Les Paul
Encyclopedia
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009)—known as Les Paul—was an American jazz
and country guitarist
, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body
electric guitar
which made the sound of rock and roll
possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing
(also known as sound on sound), delay effects
such as tape delay
, phasing effects
and multitrack recording
were among the first to attract widespread attention.
His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including lick
s, trill
s, chording
sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford
in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.
Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips
and Alan Freed
.
, Wisconsin
, to George and Evelyn (1888–1989) (née
Stutz) Polsfus. His family was of German
ancestry. Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company
and the makers of the Stutz
automobile. His parents divorced when he was a child. The Prussia
n family name was first simplified by his mother to Polfuss before he took his stage name
of Les Paul. He also used the nicknames Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red.
While living in Wisconsin
, he first became interested in music at age eight when he began playing the harmonica
. After an attempt at learning the banjo
, he began to play the guitar. It was during this time that he invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar. Paul's device is still manufactured using his basic design. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music
singer, guitarist and harmonica player. While playing at the Waukesha area drive-ins and roadhouses, Paul began his first experiment with sound. Wanting to make himself heard by more people at the local venues, he wired a phonograph
needle to a radio speaker, using that to amplify his acoustic guitar. At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis
, Missouri
, on KMOX.
alter ego
, and the other was as an accompanist
for blues
-artist Georgia White
. It was during this time that he began playing jazz and adopted his stage name.
Paul's jazz-guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt
, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II
, Paul sought out and befriended Reinhardt. After Reinhardt's death in 1953, Paul furnished his headstone
. One of Paul's prize possessions was a Selmer Maccaferri acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow.
Paul formed a trio in 1937 with singer/rhythm guitarist Jim Atkins (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins
) and bassist/percussionist Ernie "Darius" Newton. They left Chicago for New York in 1939, landing a featured spot with Fred Waring
's Pennsylvanians radio show. Chet Atkins later wrote that his brother, home on a family visit, presented the younger Atkins with an expensive Gibson archtop guitar
that had been given to Jim Atkins by Les Paul. Chet recalled that it was the first professional-quality instrument he ever owned.
Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created several versions of "The Log", which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber
with a bridge
, guitar neck
and pickup
attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone
hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback
, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain
, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings long after the development of his eponymous Gibson model.
In 1945, Richard D. Bourgerie made an electric guitar pickup and amplifier for professional guitar player George Barnes. Bourgerie worked through World War II at Howard Radio Company making electronic equipment for the American military. Barnes showed the result to Les Paul, who then arranged for Bourgerie to have one made for him.
While experimenting in his apartment in 1940, Paul nearly succumbed to electrocution
. During two years of recuperation, he relocated to Hollywood, supporting himself by producing radio music and forming a new trio. He was drafted into the US Army shortly after the beginning of World War II
, where he served in the Armed Forces Network, backing such artists as Bing Crosby
, the Andrews Sisters
, and performing in his own right.
As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore
, Paul played with Nat King Cole
and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic
concert in Los Angeles, California
, on July 2, 1944. The recording, still available as Jazz at the Philharmonic- the first concert- shows Paul at the top of his game, both in his solid four to the bar comping in the style of Freddie Green and for the originality of his solo lines. Paul's solo on 'Blues' is an astonishing tour de force and represents a memorable contest between himself and Nat 'King' Cole. Much later in his career, Paul declared that he had been the victor and that this had been conceded by Cole. His solo on Body and Soul is a fine demonstration both of his admiration for and emulation of the playing of Django Reinhardt
, as well as his development of some very original lines.
Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby
's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number-one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time
." In addition to backing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters
and other artists, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca
label in the late 1940s.
In January 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 just west of Davenport
, Oklahoma
. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which rolled several times down a creekbed; they were on their way back from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after performing at the opening of a restaurant owned by Paul's father. Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Presbyterian Hospital told him that they could not rebuild his elbow so that he would regain movement; his arm would remain permanently in whatever position they placed it in. Their other option was amputation. Paul instructed surgeons, brought in from Los Angeles, to set his arm at an angle—just under 90 degrees—that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.
Paul's innovative guitar, "The Log", built after-hours in the Epiphone
guitar factory in 1940, a 4" × 4" chunk of pine with strings and a pickup, was one of the first solid-body electric guitar
s. Paul Tutmarc
of Audiovox Manufacturing Co. built a solid body electric bass in 1935 and Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 1930s and Paul A. Bigsby had built one for Merle Travis in 1948 and Leo Fender
also independently created his own in 1949. Although Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation
with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, they showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire
which later became known as the Telecaster models.
The arrangement persisted until 1961, when declining sales prompted Gibson to change the design without Paul's knowledge, creating a much thinner, lighter and more aggressive-looking instrument with two cutaway "horns" instead of one. Paul said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music-store window, and disliked it. Although his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Others claimed that Paul ended his endorsement contract with Gibson during his divorce to avoid having his wife get his endorsement money. Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG
", which stands for "Solid Guitar", and it also became one of the company's best sellers.
