1. Duane Eddy was an American rock and roll guitarist.
42 Facts About Duane Eddy
1. 2.
Duane Eddy was born in Corning, New York, on April 26,1938.
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Duane Eddy's parents were Lloyd and Alberta Eddy.
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Duane Eddy's father drove a bread truck and later became the manager of a grocery store.
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Duane Eddy began playing the guitar at the age of five after hearing the cowboy singer Gene Autry.
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Duane Eddy formed a duo, Jimmy and Duane, with his friend Jimmy Delbridge, who later recorded as Jimmy Dell.
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Duane Eddy left school at sixteen and played in local bars.
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In 1957, Duane 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.
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Duane 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.
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Duane Eddy's backing band included saxophonist Steve Douglas, pianist Larry Knechtel, and bassist Al Casey.
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In 1958, Duane Eddy signed a recording contract with Lester Sill and Hazlewood to record in Phoenix at the Audio Recorders studio.
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Duane Eddy had a succession of hit records over the next few years.
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Duane Eddy's biggest hit came with the theme of the movie Because They're Young in 1960, which featured a string arrangement.
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Duane 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.
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In 1960, Duane Eddy signed a contract directly with Jamie Records, bypassing Sill and Hazlewood, which caused a temporary rift between Duane Eddy and Hazlewood.
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The result was that for the duration of his contract with Jamie, Duane Eddy produced his own singles and albums.
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Duane Eddy performed on the BBC television show "Top of the Pops" while promoting the single.
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In 1982, Duane Eddy's "Rebel Walk" was heard in the musical comedy Grease 2 as background music at the bowling alley.
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In 1986, Duane Eddy collaborated with Art of Noise on a new recording of his 1960 version of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn".
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In 1992, Duane Eddy recorded a duet with Hank Marvin for Marvin's album Into the Light, a cover version of The Chantays' 1963 hit "Pipeline".
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Also in 1994, Duane Eddy teamed up with Carl Perkins and The Mavericks to contribute "Matchbox" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country, produced by the Red Hot Organization.
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Duane Eddy was the lead guitarist on Foreigner's 1995 hit "Until the End of Time", which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
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In 1996, Duane Eddy played guitar on Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for the film Broken Arrow.
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In October 2010, Duane Eddy returned to the UK for a sold-out Royal Festival Hall concert in London.
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In 2015, Duane Eddy participated in overdubbing sessions for the Elvis Presley and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra remix album If I Can Dream, adding guitar to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "An American Trilogy".
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In 2016, Duane Eddy participated in an extensive interview with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum as part of their "Nashville Cats" series.
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In 2020, Duane Eddy participated in overdubbing sessions for the Johnny Cash and RPO remix album, adding guitar to the gospel song "Farther Along".
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In 1961, Duane Eddy married singer Mirriam Johnson, with whom he recorded a gospel album.
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Duane Eddy adopted the stage name Jessi Colter, became a popular country singer, and later married fellow country star Waylon Jennings.
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Duane Eddy later married Deed Abbate, with whom he collaborated on a cover of "You Are My Sunshine" in 1977.
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Duane Eddy died of cancer in Franklin, Tennessee, on April 30,2024, four days after his 86th birthday.
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Duane Eddy was survived by his third wife Deed and his children.
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The Guardian reported that Duane Eddy was survived by five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
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Duane Eddy was the last surviving musician to have charted in the top 10 of the first-ever issue of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958.
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In 1987, Duane Eddy won his first and only Grammy award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for his re-recording of "Peter Gunn" with Art of Noise.
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In 1994, Duane Eddy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008.
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In 1997, Duane Eddy was inducted into Guitar Center's "Rockwalk", an honor similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame bestowed exclusively to legendary rock and pop musicians.
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In 2004, Duane Eddy was presented with the Guitar Player Magazine "Legend Award".
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Duane Eddy was the second recipient of the award, the first having been presented to Les Paul.
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Duane Eddy's playing inspired some of the lead guitar playing on Springsteen's 1975 hit "Born to Run".
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Duane Eddy's favored guitar was a 1957 Chet Atkins Gretsch 6120 guitar that he bought at Ziggie's Music in Phoenix, Arizona in 1957.
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Duane Eddy traded in an early 1950s gold top Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar for it, plus monthly payments of $17.