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‘King of the Surf Guitar’ Dick Dale was born Richard Monsour in Boston, Massachusetts in 1937. Dale learned to play drums, ukulele and trumpet before taking up the guitar, inspired by country music. His first break in music was winning an Elvis Presley soundalike contest. Dale began playing guitar in clubs, solo at first, but later ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Characterized by twangy, reverberation-soaked guitars; percussive instrumentals designed to simulate the effect of crashing waves; vocal harmonies underscored by a soaring falsetto – surf music was perfectly suited to an early 1960s pop scene of escapism and innocent fun and was to have a profound and lasting influence on the sound of the rock guitar. Whereas chart-friendly instrumental recordings by ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Across the centuries and around the globe, many different forms of music have enjoyed mass appeal for a limited period of time. None, however, have been able to match the widespread influence of the popular music that erupted in America during the mid-1950s and, by the second half of the decade, was exerting its grip over ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

girl at his nightclub in St Louis. On his release in 1963, Berry’s career prospered as The Beatles and The Stones recorded versions of his songs. Berry also inspired surf rock; he received a co-writing credit on The Beach Boys’ ‘Surfin’ USA’ because of its close resemblance to ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’. His recording career resumed in 1964, producing more ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

(Guitar, b. 1937) Backed by The Del-Tones, California’s ‘King of the Surf Guitar’ dented 1962’s Hot 100 with ‘Let’s Go Trippin’’. Its immediate follow-ups – also instrumentals – were less successful, but an album, Surfer’s Choice and its ‘Miserlou’ single sold moderately well, and he appeared in associated assembly line movies such as 1963’s Beach Party. ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

(Vocal duo, 1957–66) In 1957, at Los Angeles high school, Jan Berry (1941–2004) and Dean Torrence (b. 1940), together with Bruce Johnston (later of The Beach Boys), drummer Sandy Nelson and Arnie Ginsburg, formed The Barons. Berry, Torrence and Ginsburg recorded ‘Jennie Lee’ (about a local stripper), which was released in 1958 and credited to Jan ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

Steve ‘The Colonel’ Cropper is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer and soul musician, best known for his work creating the trailblazing soul records produced by Memphis’s Stax label as a member of its studio band, which became Booker T. & The M.G.s, in the mid-1960s. Stephen Lee Cropper was born on a farm outside ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

America’s most successful pop group, graduating from fun-in-the-California-sun surf and hot-rod songs to multi-textured, intricately arranged numbers of exquisite harmonic structure, The Beach Boys initially achieved fame with a line-up consisting of the Wilson brothers, Brian (born 20 June 1942), Dennis (1944–83) and Carl (1946–98), together with their cousin Mike Love (born 15 March 1941) and Brian’s ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

(drums). Lyrically, Thompson explored religion, weird sex and sci-fi, singing with a preternaturally forceful yelp. The words were fitted to an eclectic array of styles. Punk, surf, pop, hardcore and Spanish elements all collided on a succession of superb albums: the raging Surfer Rosa (1988), 1989’s Doolittle (by far the poppiest), Bossanova (1990) and Trompe ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

Blind since birth, he developed a dazzling finger-style approach, which allowed him to shift easily from Delta-style blues to flamenco, to gospel, R&B, rock, surf guitar or jazz. His earliest recordings, for the Folkways label in 1958, present him in an acoustic folk blues setting, accompanied only by harmonica and washboard. His ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

an international anthem in its English- and Spanish-language versions. ‘Livin’’ was typical of Martin in its use of Latin rhythms, while its electric-guitar intro – reminiscent of 1960s California surf rock – gave it a far greater international feel. As well as propelling Martin to international superstardom, it opened the door for other Latin artists to embark on the ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

As the 1960s approached, the controversy associated with rock’n’roll was superseded by an array of inoffensive smoothies on both sides of the atlantic. However, the ongoing popularity of artists such as Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Sam Cooke, and, in the UK, Lonnie Donegan, Billy Fury and Cliff Richard, ensured ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

the middle of the decade, Wilson was composing and arranging intricately structured music, while working with lyricists whose introspective themes were aeons away from those of the band’s surf and hot-rod songs, written just a few years before.  The singer-songwriters were a rapidly expanding breed within the burgeoning rock field, and they would be far less ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

of the first wave of the British invasion of America, and was the template for all the ‘Answer to The Beatles’ bands. Introduction | Pop Styles & Forms | Surf Music | Pop ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

As The Sex Pistols passed through three record companies in the first half of 1977, sacked their songwriting bass player for liking The Beatles and struggled to find venues that would let them play, they became a side-show in the thriving British punk scene now led by The Clash. In London, new punk clubs sprang up and found ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent
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