Duane Eddy (born April 26, 1938)[2] is an American rock and roll guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel-'Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young".[3] He had sold 12 million records by 1963.[2]
Eddy was born in Corning, New York. He began playing the guitar at the age of five. In 1951, his family moved to Tucson, and then to Coolidge, Arizona.[2] At the age of 16 he formed a duo, Jimmy and Duane, with his friend Jimmy Delbridge (who later recorded as Jimmy Dell).[6]
Career
Eddy in 1960
While performing at local radio station KCKY, they met disc jockey Lee Hazlewood, who produced the duo's single, "Soda Fountain Girl", recorded and released in 1955 in Phoenix. Hazlewood then produced Sanford Clark's 1956 hit, "The Fool", featuring guitarist Al Casey, while Eddy and Delbridge performed and appeared on radio stations in Phoenix before joining Buddy Long's Western Melody Boys, playing country music in and around the city.[7][8][9]
Eddy devised a technique of playing lead on his guitar's bass strings to produce a low, reverberant "twangy" sound. When he was 19 he had obtained a 1957 Chet Atkins model Gretsch 6120 guitar at Ziggie's Music in Phoenix, Arizona[citation needed] and in November 1957, Eddy recorded an instrumental, "Movin' n' Groovin'", co-written by Eddy and Hazlewood. As the Phoenix studio had no echo chamber, Hazlewood bought a 2,000-gallon (7570-litre) water storage tank that he used as an echo chamber to accentuate the "twangy" guitar sound.[10] In 1958, Eddy signed a recording contract with Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood to record in Phoenix at the Audio Recorders studio. Sill and Hazlewood leased the tapes of all the singles and albums to the Philadelphia-based Jamie Records.
Eddy had a succession of hit records over the next few years, and his band members, including Steve Douglas, saxophonist Jim Horn, and keyboard player Larry Knechtel went on to work as part of Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew.[12] According to writer Richie Unterberger, "The singles— 'Peter Gunn', 'Cannonball', 'Shazam', and 'Forty Miles of Bad Road' were probably the best— also did their part to help keep the raunchy spirit of rock and roll alive, during a time in which it was in danger of being watered down."[3] On January 9, 1958, Eddy's debut album, Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel, was released, reaching number five, and remaining on the album charts for 82 weeks. On his fourth album, Songs of Our Heritage (1960), each track featured him playing acoustic guitar or banjo.[13] Eddy's biggest hit came with the theme of the movie Because They're Young in 1960,[2] which featured a string arrangement, and reached a chart peak of number four in America and number two in the UK in September 1960.[3][14] It became his second million-selling disc.[2] Eddy's records were consistently even more successful in the UK than they were in his native United States, and in 1960, readers of the UK's NME voted him World's Number One Musical Personality, ousting Elvis Presley.
In 1960, Eddy signed a contract directly with Jamie Records, bypassing Sill and Hazlewood. This caused a temporary rift between Eddy and Hazlewood. The result was that for the duration of his contract with Jamie, Eddy produced his own singles and albums.
During the 1960s, Eddy launched an acting career, appearing in such films as A Thunder of Drums, The Wild Westerners, Kona Coast, and The Savage Seven, and two appearances on the television series Have Gun – Will Travel.[2] He married singer Jessi Colter in 1961, the same year he signed a three-year contract with Paul Anka's production company, Camy, whose recordings were issued by RCA Victor.[3] In the early days of recording in the RCA Victor studios, he renewed contact with Lee Hazlewood, who became involved in a number of his RCA Victor singles and albums. Eddy's 1962 single release, "(Dance With The) Guitar Man", co-written with Hazlewood, earned his third gold disc by selling a million records.[2]
In 1986, Eddy recorded with Art of Noise, remaking his 1960 version of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn".[3] The song was a top-10 hit around the world, ranking number one on Rolling Stone's dance chart for six weeks that summer. "Peter Gunn" won the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental of 1986. It also gave Eddy the distinction of being the only instrumentalist to have had top-10 hit singles in four different decades in the UK.[citation needed] (Although his 1975 top-10 hit featured a female vocal group).
The following year, Duane Eddy was released on Capitol. Several of the tracks were produced by Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, Ry Cooder, and Art of Noise.[3] Guest artists and musicians included John Fogerty, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ry Cooder, James Burton, David Lindley, Phil Pickett, Steve Cropper, and original Rebels, Larry Knechtel and Jim Horn. The album included a cover of Paul McCartney's 1979 instrumental, "Rockestra Theme". In 1982, Duane Eddy's "Rebel Walk" was heard in the musical comedy, Grease 2, featured as background music at the bowling alley, when the T-Birds rushed to face rival Leo Balmudo. Though it was not a part of the original soundtrack, it was mentioned in the film's credits. In 1992, Eddy recorded a duet with Hank Marvin on Marvin's album Into the Light, with a cover version of The Chantays' 1963 hit "Pipeline".
