Top Ten Instrumentals: Buckaroo (#10)

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All that funk, all that rock…and now it’s time for the top ten. And of course we begin with country music. Nowhere else to start but with one of my all-time favorites, so here we go! #10: Buckaroo - Buck Owens and His Buckaroos Hopefully with those outfits, or just by Buck Owens’ reputation, I don’t have to say “Linda? NO!!!” with this one. I’ve mentioned that there were 25 instrumentals to hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts. In the world of country music, where the chart began in 1944 (as opposed to 1955 for the pop chart), there have been a whopping TWO instrumentals to hit #1. They were “Guitar Polka” by Al Dexter in 1946, and this one. That’s pretty stinking amazing, given the number of instrumentals that have been popular in country music history. I guess people really want to hear people crying in their beer, not just music to cry in their beer to! Buck Owens was one hot property in the 60s, even before Hee Haw came on the scene. There was a “battle” of sorts between the smooth, (over)produced “Nashville sound” music and the more traditional country of Bakersfield. (Given that the Hall of Fame is in Nashville, you can look at how long it took for Bakersfield acts to make the Hall of Fame, and how many are still missing, and you can see how Nashville retaliated. ) Owens had a killer band, people who are still considered among the best in the business (like Don Rich, the lead guitarist on this song, or steel guitarist Don Brumley). If you’ve got a great band, why not show it off! That’s common in bluegrass (you’ll see that soon enough ), and it was even common back in the older days of country (listen to some of those radio shows where Hank Williams featured his band, and the live Jim Reeves album where Jim and his band broke into “Wildwood Flower”). Today, not so much. That may explain why there hasn’t been a #1 country instrumental in 60 years. It also shows the uniqueness of this song and its popularity. Buckaroo Written by Bob Morris Recorded by Buck Owens and His Buckaroos From The Instrumental Hits of Buck Owens and His Buckaroos, 1965 Maybe I should have used the video of Hee Haw with the pigs dancing to this song