Not Fade Away
Fondly remembered this month...
DUANE EDDY
King of twang
(1938–2024)
THEfirst true rock’n’roll guitar hero, Duane Eddy became the benchmark for a whole generation of followers, from John Fogerty and Dave Davies to Bruce Springsteen, who cited him as “a huge influence on my guitar stylings”, the most striking example being the motoring riff of “Born To Run”. Eddy’s rich twang – picking out melodic runs on the low strings of his signature Gretsch, amplified by spacious echo – was a defining feature of pre-Beatles pop. Between 1958 and 1963, he landed nearly two dozen Top 40 hits in the US and UK: driving instrumentals forged from country, jazz, rockabilly and rhythm’n’blues.
Eddy began playing guitar aged five. By his teens, he was gigging alongside Jimmy Delbridge in his adopted hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, where he was scouted by local DJ/producer Lee Hazlewood. Repurposing a disused 2,000-gallon water tank as an echo chamber, Hazlewood co-wrote and recorded “Movin’ n’ Groovin’” as Eddy’s debut solo single in November 1957. But it was follow-up “Rebel Rouser” that proved his breakthrough, cracking the Billboard Top 10 and selling more than a million copies.
The hits flowed freely thereafter, among them “Cannonball”, “Forty Miles Of Bad Road”, “(Dance With The) Guitar Man”, “Shazam!” and a quaking cover of Henry Mancini’s TV theme, “Peter Gunn”. Eddy’s biggest success was the title track from 1960 teen drama Because They’re Young, in which he and backing band The Rebels also had a cameo role.
Rebel with a Gretsch: DuaneEddyin New York, 1958
POPSIERANDOLPH/MICHAELOCHSARCHIVES/GETTYIMAGES
His star began to wane after the British Invasion, scoring the odd hit (1975’s “Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar”) and working on projects with Phil Everly and ex-wife Jessi Colter’s new husband, Waylon Jennings. Eddy’s career was revived in 1986 when a remodelled “Peter Gunn”, recorded with Art Of Noise, made the UK Top 10 and scooped a Grammy.