We've all heard Jim Morrison on Roadhouse Blues, or Robert Plant. But I'm talking about pop harmonica with no roots to the blues. INXS? Nope, that was Charlie Musselwhite. Long Train Runnin? I think that was Norton Buffalo.
I'm talking about songs like: I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues by Elton John Charma Chameleon by Culture Club Don't Follow by Alice in Chains What I Like About You by the Romantics Future's So Bright by Timbuck Three.
That solo on "Boogie On Reggae Woman" has always been one of my absolute favorite bits of harmonica playing. He plays it on a harmonica, but really he's singing through the harp, and there's no way it can be improved upon: it's a perfect sequence of notes, right up there with Little Walter's best. Indelible. The silences are as important as the notes.
And actually, now that I listen to it again after all these years--I actually bought the 45 rpm single in the mid-1980s, and an Ab harp, determined to plumb its mysteries--I hear all his little vocal asides DURING the solo.
Another vote for Stevie, but with this tune instead -- from Songs in the Key of Life -- best listened to with headphones to catch all the detail in the overdubbed harp parts
As 1847 says, Norton B on "Runaway" is top notch. As for Stevie W I´ve never heard anything that could match his solo on "For once in my life" and that was ... 1966 ...?
I don't know what constitutes "best", but Runaround by Blues Traveler is the longest charting single in the history of Billboard. The album has sold over 6 million copies. The song peaked at #8 on the charts.
Boogie On Reggae Woman peaked at #3 for two weeks, I think. It was hard to find the specifics, but it sounds like that album was two times platinum, but I wouldn't bet my life on it.
Karma peaked at #1, and that album went platinum, but like Boogie was hard to find exact numbers, it seems only one time (sold 4 million worldwide, though).
Elton's song peaked at number 4, and that album went platinum, but I can't find an exact number. Obviously, the singles themselves have sold way more as they exist on other records by these artists as well.
In contrast, I can't find anything on sales of the single "Juke" or any album it appeared on. All I could find was that it hit #1 on the Billboard R&B charts. I would be extremely interested in the sales numbers of this song or the albums it has appeared on.
INXS has a tune called Suicide Blond w/ Charlie Musselwhite. Are they pop? they were popular. Charlie has delay or reverb soaked harp on it. ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info- repair videos on YouTube. you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
Some might call this a mountain form of blues harmonica: The Ozark Mountain Daredevils' "If You Want to Get to Heaven." Big hit in 1974. This was one of the songs that caught my ear in the period just before I finally went out and bought my first harp:
I think Sting is one of the contemporary artists who really gets harmonica and understands it past the chugging / blues / noise type of thing. Here's a version of Fragile with Stevie Wonder:
From my perspective, both of these solos are incredible due to the fact that they embrace the melody and feel of the overall song but take deviations, skipping past the melody and using certain notes within it to touch base and keep the whole thing on track.