The original Gibson Les Paul-guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton
began playing the instrument a few years later, although he also played an SG and an ES-335
. Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson and endorsed the original Gibson Les Paul guitar from that point onwards. His personal Gibson Les Pauls were much modified by him—Paul always used his own self-wound pickups and customized methods of switching between pickups on his guitars. To this day, various models of Gibson Les Paul guitars are used all over the world by both novice and professional guitarists. A less-expensive version of the Gibson Les Paul guitar is also manufactured for Gibson's lower-priced Epiphone
brand.
On January 30, 1962, the US Patent and Trademark Office
issued Paul a patent
, Patent No. 3,018,680, for an "Electrical Music Instrument."
, the crooner suggested Paul try building his own recording studio so he might be able to get the sound he wanted. At first Paul discounted the idea only to give it a few more minutes thought before deciding Crosby was right. Paul started his own studio in the garage of his home on Hollywood's North Curson Street. The studio drew many other famous vocalists and musicians who wanted the benefit of Paul's expertise. The home and studio are still standing, but both had been moved to Pasadena
at some point after Paul no longer owned the home.
In 1948, Les Paul was given one of the first Ampex
Model 200A reel-to-reel audio tape recording
decks by Crosby and went on to use Ampex's eight track "Sel-Sync
" machines for Multitrack recording
. Capitol Records
released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master
. ("Brazil", similarly recorded, was the B-side
.) This was the first time that Les Paul used multitracking in a recording (Paul had been shopping his multitracking technique, unsuccessfully, since the '30s. Much to his dismay, Sidney Bechet used it in 1941 to play half a dozen instruments on "Sheik of Araby"). These recordings were made not with magnetic tape
, but with acetate disc
s. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multitrack recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. By the time he had a result he was satisfied with, he had discarded some five hundred recording disks.
Paul even built his own disc-cutter assembly, based on automobile parts. He favored the flywheel
from a Cadillac
for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the acetate-disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs. When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording rig on tour with him, even making episodes for his fifteen-minute radio show in his hotel room. He later worked with Ross Snyder in the design of the first eight-track recording deck (built for him by Ampex
for his home studio.)
Electronics engineer Jack Mullin
had been assigned to a U.S. Army Signal Corps unit stationed in France during World War II. On a mission in Germany near the end of the war, he acquired and later shipped home a German Magnetophon
(tape recorder) and fifty reels of I.G. Farben plastic recording tape. Back in the U.S., Mullin rebuilt and developed the machine with the intention of selling it to the film industry
, and held a series of demonstrations which quickly became the talk of the American audio industry.
Within a short time, Crosby had hired Mullin to record and produce his radio shows and master his studio recordings on tape, and he invested US$
50,000 in a Northern California electronics firm, Ampex
. With Crosby's backing, Mullin and Ampex created the Ampex Model 200, the world's first commercially produced reel-to-reel audio tape recorder. Crosby gave Les Paul the second Model 200 to be produced. Using this machine, Paul placed an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together on to a new track. This was a mono tape recorder with just one track across the entire width of quarter-inch tape; thus, the recording was "destructive" in the sense that the original recording was permanently replaced with the new, mixed recording.
Paul's re-invention of the Ampex 200 inspired Ampex to develop two-track and three-track recorders, which allowed him to record as many tracks on one tape without erasing previous takes. These machines were the backbone of professional recording, radio and television studios in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1954, Paul continued to develop this technology by commissioning Ampex to build the first 8-track (multitrack) tape recorder
, at his own expense. His design became known as "Sel-Sync" (Selective Synchronization), in which specially modified electronics could either record or play back from the record head, which was not optimized for playback but which had acceptable sound quality for musicians to listen to for the purposes of recording an "overdub" (OD) in sync with the original recording. This is the core technology behind multitrack recording.
. They were married in 1949. The couple's hits included "How High the Moon
", "Bye Bye Blues
", "Song in Blue", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
", and "Vaya con Dios
". These songs featured Ford harmonizing
with herself.
Like Crosby, Paul and Ford used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than 6 inches (15 cm) from the singer's mouth. This produces a more-intimate, less-reverberant sound than is heard when a singer is 1 feet (30.5 cm) or more from the microphone. When implemented using a cardioid
-patterned microphone, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due to a cardioid microphone's proximity effect
and can give a more relaxed feel because the performer isn't working so hard. The result is a singing style which diverged strongly from unamplified theater-style singing, as might be heard in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood
", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil" and "Tiger Rag
". Over ten of these shows survive among old-time radio
collectors today.
The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song
. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash
, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards up until his death.
During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner
with it so she could finish the housework faster.
In 1965, Paul went into semi-retirement, although he did return to the studio occasionally. He and Ford had divorced in December 1962, as she could no longer cope with the traveling lifestyle their act required of them. Paul's most-recognizable recordings from then through the mid-1970s were an album for London Records
/Phase 4 Stereo
, Les Paul Now (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits; and, backed by some of Nashville
's celebrated studio musicians, a meld of jazz and country improvisation with fellow guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins
, Chester and Lester
(1976), for RCA Victor.
By the late 1980s, Paul had returned to active live performance, continuing into his 80s even though he often found it painful to play the guitar because of arthritis in his hands. In 2006, at age 90, he won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played. He also performed every Monday night, accompanied by a trio which included guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinksi (and later, Nicki Parrott) and pianist John Colianni
, originally at Fat Tuesdays, and later at the Iridium Jazz Club
on Broadway
in the Times Square
area of New York City.
Composer Richard Stein (1909–1992) sued Paul for plagiarism
, charging that Paul's "Johnny (Is the Boy for Me)" was taken from Stein's 1937 song "Sanie cu zurgălăi" (Romanian
for "Sledge with Bells"). A 2000 cover version
of "Johnny" by Belgian musical group Vaya Con Dios
that credited Paul prompted another action by the Romanian Musical Performing and Mechanical Rights Society.
For many years Les Paul would sometimes surprise radio hosts Steve King
and Johnnie Putman with a call to the "Life After Dark Show" on WGN (AM)
in Chicago. These calls would take place in the wee hours of Tuesday Morning following his show at the Iridium Jazz Club. Steve and Johnnie continue to honor Les on Tuesday Mornings at 2:35 AM with their segment "A Little More Les" drawing from around 30 hours of recorded conversations with Les.
at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York
. His family and friends were by his side. Paul is survived by his four children and his companion Arlene Palmer. His attorney told the media Paul had been "in and out of the hospital" because of illness. His last concert took place a few weeks before his death.
Upon learning of his death many artists and popular musicians paid tribute by publicly expressing their sorrow. After learning of Paul's death, former Guns N' Roses
guitarist Slash
called him "vibrant and full of positive energy.", while Richie Sambora
, lead guitarist of Bon Jovi
, referred to him as "revolutionary in the music business". U2
guitarist The Edge
said, "His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten."
On August 21, 2009, he was buried near Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin
at Prairie Home Cemetery which indicated that his plot would be in an area where visitors can easily view it. Like his funeral in New York on August 19, the burial was private, but earlier in the day a public memorial viewing of the closed casket was held in Milwaukee at Discovery World
with 1,500 attendees who were offered free admission to the Les Paul House of Sound exhibit for the day.
fraternity
at the University of Miami
in 1952. He has earned the Presidential award from the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
In 1979, Paul and Ford's 1951 recording of "How High the Moon" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award
for his lifetime achievements in 1983.
In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck
, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." In 1991, the Mix Foundation established an annual award in his name; the Les Paul Award which honors "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology". In 2005, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
for his development of the solid-body electric guitar. In 2006, Paul was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
. He was named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society
. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts
.
In 2003, Les was ranked as #46 on Rolling Stone
s "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
A one-hour biographical documentary film
The Wizard of Waukesha was shown at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition (FILMEX)
March 4–21, 1980, and later on PBS
television. A biographical, feature-length documentary titled Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90 made its world première on May 9, 2007, at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul appeared at the event and spoke briefly to the enthusiastic crowd. The film is distributed by Koch Entertainment
and was broadcast on PBS on July 11, 2007, as part of its American Masters
series and was broadcast on October 17, 2008, on BBC Four
as part of its Guitar Night. The première coincided with the final part of a three-part documentary by the BBC
broadcast on BBC ONE
The Story of the Guitar.
In June 2008, an exhibit showcasing his legacy and featuring items from his personal collection opened at Discovery World
in Milwaukee. The exhibit was facilitated by a group of local musicians under the name Partnership for the Arts and Creative Excellence (PACE). Paul played a concert in Milwaukee to coincide with the opening of the exhibit.
Paul's hometown of Waukesha is planning a permanent exhibit to be called "The Les Paul experience."
In July 2005, a 90th-birthday tribute concert was held at Carnegie Hall
in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller
, Peter Frampton
, Jose Feliciano
and a number of other contemporary guitarists and vocalists, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation.
On November 15, 2008, he received the American Music Masters award through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
at a tribute concert at the State Theater
in Cleveland
, Ohio
. Among the many guest performers were Duane Eddy
, Eric Carmen
, Lonnie Mack
, Jennifer Batten
, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
, Dennis Coffey
, James Burton
, Billy Gibbons
, Lenny Kaye
, Steve Lukather
, Barbara Lynn
, Katy Moffatt
, Alannah Myles
, Richie Sambora
, The Ventures
and Slash
.
In February 2009, only months prior to his death, Les Paul sat down with Scott Vollweiler of Broken Records Magazine, in which would be one of Les Paul's final interviews. His candid answers were direct and emotional. Broken Records Magazine had planned to run that cover feature the following month but due to delays was held until the summer. 3 days before the release, Les Paul died. The issue would be his final cover feature of his storied career.
In August, 2009, Paul was named one of the ten best electric guitar players of all-time by Time magazine.
On June 9, 2010, which would have been Les Paul's 95th birthday, a tribute concert featuring Jeff Beck
, Imelda May
, Gary U.S. Bonds
and Brian Setzer
among others, was held at the Iridium Jazz Club
where Les Paul played nearly every week almost to the end of his life. The concert was released on the live album Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul)
in 2011.
On June 9–10, 2011 Google
celebrated what would have been Paul's 96th birthday with a Google doodle of an interactive guitar.
In 2010, Paul was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame
.
, and Russell (Rusty), born 1944, before divorcing in 1949. Later that year, Paul and Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers) were married. They adopted a girl, Colleen, in 1958 and their son Robert (Bobby) was born the following year. They had also lost a child, who was born prematurely and died only four days old. Les Paul and Mary Ford divorced in 1963.
Paul was the instructor of rock guitarist Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band
, to whom Paul gave his first guitar lesson. Miller's father was best man at Paul's 1949 wedding to Mary Ford.
Paul resided for many years in Mahwah, New Jersey
.
Jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music on the guitar using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied...
and country guitarist
Country guitarist
This list includes relevant Bluegrass, Rockabilly, Country blues, Country rock, Dobro, Slide Guitar, and Pedal Steel Guitar* Chet Atkins* Jerry Douglas Dobro, Bluegrass* B.J...
, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body
Solid body
A solid-body instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings....
electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
which made the sound of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
(also known as sound on sound), delay effects
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
such as tape delay
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
, phasing effects
Phaser (effect)
A phaser is an audio signal processing technique used to filter a signal by creating a series of peaks and troughs in the frequency spectrum. The position of the peaks and troughs is typically modulated so that they vary over time, creating a sweeping effect...
and multitrack recording
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
were among the first to attract widespread attention.
His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including lick
Lick (music)
In popular music genres such as rock or jazz music, a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase" consisting of a short series of notes that is used in solos and melodic lines...
s, trill
Trill (music)
The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....
s, chording
Chording
- Musical keyboards :In music, more than one key are pressed at a time to achieve more complex sounds, or chords.- Computer Keyboards :Chording, with a chorded keyboard or keyer allows one to produce as many characters, as a QWERTY keyboard, but with fewer keys and less motion per finger, and is...
sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford
Mary Ford
Mary Ford , born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits...
in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.
Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
and Alan Freed
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
.
Early life
Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss outside Milwaukee, in WaukeshaWaukesha, Wisconsin
Waukesha is a city in and the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. The population was 70,718 at the 2010 census, making it the largest community in the county and 7th largest in the state. The city is located adjacent to the Town of Waukesha...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, to George and Evelyn (1888–1989) (née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Stutz) Polsfus. His family was of German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
ancestry. Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company
Valentin Blatz Brewing Company
The Valentin Blatz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It produced Blatz Beer from 1851 until 1959 when the label was sold to Pabst Brewing Company.-History:...
and the makers of the Stutz
Stutz Motor Company
The Stutz Motor Company was a producer of luxury cars based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Production began in 1911 and continued through 1935. The marque reappeared in 1968 under the aegis of Stutz Motor Car of America, Inc., and with a newly defined modern retro-look. Although the company is...
automobile. His parents divorced when he was a child. The Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n family name was first simplified by his mother to Polfuss before he took his stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
of Les Paul. He also used the nicknames Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red.
While living in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, he first became interested in music at age eight when he began playing the harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. After an attempt at learning the banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, he began to play the guitar. It was during this time that he invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar. Paul's device is still manufactured using his basic design. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer, guitarist and harmonica player. While playing at the Waukesha area drive-ins and roadhouses, Paul began his first experiment with sound. Wanting to make himself heard by more people at the local venues, he wired a phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
needle to a radio speaker, using that to amplify his acoustic guitar. At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, on KMOX.
Early career
Paul migrated to Chicago in 1934, where he continued to perform on radio. His first two records were released in 1936. One was credited to "Rhubarb Red", Paul's hillbillyHillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
, and the other was as an accompanist
Accompaniment
In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
for blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-artist Georgia White
Georgia White
Georgia White was an African American blues singer, most prolific in the 1930s and 1940s.Little is known of her early life. By the late 1920s she was singing in clubs in Chicago, and she made her first recording, "When You're Smiling, the Whole World Smiles With You," with Jimmie Noone's...
. It was during this time that he began playing jazz and adopted his stage name.
Paul's jazz-guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Paul sought out and befriended Reinhardt. After Reinhardt's death in 1953, Paul furnished his headstone
Headstone
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. In most cases they have the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on them, along with a personal message, or prayer.- Use :...
. One of Paul's prize possessions was a Selmer Maccaferri acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow.
Paul formed a trio in 1937 with singer/rhythm guitarist Jim Atkins (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
) and bassist/percussionist Ernie "Darius" Newton. They left Chicago for New York in 1939, landing a featured spot with Fred Waring
Fred Waring
Fredrick Malcolm Waring was a popular musician, bandleader and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." He was also a promoter, financial backer and namesake of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric...
's Pennsylvanians radio show. Chet Atkins later wrote that his brother, home on a family visit, presented the younger Atkins with an expensive Gibson archtop guitar
Archtop guitar
An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with blues and jazz players.Typically, an archtop guitar has:* 6 strings...
that had been given to Jim Atkins by Les Paul. Chet recalled that it was the first professional-quality instrument he ever owned.
Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created several versions of "The Log", which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
with a bridge
Bridge (instrument)
A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.- Explanation :...
, guitar neck
Neck (music)
The neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks.The...
and pickup
Pickup (music technology)
A pickup device is a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations, usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar, Chapman Stick, or electric violin, and converts them to an electrical signal that is amplified, recorded, or broadcast.-...
attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...
, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain
Sustain
In music, sustain is a parameter of musical sound over time. As its name implies, it denotes the period of time during which the sound remains before it becomes inaudible, or silent.Additionally, sustain is the third of the four segments in an ADSR envelope...
, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings long after the development of his eponymous Gibson model.
In 1945, Richard D. Bourgerie made an electric guitar pickup and amplifier for professional guitar player George Barnes. Bourgerie worked through World War II at Howard Radio Company making electronic equipment for the American military. Barnes showed the result to Les Paul, who then arranged for Bourgerie to have one made for him.
While experimenting in his apartment in 1940, Paul nearly succumbed to electrocution
Electric shock
Electric Shock of a body with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles or hair. Typically, the expression is used to denote an unwanted exposure to electricity, hence the effects are considered undesirable....
. During two years of recuperation, he relocated to Hollywood, supporting himself by producing radio music and forming a new trio. He was drafted into the US Army shortly after the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where he served in the Armed Forces Network, backing such artists as Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, the Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...
, and performing in his own right.
As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore
Oscar Moore
Oscar Moore was an American swing jazz guitarist.Moore was an integral part of the Nat King Cole Trio during 1937–1947, appearing on virtually all of Cole's records during the period. A superb and influential guitarist, Moore was himself influenced by Charlie Christian...
, Paul played with Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic
Jazz at the Philharmonic
Jazz at the Philharmonic, or JATP, was the title of a series of jazz concerts, tours and recordings produced by Norman Granz....
concert in Los Angeles, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, on July 2, 1944. The recording, still available as Jazz at the Philharmonic- the first concert- shows Paul at the top of his game, both in his solid four to the bar comping in the style of Freddie Green and for the originality of his solo lines. Paul's solo on 'Blues' is an astonishing tour de force and represents a memorable contest between himself and Nat 'King' Cole. Much later in his career, Paul declared that he had been the victor and that this had been conceded by Cole. His solo on Body and Soul is a fine demonstration both of his admiration for and emulation of the playing of Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
, as well as his development of some very original lines.
Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number-one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time
It's Been A Long, Long Time
"It's Been A Long, Long Time" is a 1945 popular song that became a major hit at the end of World War II. The lyrics are written from the perspective of a person welcoming home his or her spouse or lover at the end of the war....
." In addition to backing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...
and other artists, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
label in the late 1940s.
In January 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 just west of Davenport
Davenport, Oklahoma
Davenport is a town in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 881 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Davenport is located at ....
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which rolled several times down a creekbed; they were on their way back from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after performing at the opening of a restaurant owned by Paul's father. Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Presbyterian Hospital told him that they could not rebuild his elbow so that he would regain movement; his arm would remain permanently in whatever position they placed it in. Their other option was amputation. Paul instructed surgeons, brought in from Los Angeles, to set his arm at an angle—just under 90 degrees—that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.
Guitar builder
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
guitar factory in 1940, a 4" × 4" chunk of pine with strings and a pickup, was one of the first solid-body electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
s. Paul Tutmarc
Paul Tutmarc
Paul Tutmarc was a Seattle musician and musical instrument inventor. He was a tenor singer and a performer and teacher of the lap steel guitar and the ukulele. He developed a number of variant types of stringed musical instruments, such as electrically amplified double basses, electric basses, and...
of Audiovox Manufacturing Co. built a solid body electric bass in 1935 and Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 1930s and Paul A. Bigsby had built one for Merle Travis in 1948 and Leo Fender
Leo Fender
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender was an American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, or "Fender" for short...
also independently created his own in 1949. Although Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, they showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire
Fender Esquire
The Fender Esquire is a solid body electric guitar manufactured by Fender, and was the first guitar sold by Fender in 1950. Shortly after its introduction a two-pickup version named the Broadcaster was introduced while the single pickup version retained the Esquire name...
which later became known as the Telecaster models.
The arrangement persisted until 1961, when declining sales prompted Gibson to change the design without Paul's knowledge, creating a much thinner, lighter and more aggressive-looking instrument with two cutaway "horns" instead of one. Paul said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music-store window, and disliked it. Although his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Others claimed that Paul ended his endorsement contract with Gibson during his divorce to avoid having his wife get his endorsement money. Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG
Gibson SG
At the launch of the SG in 1961, Gibson offered four variants of the SG; the SG Junior , the SG Special, the SG Standard, and the top-of-the-line SG Custom. However, Gibson's current core variants as of 2010 are the SG Standard and the SG Special...
", which stands for "Solid Guitar", and it also became one of the company's best sellers.
The original Gibson Les Paul-guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
began playing the instrument a few years later, although he also played an SG and an ES-335
Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...
. Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson and endorsed the original Gibson Les Paul guitar from that point onwards. His personal Gibson Les Pauls were much modified by him—Paul always used his own self-wound pickups and customized methods of switching between pickups on his guitars. To this day, various models of Gibson Les Paul guitars are used all over the world by both novice and professional guitarists. A less-expensive version of the Gibson Les Paul guitar is also manufactured for Gibson's lower-priced Epiphone
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
brand.
On January 30, 1962, the US Patent and Trademark Office
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...
issued Paul a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
, Patent No. 3,018,680, for an "Electrical Music Instrument."
