Duane Eddy

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by David Lonergan

Known for his "twangy" guitar sound, Duane Eddy was a leading rock and roll instrumentalist, with fifteen Top 40 hits between 1958 and 1963. Born in upstate New York, Eddy moved to Arizona at the age of thirteen. He was an early experimenter with natural sources of echo and reverberation, which resulted in the "twangy" sound that quickly became his trademark. Eddy recorded on the Jamie label through 1961, and moved to the more prestigious RCA Victor label for his last few records in 1962 and 1963.

His popularity and good looks led to a few supporting roles in motion pictures such as Because They're Young (for which he also performed the main theme song), along with a custom line of Duane Eddy signature guitars. There was an excessive similarity inherent in the various songs Eddy recorded, and only two ever reached the major success of the Top Ten. Those were "Rebel Rouser" in 1958 and "Forty Miles of Bad Road" in 1959.