Our featured song today at the Music Box comes from a gentleman known for his twangy-guitar ... Duane Eddy. Born in Corning, New York in 1938, Duane began playing the guitar at the age of five. At 16, he formed a duo, Jimmy & Duane, with Jimmy Delbridge. While performing at an Arizona radio station, they met disc jockey Lee Hazlewood, who produced the duos first single Soda Fountain Girl, in 1955. Duane devised a technique of playing lead on his guitars bass strings to produce a low reverberant twangy sound. In 1957, Delbridge began a solo career as Jimmy Dell. Eddy & Hazlewood formed a business partnership, which saw Hazlewood purchase a 2,000 gallon water storage tank, which he used as an echo chamber to accentuate the twangy sound of Eddys guitar. Following a 1958 mid-level hit, the pair hit later that year with Rebel-Rouser, which featured the Rivingtons performing the rebel yells and the handclapping. A string of hits continued over the next four years, which brings us to our featured song today ... (Dance With The) Guitar Man, was written, by Eddy & Hazlewood, arranged by Anita Kerr, recorded at RCAs Nashville Sound Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, produced by Hazlewood, and released September 15th, 1962. The single reached #12 on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100, becoming Duanes final Top 20 hit ... it also peaked at #4 in the United Kingdom.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 12:36:34 +0000