Jazz Crossovers to the Pop Charts/Timeless Classic

Chuck Mangione - Feels So Good
Spyrogyra - Morning Dance
Henry Mancini - Theme From The Pink Panther

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by Joe Zawinal - covered by the EasyBeats in the early 60's and by many others since.

I'll answer your question a little differently. The last jazz artist to have a #1 record on the pop charts was Louis Armstrong. Though the song, Hello Dolly, wasn't jazz. The year was something around 1964, if my memory serves me correctly.

Chuck Mangione never achieved #1, but he made a pretty big hit out of his "Feels So Good" album (around 1977 or 78?). I guess the bottom line is that it's been a very long time since anyone associated with jazz has made a move on the pop charts.

These two examples come to mind:

Duke Ellington used two minute thirty second hits like Satin Doll and Take the A Train to,in effect,subsidize more entended works that did not get air play.

Nat Cole was an excellent jazz pianist who had hits singing as Nat King Cole.

I believe that Ray Charles' ability to blend genres pretty much makes him beyond classification (though if pressed I might go with soul or ORIGINAL R&B). Anyways, not sure how far it made it in the pop realm, but his "One Mint Julep" is classic.

The song The Sidewinder by the late great Lee Morgan became a pop hit and was used on a car commercial around the middle sixties. The Blue Note album sold a great amount for a jazz album and was one of Blue Notes' best selling disks of all times.

As Ferrari mentioned (several years ago), " Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond title is "Take Five" Recorded in 1959 and has never gone out of style".

Agreed, Take Five is and will remain an undisputed classic. This is the sort of music that truly has become "classical" in its own right.

And, for an interesting and tasty example of contemporary interpretation of previous art, check out the song "Rose Rouge" by French musician St. Germain, from his album "Tourist". Sound familiar? Give it a few minutes to develop - about half-way in, it gets into what Jazz is all about (IMO): Taking one idea and building on it to create another through inspiration and interpretation. Here's a YouTube clip, but it pales in comparison to the real album version's sound quality and artistry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkegKN-VZBg

Killer Joe by The Jazztet comes to mind quickly

George Benson "On Broadway"

I have all of the above in my collection, and consider them tops. Sorry I can't add to the list at the moment.

Vince Guaraldi Cast Your Fate to the Wind and all of the Charlie Brown stuff he did

Grover Washington Jr. Just the Two of Us off the Winelight album

Herb Albert charted with RISE back in the day and George Benson also charted with Breezin.