In October 2010, Eddy returned to the UK at a sold-out Royal Festival Hall in London. This success prompted the subsequent album for Mad Monkey/EMI, which was produced by Richard Hawley in Sheffield, England.[17] The album, Road Trip, was released on June 20, 2011. Mojo placed the album at number 37 on its list of "Top 50 albums of 2011."[18] Eddy performed at the Glastonbury Festival on June 26, 2011.[17]
For an 80th-birthday tour in 2018, Eddy returned to the UK in concerts with Liverpudlian singer-songwriter Robert Vincent, performing on October 23 at the London Palladium,[19] and October 30 at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.[20]
On April 5, 2000, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, the title "Titan of Twang" was bestowed upon Eddy by the mayor.
In 2004, Eddy was presented with the Guitar Player Magazine "Legend Award". Eddy was the second recipient of the award, the first being presented to Les Paul.
Eddy was the first rock and roll guitarist to have a signature model guitar [citation needed], as in 1961 the Guild Guitar Company introduced the Duane Eddy signature models DE-400 and the deluxe DE-500. A limited edition of the DE-500 model was reissued briefly in 1983 to mark Eddy's 25th anniversary in the recording industry. In 1997, 40 years after he had bought his Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120, Gretsch started production of the Duane Eddy Signature Model, the Gretsch 6120-DE. In 2004, the Gibson Custom Art and Historic Division introduced the new Duane Eddy Signature Gibson guitar. A new Gretsch G6120DE Duane Eddy Signature model was released in spring 2011 and in 2018 Gretsch released the G6120TB-DE Duane Eddy 6-string bass model.[citation needed]
Original album covers were white with Duane Eddy sitting on guitar case and the LP title in white. Second pressings showed the same cover with the LP title in green and red; third pressings were red album covers with Duane Eddy standing. Note: It is very likely that so-called "original" version white letter covers do not exist.
The ' Have Guitar ' phrase was satirised in 1959 by 'The Stanley Johnson Orchestra ', who released the US lp ' Have Harp, can't Travel ', (Liberty Records LST7118).
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Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel is the debut album by the guitarist Duane Eddy. It was released in 1958 on Jamie Records, as JLP-3000. There were five charting singles and a B-side of an additional charting single taken from this album.
"Rock and Roll Lullaby" is a 1972 hit single performed by B. J. Thomas. It was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
"Forty Miles of Bad Road" is a rock and roll instrumental recorded by Duane Eddy. Released as a single in 1959, it also appeared on Eddy's 1960 album $1,000,000 Worth of Twang.
"Rebel-'Rouser" is a rock and roll instrumental song written by Duane Eddy and Lee Hazlewood and originally released on Jamie Records in 1958 by "Duane Eddy and his 'twangy' guitar" as a single with "Stalkin'" on its B-side. Both tracks were produced by Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood.
"Because They're Young" is an instrumental performed by Duane Eddy. It appeared on his 1960 album, $1,000,000 Worth of Twang.
"Cannonball" is a song written by Duane Eddy and Lee Hazlewood and performed by Eddy. It reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100, #22 on the R&B chart, #2 on the UK Singles Chart in 1958. and appeared on his 1958 album, Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel.
"Ramrod" is a song written by Al Casey and originally released as the A-side of a single released by the obscure Ford record label in Los Angeles in 1957, backed on its B-side by the Duke Ellington/Juan Tizol/Irving Mills song "Caravan". Al Casey actually plays lead guitar on both sides of this release, but the record was credited to "Duane Eddy and the Rock-A-Billies". The original recording of "Ramrod" was overdubbed on July 28, 1958 with Plas Johnson's saxophone and "rebel yells" were also added by the Sharps for the song's second release on Jamie Records in August 1958, now with the song "The Walker" on its B-side and this release reached #17 on the R&B chart and #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958. The song later also appeared on Duane Eddy's 1958 album, Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel.
"Some Kind-a Earthquake" is a song written by Duane Eddy and Lee Hazlewood and performed by Eddy. The song reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart and #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The song appeared on his 1960 album, $1,000,000.00 Worth of Twang.
"Kommotion" is a song written by Duane Eddy and Lee Hazlewood and performed by Eddy. The song reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart and #78 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. The song appeared on his 1960 album, $1,000,000.00 Worth of Twang.
Donnie Owens was an American singer, guitarist, producer, and composer. His hit song “Need You” peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958. Owens worked extensively with artist/songwriter/producer Lee Hazlewood and worked as an executive producer for LHI Records. He was a session musician and played the rhythm guitar for Duane Eddy, Nancy Sinatra, Elvis Presley and many others. In 1994, Owens was accidentally shot to death by his girlfriend.
$1,000,000 Worth of Twang is a compilation album by guitarist Duane Eddy.
The "Twangs" the "Thang" is a studio album by guitarist Duane Eddy. It was released in 1959 on Jamie Records. It entered Billboard magazine's pop album chart on January 25, 1960, peaked at No. 18, and remained on the chart for 13 weeks. It was one of only three Duane Eddy albums to enter the Top 20. It fared better in the UK, reaching No 2 in the album charts and staying in the top 10 for 12 weeks. AllMusic gave the album a rating of two stars.
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