Goodbye to Duane Eddy, the legendary guitarist was 86 years old

Guitarist Duane Eddy has died at the age of 86. As the Phoenix newspaper Arizona Republic reports, “he died peacefully on April 30, surrounded by family members in Franklin, Tennessee.”

Duane Eddy was born in Corning (New York) on April 26, 1938, and began playing the guitar at the age of five. In 1955 he was living in Phoenix when he began a long collaboration with producer and songwriter Lee Hazlewood. The same year he released his first album as Jimmy & Duane. His first chart hit came in 1958 with “Movin' N' Groovin'.” In the same year, “Rebel-'Rouser” was also released, an instrumental piece that was his greatest success thanks to the particular sound of his guitar. This song was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as one of the key songs in music history.

Before the end of the 1950s, it reached the Top 40 on the sales chart another half dozen times. Another hit song that entered the Top Ten was “Forty Miles of Bad Road”. In 1960 he reached number 4 with “Because They're Young”. In 1986, after having brought over 30 songs to the charts, a new version of the “Peter Gunn” theme created together with Art of Noise won a Grammy for best instrumental rock.

In addition to music, Duane Eddy participated in some films. The twangy sound of his red 1956 Gretsch guitar earned him the title of “rock 'n' roll's number one instrumentalist of all time.”