Instrumental - Borderline Cases

Borderline Cases

Some recordings which include brief examples of the human voice are typically considered instrumentals. Examples include singles with the following:

• Short verbal interjections (as in "Tequila" or "Topsy" or "Wipe Out" or "The Hustle")
• Repetitive nonsense words (e.g., "la la..." (as in "Calcutta") or "Woo Hoo");
• A short spoken passage (e.g., "To Live Is to Die" by Metallica);
• Wordless vocal effects, such as drones (e.g., "Rockit" or "Flying");
• Vocal percussion, such as beatbox B-sides on rap singles;
• Yodeling (e.g., "Hocus Pocus");
• Whistling (e.g., "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" or "Colonel Bogey March").
• An ominous statement at the end (e.g., God Bless the Children of the Beast by Mötley Crüe, Cremation by King Diamond)

A few songs categorized as instrumentals may even include actual vocals, if they appear only as a short part of an extended piece (e.g., "Unchained Melody" (Les Baxter) or "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" or "Pick Up the Pieces" or "The Hustle" or "Fly, Robin, Fly" or "Do It Any Way You Wanna" or "Gonna Fly Now" (Bill Conti)). Falling just outside that definition is "Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes.