My Favorite One Hit Wonders of the 60s: Mexico (#6)

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The heat really got to a lot of players today, but the APA champion won it yesterday with his lead and just built on it today. The pro side was a thriller, with a one-shot victory! But this is about music, not Putt Putt. Here's another one of my favorite one-hit wonder songs from the 60s. #6: Mexico - Bob Moore First, this isn't the "Mexico" that James Taylor did. This is a bouncy instrumental with lots of trumpets. And secondly, you've heard Bob Moore. I guaran-dang-tee it. Have you ever heard "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton? Or "Coal Miner's Daughter" by Loretta Lynn? Or "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley? Then you've heard Bob Moore. The most recorded bass player in history, with over 17,000 sessions to his credit, Bob Moore, as part of Nashville's legendary "A Team" of session musicians (along with Buddy Harman on drums, Floyd Cramer on piano, and usually Chet Atkins on guitar or as the producer), backed the legendary singers in country and rock (he played with Elvis and Roy Orbison, for instance) in the 50s through the 80s. So what's a world-renown, Musicians' Hall of Fame bass player doing recording a song with trumpets? Beats me. But in 1961 Moore, who was a music executive at Monument Records (founded by 2016 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Fred Foster), recorded this song, written by the legendary Boudleaux Bryant (the guy who co-wrote several Everly Brothers songs and "Rocky Top," among countless others). It was a runaway hit, reaching the pop top ten. And, although Bob Moore has been on the Billboard top ten list countless times as a session musician, this was his only trip to the top 40 under his own name. A couple of years ago Moore told me that Homer & Jethro teased him mercilessly about this song. They joked on a live album that it would "serve him right" if he had to appear on American Bandstand and pantomime this song -- "an instrumental!" Moore said they asked if he played two trumpets simultaneously by playing one with his lips and blowing the other one out his backside (no, he didn't say it that politely). That's a great and funny story that I think about whenever this classic instrumental, which I still have my parents' 45 of (the B-side was called "Hot Spot," if you're wondering), that served as the only time Bob Moore stepped out into the forefront to score a hit. Mexico Written by Boudleaux Bryant Recorded by Bob Moore Released as a single, 1961 Here's the great instrumental "Mexico":