Well,Scrump, that's best of british humour. And I like it!! And try to come near to it.
I have had the luck watching the Beatles in Hamburg's Star-Club in 1962 or 1963. Quite a normal band at this time compared to other great artists performing in this club like e.g.Jerry Lee Lewis, Donovan or Emile Ford to which I could listen to.

"pop songs based on non-classical instrumentals" - Would be nice. If you are short in time, take some examples only from this thread to stimulate discussion.

Alec - "The witch", yeah I do remember this song. The Rattles are still active in behalf of special events. A good friend of mine went to school with Reinhard "Dicky" Tarrach who's still playing on the drums.

Greg B - Due to your contribution I just picked out my longplayer "Portrait of Herb Alpert" from 1973 and listen to it. Seems so that on this record he makes a trip through musical history...oops, isn't this a marimba on "Brasilia"? It is.. Other titles to listen to: Monday, Monday, Never on Sunday, Ob La Di, Ob La Da, With a Little Help from My Friends, Third Man Theme, Catch a falling Star, Moon river aso,aso.
Great double-longplayer!
My proposal, Greg: do start a (new?) marimba thread. Could be of some interest,

Manfred