Here's some information about the piece of music I was referring to in "They Played The Horse."
In 1968, songwriter/producer Jesse James wrote a soul song titled "Love is All Right" which was recorded by Cliff Nobles and Company. The horn parts were played by a group of studio musicians who eventually came to be known as MFSB (standing for Mother Father Sister Brother). This group of more than 30 musicians were based at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia and various members backed a GREAT MANY soul and R&B singers. The "and Company" of Cliff Nobles and Company were actually members of this studio group.
Needing a throwaway B-side for the single, the MFSB guitarist Bobby Eli began jamming with other members of the studio musician group and began playing an instrumental only version of "Love is All Right." Why it was titled "The Horse" has apparently been lost to history. It was still credited as being performed by Cliff Nobles and Company but Nobles had no part in the instrumental, by this time it was only "the Company" playing on the record.
The simple but famous baritone sax hook (ba-dump...ba-dump) was played by Mike Terry, who played bari sax on thousands of songs for various Motown artists.
"Love is All Right" was a huge flop. However, DJs, who always seemed to have a better instinct for what would become a hit than record company executives did, flipped the record over and began playing the B-side. It was a massive success.
As it happened with many hit songs of the day, a marching band arrangement was made for it. Schools all over the country bought the arrangement for their marching bands. It was immediately a huge hit with the bands. It was at the perfect tempo for quick, lively marching and had the kind melody that was fairly easy to play and memorize. In the marching band arrangement, all the saxes played that bari sax hook, and believe me, we played the hell out of it.
This was a song that I grew up hearing our school's marching band play at football games when I was growing up. When I got old enough to be in high school band myself (late 1970s-early 80s), we were still playing it, and playing it regularly. When both my kids (sax players also, of course) were in marching band in the late 20-teens, they were still playing it. "The Horse" has become a standard for marching bands in the United States and I don't see it falling out of favor anytime soon.
