Bill Justis - More Instrumental Hits

After saxophonist, arranger and producer Bill Justis's heady days at Sun Records, where he recorded the hit Raunchy and produced sessions by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, he moved on to the Mercury subsidiary Smash Records. There Justis recorded a series of instrumental cover albums that began in 1962 with Bill Justis Plays 12 Big Instrumental Hits. (For more info on that LP and a few details of Justis's career take a look at this previous post.)

These albums, featuring versions of the top pop and rock instrumentals of the day, were designed to compete with similar LPs being put out by The Ventures. Most of Justis's arrangements followed those of the original hits pretty closely, as is the case in the cover of Al Hirt's chart success, Java. This comes from More Instrumental Hits (1965), not the second in the series as one might surmise from the title, but the seventh (there were at least eight).

Java



Most of Bill Justis's Sun recordings have made their way into the digital domain, on CD and as downloads. But none of his Smash albums appear to be legally available. Still, used copies of the LPs turn up frequently online and somewhat less often in thrift store bins.

Justis did have a No. 1 hit while with Smash, but in Australia, not in the U.S. Tamouré, with a pseudo-Tahitian flavour to it, was also a Top 10 record on WLS in Chicago, but nationally it just bubbled under the Hot 100 in 1963. Strangely the song was never included on a Justis LP.

Sue Instrumentals (1959-1967): The Beat Is On

In 1987 EMI, which owned the catalogue of the R&B and jazz label Sue, issued

Sue Instrumentals (1959-1967): The Beat Is On as part of its Treasury series of releases.

Amazingly this compilation was issued only on vinyl and cassette and not on CD. Strange indeed, considering that the CD was a well-established format by 1987.

In any case this album was a treasure trove for lovers of instrumentals, with tracks by both well-known names (Bill Doggett, Jimmy McGriff, Ike Turner) and some lesser-known artists (Hank Jacobs, The Duals, The Commandos).

Sue Records was founded in New York by Juggy Murray. The company, which billed itself as "The Sound of Soul," was at its peak between 1959 and 1962 with hits by Jimmy McGriff, Baby Washington and Ike and Tina Turner.

Ike Turner had a pair of of tracks on the Sue Instrumentals album, including Going Home. The MP3 is taken from a cassette copy of the album.

Going Home

Going Home was included on a 2000 CD released by the British Ace Records label.

Ike's Instrumentals contained a generous 22 tracks and is still available online at a reasonable price.

Neither Ike's Instrumentals or the earlier Sue Instrumentals appear to be available as downloads. Getting hold of a vinyl copy of Sue Instrumentals would probably prove to be difficult and expensive.

Here's another great Ike Turner instrumental from YouTube. The Groove is also on the Ike's Instrumentals CD.