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n 1973, England's multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield released Tubular Bells, a two part instrumental piece which introduced themes and developed them in a classical style. Oldfield played most of the instruments himself, multi-tracking them, which was something of a rarity at the time. He convinced Richard Branson to make Tubular Bells, not regarded as traditional pop fare, the debut album of Branson's new record label Virgin Records. The album was a huge commercial success, establishing Mike Oldfield and securing the future for Virgin Records. The album spent 279 weeks on the charts and is amongst the best selling albums in the UK.

The music was later used in the 1974 film The Exorcist for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. The follow up Hergest Ridge went to No.1 in the UK, but was dislodged from the top spot by a re-emergent Tubular Bells.

1. Part One
2. Part Two