One of the many ways the popular music landscape looked different in the early rock era is that instrumentals frequently became big hits. Thirty-three wordless tunes made Billboard’s Top 40 in the decade beginning with 1955, according to Goldmine magazine, while only 10 made the list in the 30 years between 1975 and 2004.
No one is quite sure why songs without vocals largely fell off the charts after the early 1960s. As Goldmine suggests in a fascinating two-part series on this phenomenon, however, one factor must be the extent to which lyrics became more important after acts such as the Beatles and Bob Dylan emerged. Before that, singers frequently delivered lines that were cliched, silly or formulaic.
You don’t have to endure such lyrics while listening to Instrumental Hits of the Rock ’n’ Roll Era 1957–62. As its cover proclaims, this three-CD set delivers “just about all” the instrumentals that made the Top 10 in the U.S. pop and R&B charts and the U.K. charts during rock ’n’ roll’s early years, “plus a few bonus curios.”
Duane Eddy in 1960
The album’s title, while accurate, can be misleading: though all the songs from the Nov. 7, 2025 release do indeed come from the rock era, they are most certainly not all rock. As the cover blurb indicates, some qualify as pop or R&B, and there are also jazz and novelty tracks, as well as orchestrated movie themes and easy-listening numbers. The program offers a varied and uneven listening experience, embracing everything from seminal rockers such as Link Wray’s “Rumble” to Lawrence Welk’s Muzak-ready Sominex substitute, “Calcutta.”
Much of this 86-track collection is excellent, however. Among the many standouts are “Rebel Rouser” and three other numbers by rock guitarist Duane Eddy, who scored 15 Top 40 hits during this era; the Tornados’ international smash, “Telstar,” which famed producer Joe Meek composed; and two sublime tracks from Britain’s trad jazz movement, “Stranger on the Shore,” a chart-topper by clarinetist Mr. Acker Bilk, and “Petite Fleur,” by trombonist Chris Barber.
Other highlights include Santo and Johnny’s steel-guitar showcase, “Sleepwalk,” which made it to #1; “Walk—Don’t Run,” the first and arguably best hit by the rock and roll group the Ventures; and four U.K. chart-toppers by Cliff Richard’s backing group, the Shadows, which had a whopping 24 Top 40 hits in England despite attracting virtually no attention in the U.S.
The collection is available in the U.S./worldwide here and in Canada here.
Burger wrote one of the first interview-based profiles of Bruce Springsteen to be published in a national magazine. He has interviewed many other music-world luminaries as well, including Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tom Waits, Foreigner’s Mick Jones, Billy Joel, Steve Forbert, Tommy James, the Righteous Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, Deep Purple’s Tommy Bolin, and members of Steely Dan and the Marshall Tucker Band. He has also interviewed many other public figures, such as Suze Orman, Daymond John, James Carville, Donald Trump, Sir Richard Branson, F. Lee Bailey, and Cliff Robertson.
His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters, all of which are published in the U.S. and Canada by Chicago Review Press. The books have been republished in numerous other countries.
Burger has been the editor of several periodicals, including Business Jet Traveler, from which he retired in 2024. During his 20 years at that
publication, it received more than 120 major editorial awards, including multiple wins for the world’s Best Consumer Travel Magazine in the annual Folio:Eddie competition.
Burger lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey. His wife, Madeleine Beresford, is a puppeteer and former preschool director and teacher. The couple have two grown children.
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