3 Acoustic Singles From Historically Electric Artists and Bands

Very few genres utilize only acoustic instruments. As a matter of fact, the only ones that come to mind are bluegrass, traditional and Celtic folk, and Indigenous music. However, even in those genres, a few names have broken that rule of tradition on numerous occasions. A far less purist genre to utilize acoustic instruments is rock ‘n’ roll. It doesn’t happen incredibly often, but acoustic songs in rock ‘n’ roll stick out like a pleasant yet sore thumb.

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As we all know, most rock ‘n’ rollers love to plug in, turn up, and blast the audience out of their shoes. However, on several occasions, they’ve chosen to take a different approach by creating solely acoustic tracks. With that in mind, here are three acoustic singles from historically electric artists and bands.

“The Truth” by Prince

When you take away Prince‘s most valuable physical asset, his electric guitar, one might believe that Prince would produce a less-than-desirable product. Well, that is not true in the slightest, as Prince can do it all, and his acoustic track “The Truth” is a testament to just that.

Released in 1998, “The Truth” resides on Prince’s acoustic album of the same name. This single features Prince, his acoustic guitar, and his sprawling yet calculated imagination. Blues, R&B, and funk are what come out in this single, and he accomplishes the embodiment of those genres through one tone. Which, might we add, is rather difficult to do.

“Bron-Yr-Aur” by Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin‘s surface-level MO is producing hard, heavy, and soothingly violent sounds. They are quite capable of doing more than that and have proved that on several occasions, and they did it on their 1975 acoustic instrumental track “Bron-Yr-Aur”.

In relation to the rest of their catalog, “Bron-Yr-Aur” seems like the band just needed one more single for their album, but didn’t have a song written. So, they just let Jimmy Page run rampant and create a spell-binding acoustic piece that puts one in a trance.

“Blue, Red and Grey” by The Who

If you listened to this song without the knowledge of who it’s by, then we bet that you would have no idea who it’s by. That is just how much “Blue, Red and Grey” starkly contrasts the rest of The Who‘s electric instrument-saturated catalog.

Featuring Pete Townshend on vocals and acoustic ukulele, and accompanying musicians on brass instruments, this single is truly the most unique single in The Who’s book of music. We might be wrong, but there is seemingly no other song The Who has created that even comes close to touching the distinctiveness of this single.

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