Stranger on the Shore

May 1962

Including this one, we've now seen six instrumental tracks on this list so far—can't really call them songs, since nothing's being sung. While it's cool that instrumental music had chart-topping power in those days (it doesn't anymore), only the two from the 50s were any good at all. Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore" marks the fourth instrumental in a row that falls into that sickeningly safe genre that we call "easy listening."



Considering all that, this one really isn't so bad. Behind the sappy string arrangement there does lie a rather nice little tune. Bilk, a British clarinetist, has a pretty unusual approach to the instrument, playing deep tones with a huge vibrato. The song is a little light on substance, though.

To me, this kind of thing sounds like the inevitable conclusion of the "cool" jazz movement, pioneered by, among others, Miles Davis (who quickly abandoned it). Jazz, an incredibly popular genre back in the swing days, had become cerebral and difficult in the 40s, as musicians like Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk eschewed danceability in favor of virtuosic streams of consciousness. In that decade, the music gained an intense following and respect among musicians and serious music listeners, but the masses weren't interested in such complex expression. Cool jazz tried to change that by slowing down the tempos and emphasizing catchy melodies, and while it wasn't necessarily a bad thing at first, it ultimately led to the sort of thing Bilk is doing here. The new, trendy components of cool jazz are here, but the jazz part isn't. It has been lost in the pursuit of accessibility.

If you were to try find the one thing that "killed" jazz, you'd be wrong to point the finger at something like this. The music continued to be vital, and some of its best and most adventurous material was produced in the decade still to come. Think of "Stranger on the Shore" and its ilk as a misguided offshoot. I can't call it good music, but it's not outright offensive like Bert Kaempfert's or Lawrence Welk's contributions. Meh.

C