Surf Music
Barry Rudolph was always interested in electronics and music. During high school he played drums in a surf band and worked full time in the aerospace industry while putting himself through college. After graduating in 1970 he happened upon a job at a recording studio in Santa Ana, CA. The job...
Mark Guerrero has had a passion for music ever since he was a young boy growing up in East Los Angeles. His father was singer/songwriter Lalo Guerrero, who inspired a generation of Chicano musicians. Growing up, Mark was surrounded by a wide variety of music both in his home and in the community,...
Don Wilson was a founding member of the instrumental rock band, The Ventures! He formed the band with his friend Bob Bogle. Shortly after their first hit, “Walk Don’t Run,” Nokie Edwards, who was also interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program, joined the band. The band then went on to record...
Rob Joly was playing in a surf band in 1966 when Leo Fender hired him to work at a teenage fair. The fair attracted young students and Leo felt the event would be great to introduce his new line of guitars. As a thank you gift for his help, Leo gave Rob a P-Bass! Just a few years later, Rob began...
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...
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...
George Tomsco formed the influential rock band The Fireballs with several of his high school friends. The band became known for its instrumental recordings, which were very popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many of the band’s best known songs were written by George, including “Torquay”...