10 Incredible Instrumentals That Deserve Your Attention

By Sam Carter /

5. Frank Zappa - Peaches En Regalia

Find it: Hot Rats (1969) There are few musicians as enigmatic or difficult to categorise as Frank Zappa. After growing up with a classical background including the likes of Verèse and Stravinsky, as well as traditional rhythm and blues, he was never easily confined to one genre or style during his lengthy career. Fortunately for his fans, Zappa's mercurial tendencies yielded songs like 'Peaches en Regalia'; a joyous slice of jazz fusion that never fails to thrill with its ever-shifting medley of instruments. It's hard not to be sucked in by the sheer gleefulness of its melody, with an introductory drum fill soon trading blows with an effortless combination of piano and violin. Add to that splashes of flute, saxophone, clarinet, keyboard, and something called an "octave bass", and you're left with a track that's somehow both impressively complex and completely devoid of pretension. Weird, wonderful, inventive, and never willingly conventional; this song showcases everything that continues to make Frank Zappa such a sorely-missed figure in the music industry.