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Not Quite Instrumental, Not A Vocal...

J

John1

Heard a song today that was typical of a style from beautiful music radio - an instrumental version of "Paper Roses" with soft guitars & orchestra. Each time the refrain came up, a soft chorus sang "Paper Roses, Paper Roses" then stopped singing, so they only sang the title, the rest was instrumental. I remember this being common. As far as programming, this was almost an instrumental, a little vocal - was there a technical/radio term for this type of song in the beautiful music days?

(I heard it used to come out of the news on a classic country show today on WBCB, Levittown, Pa.)
 
I know exactly what you mean, and I often thought these half instrumentals/half vocals sometimes came out quite comically.

Another thing I remember along the same lines is when B/EZ stations had these Ray Conniff-type singers do covers of songs originally done by one person. I'm not sure why it was done. I actually thought some of them sounded very silly. (But in a good kinda way. I'd rather listen to that kind of stuff over today's nonsense). It reminded me of hearing a church choir sing Andy Williams. LOL Either get one singer to do the cover or do it instrumentally; but the "singers" versions sounded kinda silly, IMO.

I clearly remember one aired on then beautiful music station WEAZ Philadelphia around 1981. It was a cover of "Day By Day" done by a group of singers. I have it on aircheck and I still listen to it to this day for a chuckle.
 
On the point of whether it was labeled an instrumental or vocal. It depended on the temperment of your boss. I was allowed one vocal per half hour. I considered an instrumental with 10 seconds of singing to be instrumental. The owner considered them vocals. Lord help me if I played a vocal/instrumental and an out-and-out vocal during the same 30 minutes!

> I know exactly what you mean, and I often thought these half
> instrumentals/half vocals sometimes came out quite
> comically.
>
> Another thing I remember along the same lines is when B/EZ
> stations had these Ray Conniff-type singers do covers of
> songs originally done by one person. I'm not sure why it was
> done. I actually thought some of them sounded very silly.
> (But in a good kinda way. I'd rather listen to that kind of
> stuff over today's nonsense). It reminded me of hearing a
> church choir sing Andy Williams. LOL Either get one singer
> to do the cover or do it instrumentally; but the "singers"
> versions sounded kinda silly, IMO.
>
> I clearly remember one aired on then beautiful music station
> WEAZ Philadelphia around 1981. It was a cover of "Day By
> Day" done by a group of singers. I have it on aircheck and I
> still listen to it to this day for a chuckle.
>
 
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