy's vocals make the song even more hip, and the overall package (complete with the Brecker Bros. and David Sanborn) is one of the best Jazz tunes of the 70s.

 

As do the majority of rock bands, but this has absolutely nothing to do with what the OP is describing in the first post.

@zen Name a popular Deep Purple instrumental released on an album or single ....that they came back to and added words to and re-released. When they add vocals to A200 you might have something...except it's not a "very popular instrumental".

 

I guess the closest would be Coronarias Redig/Catch the Rainbow, but of course that was with two different bands.

 

And it wasn't exactly a popular instrumental.

 

To zen it was.

 

Stan Kenton, in the early 1960s, recorded an album called "Artistry In Voices And Brass," in which words were added to some of his earlier instrumental pieces.

And in the late 1970s, The Swingle Singers recorded an album called "Skyliner" which included some big band instrumentals from the 1930s/1940s which had lyrics added to them.

 

Ennio Morricone has recorded several albums of his themes reworked with lyrics. The album he did with Milva is particularly powerful.

 

Joni wrote lyrics to Mingus compositions for the 1979 album

 

"Oh No" by Zappa.

 

It's probably been mentioned, but just in case:

In 1912, a casual musician named Charles Dawes wrote a tune that became known as "Melody in A Major." Dawes would gain his greatest fame not in music, but in politics as the vice-president of Calvin Coolidge (1925-1929).

In 1951, the year of Dawes' death, lyricist Carl Sigman put words to the melody, and it became "It's All in the Game."

 

Really? I mean, technically yes, Metheny wrote the song instrumentally, and Bowie added the lyrics and melody-lines (which Bowie wrote).

But to the best of my knowledge, Metheney hadn't ever recorded (meaning released) the song before they collaborated on it.

Yes, over the years since, Metheney has performed the song (sans Bowie) numerous times, largely as an instrumental (but even then, the versions I've heard have back-up singers with Metheney).

My point is that I t's not like Bowie added lyrics to an existing (released, fully formed) Metheney tune. I've always understood the song as everyone knows it really was a collaboration, though the part Bowie contributed was the lyrics and their melody line(s).

 

All UFO songs.

 

"What's New"

Music by Bob Haggart/later lyrics by Johnny Burke

 

Besides not at all being in the spirit of what this thread is about PLUS that is also explained just a few posts ago AND UFO has songs that are instrumentals that have never had lyrics. All UFO songs?

 

Relax man, I'm just having a laugh.

 

Agreed that there wasn't a previous recording of the song, but from what I've gathered over the years Metheny had the instrumental version fully fleshed out as a demo. After that, Bowie put lyrics to it (and came up with the title as well) and they decided to record it as a full-fledged collaboration. The soundtrack also contained the instrumental version and the instrumental also was the B-side of the single IIRC.

While searching the internet for details of this collaboration I came across this piece on Metheny's web site, written in the wake of Bowie's death:

Pat Metheny : News: DAVID BOWIE R.I.P. »

It seems to affirm that Metheny originally wrote the song as an instrumental, after which director John Schlesinger suggested the collaboration with David Bowie. However, Bowie also added an additional drum part and worked out the melody of the vocal lines. All in all I'm not sure if the song belongs in this thread.