Multitrack-recording innovations
Paul had never been happy with the way his records sounded. During a post-recording session talk with Bing CrosbyBing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, the crooner suggested Paul try building his own recording studio so he might be able to get the sound he wanted. At first Paul discounted the idea only to give it a few more minutes thought before deciding Crosby was right. Paul started his own studio in the garage of his home on Hollywood's North Curson Street. The studio drew many other famous vocalists and musicians who wanted the benefit of Paul's expertise. The home and studio are still standing, but both had been moved to Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
at some point after Paul no longer owned the home.
In 1948, Les Paul was given one of the first Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
Model 200A reel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel, open reel tape recording is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a reel, rather than being securely contained within a cassette....
decks by Crosby and went on to use Ampex's eight track "Sel-Sync
Sel-Sync
Sel-Sync or Selective Synchronous recording is the process of selectively using some record heads as play back heads so that new signals can be recorded on other tracks in perfect sync with the existing tracks...
" machines for Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
. Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master
Master recording
A multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...
. ("Brazil", similarly recorded, was the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
.) This was the first time that Les Paul used multitracking in a recording (Paul had been shopping his multitracking technique, unsuccessfully, since the '30s. Much to his dismay, Sidney Bechet used it in 1941 to play half a dozen instruments on "Sheik of Araby"). These recordings were made not with magnetic tape
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
, but with acetate disc
Acetate disc
An acetate disc, also known as a test acetate, dubplate , lacquer , transcription disc or instantaneous disc...
s. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multitrack recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. By the time he had a result he was satisfied with, he had discarded some five hundred recording disks.
Paul even built his own disc-cutter assembly, based on automobile parts. He favored the flywheel
Flywheel
A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia, and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed...
from a Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the acetate-disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs. When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording rig on tour with him, even making episodes for his fifteen-minute radio show in his hotel room. He later worked with Ross Snyder in the design of the first eight-track recording deck (built for him by Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
for his home studio.)
Electronics engineer Jack Mullin
Jack Mullin
John T. "Jack" Mullin was an American pioneer in the field of magnetic tape sound recording and made significant contributions to many other related fields. From his days at Santa Clara University to his death, he displayed a deep appreciation for classical music and an aptitude for electronics...
had been assigned to a U.S. Army Signal Corps unit stationed in France during World War II. On a mission in Germany near the end of the war, he acquired and later shipped home a German Magnetophon
Magnetophon
Magnetophon was the brand or model name of the pioneering reel-to-reel tape recorder developed by engineers of the German electronics company AEG in the 1930s, based on the magnetic tape invention by Fritz Pfleumer...
(tape recorder) and fifty reels of I.G. Farben plastic recording tape. Back in the U.S., Mullin rebuilt and developed the machine with the intention of selling it to the film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
, and held a series of demonstrations which quickly became the talk of the American audio industry.
Within a short time, Crosby had hired Mullin to record and produce his radio shows and master his studio recordings on tape, and he invested US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
50,000 in a Northern California electronics firm, Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
. With Crosby's backing, Mullin and Ampex created the Ampex Model 200, the world's first commercially produced reel-to-reel audio tape recorder. Crosby gave Les Paul the second Model 200 to be produced. Using this machine, Paul placed an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together on to a new track. This was a mono tape recorder with just one track across the entire width of quarter-inch tape; thus, the recording was "destructive" in the sense that the original recording was permanently replaced with the new, mixed recording.
Paul's re-invention of the Ampex 200 inspired Ampex to develop two-track and three-track recorders, which allowed him to record as many tracks on one tape without erasing previous takes. These machines were the backbone of professional recording, radio and television studios in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1954, Paul continued to develop this technology by commissioning Ampex to build the first 8-track (multitrack) tape recorder
Tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, tape deck, reel-to-reel tape deck, cassette deck or tape machine is an audio storage device that records and plays back sounds, including articulated voices, usually using magnetic tape, either wound on a reel or in a cassette, for storage...
, at his own expense. His design became known as "Sel-Sync" (Selective Synchronization), in which specially modified electronics could either record or play back from the record head, which was not optimized for playback but which had acceptable sound quality for musicians to listen to for the purposes of recording an "overdub" (OD) in sync with the original recording. This is the core technology behind multitrack recording.
Les Paul & Mary Ford
Paul met country-western singer Colleen Summers in 1945. They began working together in 1948, at which time she adopted the stage name Mary FordMary Ford
Mary Ford , born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits...
. They were married in 1949. The couple's hits included "How High the Moon
How High the Moon
"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock....
", "Bye Bye Blues
Bye Bye Blues (song)
"Bye Bye Blues" is a popular and jazz standard written by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray and published in 1930.The year it was introduced it was sung by The Vikings on the NBC radio series, The Vikings. It has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known recording is one...
", "Song in Blue", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" is a popular ballad with lyrics by Gene Lockhart and music by the concert pianist Ernest Seitz, who had conceived the refrain when he was 12. Embarrassed about writing popular music, Seitz used the pseudonym "Raymond Roberts" when the song was first published...
", and "Vaya con Dios
Vaya con Dios (song)
"Vaya con Dios" is a popular song written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and published in 1953....
". These songs featured Ford harmonizing
Close harmony
Close harmony is an arrangement of the notes of chords within a narrow range. It is different from open harmony or voicing in that it uses each part on the closest harmonizing note , while the open voicing uses a broader pitch array expanding the harmonic range past the octave...
with herself.
