Duane Eddy (April 26, 1938 – April 30, 2024) was an American 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" guitar sound, including "Rebel-'Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young". He had sold 12 million records by 1963. His guitar style influenced the Ventures, the Shadows, the Beatles (particularly lead guitarist George Harrison), Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, and Marty Stuart.
Eddy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008.
Eddy was born in Corning, New York, on April 26, 1938. His parents were Lloyd and Alberta (née Granger) Eddy. Eddy's father drove a bread truck and later became the manager of a grocery store. He began playing the guitar at the age of five, after hearing the cowboy singer Gene Autry. In 1950, at the age of 12, Eddy made his first on-air radio appearance when he performed "The Missouri Waltz" on a station in Hornell, New York.
In 1951, his family moved to Tucson, and then to Coolidge, Arizona. He formed a duo, Jimmy and Duane, with his friend Jimmy Delbridge, who later recorded as Jimmy Dell. Eddy left school at 16 and played in local bars.
1950s-60s: Career rise and peak
In 1957, Eddy had a weekly showcase on radio station KCKY and then a slot on a weekly hit parade television show in Phoenix, where he met Arizona-based disc jockey, songwriter and music publisher Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood produced the duo's single, "Soda Fountain Girl", recorded and released in 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona. They performed and appeared on radio stations in Phoenix and joined Buddy Long's Western Melody Boys, playing country music in and around the city.
Eddy was not happy with his singing voice, and he devised a technique of playing lead lines on his guitar's bass strings to produce a low, reverberant "twangy" sound instead. At the age of 19, he had acquired a 1957 Chet Atkins model Gretsch 6120 guitar from Ziggie's Music in Phoenix, and in November 1957, he recorded an instrumental piece, "Movin' n' Groovin'", which he co-wrote with Hazlewood. His backing band included saxophonist Steve Douglas, pianist Larry Knechtel, and bassist Al Casey. As the Phoenix studio had no echo chamber, Hazlewood bought a 2,000-gallon (7570-litre) water storage tank to use as an echo chamber to accentuate the "twangy" guitar sound. In 1958, Eddy signed a recording contract with Lester Sill and Hazlewood to record in Phoenix at the Audio Recorders studio. Sill and Hazlewood leased the tapes of all their singles and albums to the Philadelphia-based Jamie Records.
"Movin' n' Groovin'" reached number 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1958. The opening riff, borrowed from Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", was in turn copied a few years later by the Beach Boys on "Surfin' U.S.A." The follow-up, "Rebel-'Rouser", featured a saxophone overdubbed by Los Angeles session musician Gil Bernal, and yells and handclaps by doo-wop group the Rivingtons. This became Eddy's breakthrough hit, reaching number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It sold over one million copies, earning him his first gold disc.
Eddy had a succession of hit records over the next few years. His band members, including saxophonists Steve Douglas and Jim Horn, and keyboard player Larry Knechtel, were later members of Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew. According to writer Richie Unterberger, "The singles, of which '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."
On January 9, 1958, Eddy's debut album, Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel, was released. It reached number five on the album chart and remained there for 82 weeks. Duane Eddy and the Rebels appeared six times on The Dick Clark Show between 1958 and 1960. On Eddy's fourth album, Songs of Our Heritage (1960), each track featured him playing acoustic guitar or banjo. His biggest hit came with the theme of the movie Because They're Young in 1960, which featured a string arrangement. It reached a chart peak of number four in America and number two in the UK in September 1960, and became his second million-selling disc. Eddy's records were consistently 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, which 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.
In the 1960s, Eddy launched an acting career, appearing in such films as Because They're Young, A Thunder of Drums, The Wild Westerners, Kona Coast, and The Savage Seven. In 1961, he signed a three-year contract with Paul Anka's production company, Camy, whose recordings were issued by RCA Victor. 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, sold a million copies and earned his third gold disc. Also in 1962, Eddy recorded "The Ballad of Paladin", the instrumental theme song to the western television series Have Gun – Will Travel, in which Eddy also acted in two episodes. Eddy had sold 12 million records by 1963. In 1965, he released an album of instrumental versions of Bob Dylan songs.
1970s-80s: Solo decline, focus on production, and comeback
In the 1970s, Eddy produced songs for Phil Everly and Waylon Jennings. In 1972, he worked as lead guitarist, alongside rhythm guitarist Al Gorgoni, on BJ Thomas's "Rock and Roll Lullaby". In 1975 a collaboration with hit songwriter Tony Macaulay and former founding member of The Seekers, Keith Potger, led to another UK top 10 record, "Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar", featuring a female vocal group. Eddy performed on the BBC television show "Top of the Pops" while promoting the single. A recording of "You Are My Sunshine", featuring Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Eddy's third wife Deed, appeared in the country charts in 1977.
In 1982, Eddy's "Rebel Walk" was heard in the musical comedy Grease 2 as background music at the bowling alley. It was not part of the original soundtrack, but was mentioned in the film's credits.
In 1986, Eddy collaborated with Art of Noise on a new recording of his 1960 version of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn". It 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.
The following year, the album Duane Eddy was released on Capitol. Several of the tracks were produced by Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, Ry Cooder and Art of Noise. Guest 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 1992, Eddy recorded a duet with Hank Marvin for Marvin's album Into the Light, a cover version of The Chantays' 1963 hit "Pipeline".