Duane Eddy , the most commercially successful instrumental artist in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, has died. He was 86.
The Grammy-winning guitarist died peacefully on Tuesday, surrounded by family in Franklin, Tennessee.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 on the strength of a career he launched in 1958 with the million-selling instrumental “ Rebel Rouser .”
Born in Corning, New York, and raised in New York State, Eddy moved to Tucson then to Coolidge, Arizona, with his family as a teenager. It was while living in Coolidge that he collaborated with a DJ named Lee Hazlewood, who cut the young guitarist’s instrumental breakthrough, “Rebel Rouser,” in a Phoenix studio called Audio Recorders.
“Rebel Rouser” was the third song he and Hazlewood recorded.
How Duane Eddy and Lee Hazlewood made ‘Rebel Rouser’
The first was “Soda Fountain Girl,” recorded with a friend named Jimmy Delbridge and released in 1955 as a duet by Jimmy and Duane.