Like Crosby, Paul and Ford used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than 6 inches (15 cm) from the singer's mouth. This produces a more-intimate, less-reverberant sound than is heard when a singer is 1 feet (30.5 cm) or more from the microphone. When implemented using a cardioid
Cardioid
A cardioid is a plane curve traced by a point on the perimeter of a circle that is rolling around a fixed circle of the same radius. It is therefore a type of limaçon and can also be defined as an epicycloid having a single cusp...
-patterned microphone, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due to a cardioid microphone's proximity effect
Proximity effect (audio)
The proximity effect in audio is an increase in bass or low frequency response when a sound source is close to a microphone.-Technical explanation:...
and can give a more relaxed feel because the performer isn't working so hard. The result is a singing style which diverged strongly from unamplified theater-style singing, as might be heard in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
Radio and television programs
Paul had hosted a fifteen-minute radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood
In the Mood
"In the Mood" is a big band era #1 hit recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. Joe Garland and Andy Razaf arranged "In the Mood" in 1937-1939 using a previously existing main theme composed by Glenn Miller before the start of the 1930s...
", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil" and "Tiger Rag
Tiger Rag
"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time.-Origins:...
". Over ten of these shows survive among old-time radio
Old-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
collectors today.
The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash
Mouthwash
Mouthwash or mouth rinse is a product used to enhance oral hygiene. Some manufacturers of mouthwash claim that antiseptic and anti-plaque mouth rinse kill the bacterial plaque causing cavities, gingivitis, and bad breath. Anti-cavity mouth rinse uses fluoride to protect against tooth decay...
, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards up until his death.
During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
with it so she could finish the housework faster.
Later career
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....
/Phase 4 Stereo
Phase 4 Stereo
Phase 4 Stereo was a branch of London Records created in 1961. Phase 4 Stereo supposedly created better sound by being recorded on a 10-channel, and later 20-channel, recording console...
, Les Paul Now (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits; and, backed by some of Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
's celebrated studio musicians, a meld of jazz and country improvisation with fellow guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
, Chester and Lester
Chester and Lester
Chester & Lester is a collaborative album by guitarists Chet Atkins and Les Paul released in 1976.It was recorded in the mid-1970s when Chet was in his fifties and Les in his sixties. Chet coaxed Les out of his decade-long retirement for this recording...
(1976), for RCA Victor.
By the late 1980s, Paul had returned to active live performance, continuing into his 80s even though he often found it painful to play the guitar because of arthritis in his hands. In 2006, at age 90, he won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played. He also performed every Monday night, accompanied by a trio which included guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinksi (and later, Nicki Parrott) and pianist John Colianni
John Colianni
John Colianni is an American Jazz pianist, soloist, band leader, recording artist and accompanist. Recorded John Colianni Blues-O-Matic and Live at the Maybeck for Concord Records. Two Three other records followed, the latest being "Johnny Chops," recorded with his quintet...
, originally at Fat Tuesdays, and later at the Iridium Jazz Club
Iridium Jazz Club
The Iridium Jazz Club is a jazz club located on Broadway in New York City. The club hosts weekly performances by John Colianni, and also featured weekly performances by Les Paul for nearly fifteen years.- History :...
on Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
in the Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
area of New York City.
Composer Richard Stein (1909–1992) sued Paul for plagiarism
Musical plagiarism
Music plagiarism is the use or close imitation of another author's music while representing it as one's own original work. Plagiarism in music now occurs in two contexts – with a musical idea or sampling...
, charging that Paul's "Johnny (Is the Boy for Me)" was taken from Stein's 1937 song "Sanie cu zurgălăi" (Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
for "Sledge with Bells"). A 2000 cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "Johnny" by Belgian musical group Vaya Con Dios
Vaya Con Dios (band)
Vaya Con Dios is a Belgian musical group founded in 1986 by Dani Klein, Dirk Schoufs, and Willy Lambregt . Their name is Spanish for "Go with God"...
that credited Paul prompted another action by the Romanian Musical Performing and Mechanical Rights Society.
For many years Les Paul would sometimes surprise radio hosts Steve King
Steve King (radio)
Steve King is a radio personality who has been heard on several different stations, almost all in the Chicago area. For more than 25 years, King and his wife, Johnnie Putman, have hosted on "The Steve and Johnnie Show" overnights on WGN....
and Johnnie Putman with a call to the "Life After Dark Show" on WGN (AM)
WGN (AM)
WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is the only radio station owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois...
in Chicago. These calls would take place in the wee hours of Tuesday Morning following his show at the Iridium Jazz Club. Steve and Johnnie continue to honor Les on Tuesday Mornings at 2:35 AM with their segment "A Little More Les" drawing from around 30 hours of recorded conversations with Les.
Death
On August 12, 2009, Paul died of complications from pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
. His family and friends were by his side. Paul is survived by his four children and his companion Arlene Palmer. His attorney told the media Paul had been "in and out of the hospital" because of illness. His last concert took place a few weeks before his death.
