Instrumental Hit Record
Larry Byrom recalls hearing Louis Armstrong as a young kid and wanting to play the trumpet, so he did for a few years. Then, he saw Chet Atkins on television and by 14 years old began playing the guitar. Just four years later he was performing in the rock band Steppenwolf! Larry became a sought-...
Jimmy Gilmer was born in Chicago, but spent his formative years in Amarillo, Texas. As a singer and guitar player, Jimmy gravitated across state line to Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico made famous by the fact that Buddy Holly recorded there. After a fill-in gig with the Fireballs, a...
Ramsey Lewis had a monster hit record with his jazz version of "The In Crowd." The song, which is considered to be the quintessential instrumental jazz hit of the 60s, led to a series of other recordings including sessions with Earth, Wind & Fire. Ramsey began playing organ and piano in church...
John Blair grew up during the first wave of the Surf Music craze in America during the late 1950s and early 1960s. John later formed his own surf band and again, years later, in the 1970s when he was credited for the "second wave" of the popularity for surf music. While his band has recorded and...
John Durrill has enjoyed a long and successful career in music, which ranged from performing to songwriting! In 1963, he was a member of the rock band The Five Americans, which enjoyed several hit records including Western Union and I See the Light. John later joined the instrumental band The...
Barry De Vorzon began writing songs as a teenager and had several hits during his long career. Among his top charters were two hit instrumental songs, the theme for the television show SWAT and the second, the theme for the soap opera The Young and the Restless, which was also known as “Nadia's...
Will Glover was among the first wave of surf rock guitarists when he formed a band with several friends from high school in 1961. The Pyramids, the Long Beach, California based rock group had a big instrumental hit with “Penetration” in 1963. The songs success led to several important...
Mike Vernon formed an instrumental rock band inspired by George Tomsco called The 3 Balls of Fire (the name taken from the first song they learned to play "Great Balls of Fire"). During his career, Mike played with several legendary instrumentalists such as Tomsco and Link Wray, as well as Davie...
Bob Spikard formed an instrumental rock band with his high school buddies and they called themselves the Chantay’s. The band’s greatest hit, co-written by Bob, was entitled “Pipeline”! The song redefined the instrumental hit recordings of the era and helped put Surf Guitar on the map. Although...
Randy Holden was a teenager when he formed a rock and blues band in Pennsylvania called The Iridescents. The core of that band moved to California to follow the wave of emerging Surf instrumental bands and formed The Fender IV. The band recorded several songs that have since played an important...