Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page took to Instagram on Friday (May 3) to honor another guitar legend -- the late Duane Eddy, who died Tuesday (April 30) after a battle with cancer. He was 86.
"I am sad to hear of the passing of Duane Eddy," Page wrote in a lengthy caption to a photo of the pair, taken by Dave Brolan, from 2018. "I first saw him perform at the Granada in Kingston in November 1963 and topping the bill that evening was Gene Vincent.
"In 2011, I spoke to Duane on the radio from the BBC Studios as the producers had prepared a link up with him in Nashville. Duane was hosting a tribute programme to Les Paul and we discussed the massive pioneering contribution that Les had presented to the world," he added.
"More recently, in 2018, I had the chance to meet Duane and his wife as he performed at the London Palladium alongside Richard Hawley. He was introduced to the stage that night by Whispering Bob Harris and it was a pleasure to get the chance to meet him: he was such a lovely man," Page continued.
"Duane Eddy twanged the thang in the late '50s and '60s and you can hear his character sound appearing throughout the decades of popular music. He will be missed and my thoughts are with his family. RIP, Duane."
Eddy rose to prominence in the late '50s, thanks to his collaborations with songwriter/producer Lee Hazelwood on such instrumental classics as "Rebel-Rouser," which reached No. 6 on Billboard's Hot 100 and went on to sell more than a million copies.
As Billboard notes, Eddy was the last surviving artist in the top 10 of the first Hot 100 chart, published on Aug. 4, 1958. Ricky Nelson, Perez Prado, Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley, Kalin Twins, The Coasters, Jack Scott, The Johnny Otis Show and Peggy Lee were the other artists in the top 10 that week.
The guitarist scored numerous hits in the '50s and '60s, including his cover of the Henry Mancini classic "Peter Gunn," which reached No. 27 in 1960.
Proof of his lasting influence and impact came 26 years later, when he was featured on The Art of Noise's 1986 cover of the song, which once again charted in the U.S. and reached No. 8 on the U.K. charts. He also won a Best Rock Instrumental Grammy for that recording.
Born on April 26, 1938, in Coming, N.Y., Eddy started playing guitar when he was just five. When he was still in his teens, his family relocated to Coolidge, Ariz. where he formed his first musical project, the duo Jimmy and Duane, with James Delbridge, who later found success as a recording artist under the name Jimmy Dell.
Eddy, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, has influenced numerous guitarists throughout the history of rock 'n' roll, including George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen, the Kinks' Dave Davies, Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, and others.
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