"Java" is an instrumental adaptation from a 1958 LP of piano compositions, ''The Wild Sounds of New Orleans'', by Tousan, also known as

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

producer/songwriter

Allen Toussaint Allen Richard Toussaint (; January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer. He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, descr ...

. As was the case of the rest of Toussaint's LP, "Java" was composed in studio, primarily by Toussaint. The first charting version, although it fell just short of the U.S. Top 40, was done by

Floyd Cramer Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American pianist who became famous for his use of melodic "whole-step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signatur ...

in 1962. In 1963, trumpet player

Al Hirt Alois Maxwell "Al" Hirt (November 7, 1922 – April 27, 1999) was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million-selling recordings of "Java (instrumental), Java" and the accompanying album ''Honey in the Horn (album ...

recorded the instrumental, and the track was the first single from his album ''

Honey in the Horn ''Honey in the Horn'' is a 1935 in literature, 1935 debut novel by Harold L. Davis. The novel received the Harper Prize for best first novel of 1935 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1936. The title of the book is from a line in a squ ...

''. It was Hirt's first and biggest hit on the US pop charts, reaching #4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on February 29, 1964 and spending four weeks at #1 on the

easy listening chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary music, adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on ...

in early 1964. The song was also featured on his greatest hits album, ''

The Best of Al Hirt ''The Best of Al Hirt'' is a compilation album by Al Hirt released by RCA Victor in 1965. The album peaked at No. 13 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart.Live at Carnegie Hall Live at Carnegie Hall may refer to: *''Live at Carnegie Hall 1963'', Bob Dylan's six-song live set *Live at Carnegie Hall (Al Hirt album), ''Live at Carnegie Hall'' (Al Hirt album), a 1965 live album *Live at Carnegie Hall – 1969, a live album by ...

''. He also recorded "Java" with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops for the RCA Red Seal album ''Pops Goes the Trumpet (Holiday for Brass)'' in 1964. Hirt's recording won the

Grammy Award for Best Performance by an Orchestra or Instrumentalist with Orchestra The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

;Floyd Cramer ;Al Hirt

Later uses

"Java" was used as the closing theme for ''

Vision On ''Vision On'' was a British children's television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1976 and designed specifically for children with hearing impairment. Concept and production ''Vision On'' was conceived and developed by BBC producers Ursu ...

'', a British children's television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1976, with Hirt's version featured until the early 70's, and

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born ; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the music for a number of well-kno ...

's rendering used thereafter. The Soviet gymnast

Olga Korbut Olga Valentinovna Korbut (born 16 May 1955) is a Belarusian retired gymnastics, gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the "Old World sparrow, Sparrow from Minsk", she won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olymp ...

performed her gold medal-winning floor routine at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

in Munich to a live piano version condensed to about 1 minute 9 seconds. Henson Alternative and ''

The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a variety sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. It is presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers interspersed with ongoing plot-lines with ru ...

'' featured "Java" at the beginning of episode 22, as accompaniment for a dance by two tube-like creatures. The bigger creature constantly stomped the smaller one flat and pushed it away, only for the smaller one to blast it off the stage as the piece ended.

The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...

performed "Java" on Al Hirt's ''Fanfare '' on July 31, 1965, and twice on ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CB ...

'' on November 27, 1966, and May 26, 1968. An arrangement of "Java" was used in the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

game ''Jumpin' Jack'' in 1983.

Cover versions

Hugo Winterhalter Hugo Winterhalter (August 15, 1909 – September 17, 1973) was an American easy listening arranger and composer, best known for his many arrangements and recordings for RCA Victor. Biography Hugo Ferdinand Winterhalter was born in Wilkes-Barre, ...

covered it on his ''Best of '64'' album in 1964. The Angels, in 1965 as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

to the song "Little Beatle Boy".

Bobby Hackett Robert Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was a versatile American jazz musician who played swing music, Dixieland jazz and mood music, now called easy listening, on trumpet, cornet, and guitar. He played Swing with the bands ...

, on the 1965 album ''Trumpet's Greatest Hits''.

The Beautiful South The Beautiful South were an English pop rock group formed in 1988 by Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway, two former members of the Kingston upon Hull, Hull group the Housemartins, both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. Other members stayin ...

, in 1994, releasing it as a B-side to " One Last Love Song". Despite being a band with three vocalists, this was an instrumental version. They also performed the track live, often ending gigs with it, with the vocalists playing handheld percussion instruments or bouncing round the stage on giant

space hopper A space hopper (also known as a moon hopper, skippyball, kangaroo ball, bouncer, hippity hop, hoppity hop, sit and bounce, or hop ball) is a rubber ball (similar to an exercise ball) with handles that allow one to sit on it without falling off ...

References

External links

* (Al Hirt) {{DEFAULTSORT:Java (composition) 1958 songs 1958 singles Songs written by Allen Toussaint Al Hirt songs The Angels (American group) songs Song recordings produced by Chet Atkins 1964 debut singles Pop instrumentals RCA Victor singles 1950s instrumentals