Instrumental songs you had a hard time identifying

In 1968 or 1969, I used to hear a lush instrumental on a local easy-listening station. I went into adulthood not knowing its name, but I still remembered the melody. One night, more than two decades after I first heard it, I was talking with a long-time local radio DJ and told him about my dilemma. I hummed the song for him, and he said immediately, "Oh, that's 'Love in Every Room' by Paul Mauriat." With the mystery solved, within days I had added the 45 to my collection.

 

The Horse an instrumental?! Guess again!

 

In the early 1990s, American Express had a TV ad that featured two golfers on a green, and the voice-over extolled the virtues of the classic Amex green card. It had a cool, Booker T. and the MG's-style instrumental in the background. In the comments on the YouTube posting of the ad, someone asked what the name of the melody was. I wondered the same thing, because I had actually heard it on the radio some years later; I thought it had been written for the ad!

To those who don't remember or came along after the American Express ad, here it is:

 

Just now, I learned this one!

The melody in the above American Express ad is "Hillbillies from Outer Space" by the Vaughan Brothers, from the album Family Style.

 

Being in my 20s this wasn't that much of a problem

My only good example is Erik Satie - fantastic music, but I didn't know where it came from until I played one of the Taiko no Tatsujin games that had a medley "Surfside Satie" where I could pick up some of the music and figure out where it came from.

Only happens with either classical music or audio visual stuff - and for the latter, the internet makes that a non issue. I only have problems with this with FM classical stuff.

 

“Night Theme,” by The Mark II. It took me more than 50 years to identify this instrumental that I remembered hearing on American Bandstand.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=-E110Lr5P_k

 

Congratulations on finding it. I've got something similar which has been haunting me for a long time.

Back in the '70s and early '80s, it was quite common for the sports reports on the evening news to have an instrumental backing when describing highlights from the previous night. Each week they'd use a different cut. Most were recognizable, some were harder to pin down.

Around spring 1980, there were two separate Toronto stations that used a piece of music to to do this within a couple of weeks of each other which I've never been able to find. It may have been an extended instrumental intro to a then-current release as I don't think it was fully instrumental. It was kind of a dance piece with a slow buildup, that could have been on the Disco or R&B charts around 1979 or early 1980. I don't think it was a huge hit as I can't recall hearing the track since. I actually recorded a bit of it on reel-to-reel tape back then, but I don't have a machine that can currently play it. It's possible that it might have been Canadian but I really think it was also a US release.

I've searched every which way I can think of to find it on youtube, anything that looks disco-ey that could have had a 12-inch mix around that time frame, but to no avail. I thought I would hit it even by accident with all the searching I've done. I can hum the melody but I'm not sure who to hum it to (can't hum it on a message board!)

If I never find it I guess I'm OK with that, but it would be great if I could finally track it down. If only I'd thought to call the station back then and ask what it was...