Brian Robert Setzer is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In 1987, he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba.
Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes instrumental performance and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental music in rock can be found in practically every subgenre of the style. Instrumental rock was most popular from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, with artists such as Bill Doggett Combo, The Fireballs, The Shadows, The Ventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes and The Spotnicks. Surf music had many instrumental songs. Many instrumental hits had roots from the R&B genre. The Allman Brothers Band feature several instrumentals. Jeff Beck also recorded two instrumental albums in the 1970s. Progressive rock and art rock performers of the late 1960s and early 1970s did many virtuosic instrumental performances.
The Isley Brothers are an American soul group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of the brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, the group has enjoyed one of the "longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music".
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the 1960s. While their popularity in the United States waned in the 1970s, the group remains especially revered in Japan, where they have toured regularly. The classic lineup of the band consisted of Wilson, Bogle, Nokie Edwards, and Mel Taylor (drums).
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play unlimited glissandi and deep vibrati—characteristics it shares with the human voice. Pedal steel is most commonly associated with Country music and Hawaiian music.
The Tennessee Three was the backing band for country and rockabilly singer Johnny Cash for nearly 25 years, providing the unique backing that came to be recognized by fans as "the Johnny Cash sound".
Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. "Homer" Haynes (1920–1971) and Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns (1920–1989), popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs. Known as the Thinking Man's Hillbillies, they received a Grammy Award in 1959 and are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Larry Eugene Carlton is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. One of the most sought after guitarists of his era, Carlton has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres, including more than 100 gold records, as well as for television and movies. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders and the smooth jazz band Fourplay, and has maintained a long solo career.
The Dirty Boogie is the third album from the swing band the Brian Setzer Orchestra. The album is considered as the breakthrough for the band, with their first single being a cover of Louis Prima's "Jump Jive an' Wail", which Prima had made popular in 1956 and included in his album The Wildest!. The release of the single came along after a Gap advertising campaign that featured Prima's original recording of the song. Each helped to propel the larger swing revival throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Seven of the album's tracks are covers of songs written and originally made popular between 1952 and 1962.
The Ventures have released over two hundred fifty albums beginning with Walk Don't Run (1960), and over 150 singles. The original US albums and singles are indicated by their catalog numbers and Billboard (BB) and Cashbox (CB) chart peak positions
Alexander Emil Caiola was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of the biggest names in music during the 20th century, including Elvis Presley, Ray Conniff, Ferrante & Teicher, Frank Sinatra, Percy Faith, Buddy Holly, Mitch Miller, and Tony Bennett.
Rodrigo y Gabriela are a Mexican acoustic guitar duo whose music is influenced by a number of genres including nuevo flamenco, rock, and heavy metal. The duo's recordings consist largely of instrumental duets on the flamenco guitar. Currently residing in Mexico City, they began their career in Dublin, Ireland, during an eight-year stay. They have toured internationally and in 2010, performed at The White House for President Barack Obama. In 2020, their fifth studio album Mettavolution won a Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. Their most recent album, In Between Thoughts…A New World, was released in April 2023.
Sunday Morning is ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro's first full-length solo album. It was released in the U.S. in October 2002 by Four Strings Productions / Hitchhike Records. The album was released in Japan the following year on August 12, 2003 by Sony Music Distribution.
Billy Wayne "Crash" Craddock is an American country and rockabilly singer. He first gained popularity in Australia in the 1950s with a string of rockabilly hits, including the Australian number one hits "Boom Boom Baby" and "One Last Kiss" in 1960 and 1961 respectively. Switching to country music, he gained popularity in the United States in the 1970s with a string of top ten country hits, several of which were number one hits, including "Rub It In", "Broken Down in Tiny Pieces", and "Ruby Baby". Craddock is known to his fans as "The King Of Country Rock Music" and "Mr. Country Rock" for his uptempo rock-influenced style of country music.
Robert George Porter was an Australian country and pop-rock musician, producer and record label owner.
"Sleep Walk" is an instrumental song written, recorded, and released in 1959 by American instrumental rock and roll duo Santo & Johnny Farina, with their uncle Mike Dee playing the drums. Prominently featuring steel guitar, the song was recorded at Trinity Music in Manhattan, New York City. "Sleep Walk" entered Billboard's Top 40 on August 17, 1959. It rose to the number 1 position for the last two weeks in September and remained in the Top 40 until November 9. "Sleep Walk" also reached number 4 on the R&B chart. It was the last instrumental to hit number 1 in the 1950s and earned a gold record for Santo and Johnny. In Canada, the song reached number 3 in the CHUM Charts. In the UK it peaked at number 22 on the charts.
"Beyond The Reef" is a song written by Canadian Jack Pitman in Hawaii in 1948. It was first performed by Hawaiian artist Napua Stevens in 1949.
Santo & Johnny is the debut album by the homonymous duo, released in 1959. The album includes the duo's best known instrumental, "Sleep Walk".
Ike & Tina Turner’s Kings of Rhythm Dance is an instrumental album by the Kings of Rhythm released on Sue Records in 1962.
