The Ventures

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Bob Bogle (guitar, bass; born January 16, 1934, died June 14, 2009), Nokie Edwards (guitar, bass; born May 9, 1935), Gerry McGee (guitar; born November 17, 1937), Mel Taylor (drums; born September 24, 1933, died August 11, 1996), Don Wilson (guitar; born February 10, 1933)

The Ventures are best remembered for a pair of Sixties smashes, “Walk – Don’t Run” and “Hawaii Five-O.” Yet their most impressive feat was charting 38 albums from 1960 to 1972. The Ventures’ “big guitar sound” made them an instrumental institution in the Sixties. Guitar Player magazine called them “the quintessential guitar combo of the pre-Beatles era, influenced not only styles, but also a generation’s choice of instruments.”

The Ventures’ nucleus came together in 1958, when Don Wilson and Bob Bogle met on a car lot in Tacoma, Washington. The two guitarists played as a duo before hooking up with guitarist/bassist Nokie Edwards and drummer Howie Johnson. They performed as the Impacts and the Versatones before settling on the Ventures. “We were venturing into a different style of music, and the name would give us room to expand,” Wilson told journalist Robert J. Dalley. The Ventures self-released two singles on their Blue Horizon label, including “Walk – Don’t Run,” released in 1960. When that song became popular on local radio stations, Seattle-based Dolton Records (a Liberty affiliate) signed the group and reissued the single. It became a #2 national hit, and an instrumental standard, selling 2 million copies.

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• The Ventures' Christmas Album
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• Walk Don't Run
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• The Very Best Of The Ventures
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1		Hawaii Five-O			315
2		Walk Don't Run			297
3		Pipeline			182
4		Perfidia			149
5		Wipe Out			147
6		Diamond Head			115
7		Walk - Don't Run			113
8		Walk, Don't Run			109
9		Apache			105
10		Telstar			92
11		Ghost Riders in the Sky			84
12		Secret Agent Man			71
13		Tequila			65
14		Lullaby Of The Leaves			58
15		Out of Limits			57

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