Weekend Listomania's Greatest Hits: Special The Right Tool for the Job! Edition

[This one dates originally from 2009, a period which, ironically enough, predates my return to actively playing a musical instrument, let alone making alleged music in the company of other people. As is my wont, I've done some editing and re-writing, plus I've added a new entry just for shits and giggles. Please try to enjoy.-- S.S.]

Most Memorable Post-Elvis Song or Record Referencing a Musical Instrument in the Title or Lyrics!!!

No arbitrary rules this time, you're welcome very much. Seriously -- no arbitrary rules. Anything goes as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, actually there IS one arbitrary rule. No "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" or "Squeezebox."

Just because.

And my totally top of my head Top Eight is:

8. The Mothers of Invention -- My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama



Still not much of a Zappa fan, but I've always loved that title, and in any case the song I actually wanted to use in this slot -- "Guitar" by Prince -- isn't on YouTube for obvious reasons.

7. Jimmy Silva and the Goats -- A Tin Whistle and a Wooden Drum



I know very little about Silva except that he was involved with the whole Young Fresh Fellows axis of Northwest coolness and that apparently he died not too long after making the album this particular ecstatically Byrdsian song appears on. The rest of the record's really great, BTW.

6. Tom Waits -- The Piano Has Been Drinking



Waits in '77, toward the end of his initial Beatnik period, and pretty damned funny.

5. The Tokens -- I Hear Trumpets Blow



I must confess to having a soft spot for these guys that goes way beyond "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (get me drunk sometime and I'll bore you with my theory that their gorgeous Carole King-penned "He's in Town" is a major influence on the sound of Springsteen's E-Street Band). This one, one of the very best Brill Building blue collar romantic ballads of the 60s, is another of my real faves.

4. Mike Oldfield -- Tubular Bells



Is it cool to admit liking this again? I've lost track. In any case, Philip Glass and all his subsequent minimalist stuff can frankly bite me.

4. Joni Mitchell -- For Free



A great song about a clarinet player, as unlikely as that sounds. Truly gorgeous, but it has much to answer for, perhaps, when you consider Joni later hired the appalling Tom Scott and the fricking L.A. Express to back her up.

3. The Aliens -- Theremin

A pretty cool tune, even if it doesn't feature the titular instrument. I actually discovered these guys on a MOJO sampler back in the day, and they had a couple of really good songs, although a quick Google search suggests they may currently be toiling at the 21st century equivalent of the car wash.

2. Cheap Trick -- Mandocello



Rick Nielsen's ode to the theoretically obsolete title instrument, and one of the very best songs on their epochal debut album.

And the numero uno "A Tinkling Piano in the Next Room" tune obviously is --

1. Roy Montrell and His Band-- That Mellow Saxophone



This is one of those records that I can't conceive of anybody being able to listen to without smiling. And I do not know this for a fact, but if I were a betting man I'd put serious money down to say that the drummer kicking serious ass on this is the great Earl Palmer.

Alrighty then -- what would your choices be?