Upon learning of his death many artists and popular musicians paid tribute by publicly expressing their sorrow. After learning of Paul's death, former Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
guitarist Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
called him "vibrant and full of positive energy.", while Richie Sambora
Richie Sambora
Richard Stephen "Richie" Sambora is an American rock guitarist, producer, musician, singer, and songwriter who is the longtime lead guitarist of the rock band, Bon Jovi. He and frontman Jon Bon Jovi form the primary songwriting unit of the band...
, lead guitarist of Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
, referred to him as "revolutionary in the music business". U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
guitarist The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
said, "His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten."
On August 21, 2009, he was buried near Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Waukesha is a city in and the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. The population was 70,718 at the 2010 census, making it the largest community in the county and 7th largest in the state. The city is located adjacent to the Town of Waukesha...
at Prairie Home Cemetery which indicated that his plot would be in an area where visitors can easily view it. Like his funeral in New York on August 19, the burial was private, but earlier in the day a public memorial viewing of the closed casket was held in Milwaukee at Discovery World
Discovery World
Discovery World is a museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 500 N. Harbor Drive. When the museum moved to Milwaukee's lakefront in 2006, it changed its name to Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin. It formerly was located at 815 N. James Lovell Street....
with 1,500 attendees who were offered free admission to the Les Paul House of Sound exhibit for the day.
Awards and honors
Paul was initiated into the Gamma Delta chapter of the Tau Kappa EpsilonTau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon is a college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899 at Illinois Wesleyan University with chapters in the United States, and Canada, and affiliation with a German fraternity system known as the Corps of the Weinheimer Senioren Convent...
fraternity
Fraternity
A fraternity is a brotherhood, though the term usually connotes a distinct or formal organization. An organization referred to as a fraternity may be a:*Secret society*Chivalric order*Benefit society*Friendly society*Social club*Trade union...
at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
in 1952. He has earned the Presidential award from the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
In 1979, Paul and Ford's 1951 recording of "How High the Moon" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award
Grammy Trustees Award
The Grammy Trustees Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording". Through 1983, performers could also receive this award...
for his lifetime achievements in 1983.
In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." In 1991, the Mix Foundation established an annual award in his name; the Les Paul Award which honors "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology". In 2005, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recognizing, honoring and encouraging invention and creativity through the administration of its programs. The Hall of Fame honors the men and women responsible for the great technological advances that make human,...
for his development of the solid-body electric guitar. In 2006, Paul was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
The NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame is a yearly honor from the National Association of Broadcasters. One inductee from radio and one from television are named at the yearly NAB conference.-Radio:*2011 * 2010 Ron Chapman* 2009 Vin Scully* 2008 Larry Lujack...
. He was named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society
Audio Engineering Society
Established in 1948, the Audio Engineering Society draws its membership from amongst engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products for audio, and persons working...
. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
.
In 2003, Les was ranked as #46 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
A one-hour biographical documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
The Wizard of Waukesha was shown at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition (FILMEX)
Filmex
Filmex was an annual Los Angeles film festival held in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was the predecessor of the American Film Institute's Los Angeles International Film Festival...
March 4–21, 1980, and later on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
television. A biographical, feature-length documentary titled Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90 made its world première on May 9, 2007, at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul appeared at the event and spoke briefly to the enthusiastic crowd. The film is distributed by Koch Entertainment
Koch Entertainment
Koch Entertainment was a music, film and television distribution company. It was purchased by E1 Entertainment in 2005 and now operates under the name E1 Entertainment.-History:The company began in 1975 as Koch International...
and was broadcast on PBS on July 11, 2007, as part of its American Masters
American Masters
American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City...
series and was broadcast on October 17, 2008, on BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
as part of its Guitar Night. The première coincided with the final part of a three-part documentary by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
broadcast on BBC ONE
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
The Story of the Guitar.
In June 2008, an exhibit showcasing his legacy and featuring items from his personal collection opened at Discovery World
Discovery World
Discovery World is a museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 500 N. Harbor Drive. When the museum moved to Milwaukee's lakefront in 2006, it changed its name to Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin. It formerly was located at 815 N. James Lovell Street....
in Milwaukee. The exhibit was facilitated by a group of local musicians under the name Partnership for the Arts and Creative Excellence (PACE). Paul played a concert in Milwaukee to coincide with the opening of the exhibit.
Paul's hometown of Waukesha is planning a permanent exhibit to be called "The Les Paul experience."
In July 2005, a 90th-birthday tribute concert was held at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller
Steve Miller (musician)
Steven H. "Steve" Miller is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter who began his career in blues and blues rock and evolved to a more popular-oriented sound which, from the mid 1970s through the early 1980s, resulted in a series of successful singles and albums.-Early years:Born in Milwaukee,...
, Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
, Jose Feliciano
José Feliciano
José Feliciano is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 holiday single "Feliz Navidad".-Childhood:...
and a number of other contemporary guitarists and vocalists, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation.
On November 15, 2008, he received the American Music Masters award through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
at a tribute concert at the State Theater
State Theater (Cleveland)
The State Theatre is a theater on Euclid Avenue, Cleveland in downtown Cleveland, Ohio that is part of Playhouse Square. It was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb to be the flagship of Marcus Loew's Loew's Ohio Theatres company....
in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. Among the many guest performers were Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
, Eric Carmen
Eric Carmen
Eric Howard Carmen is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist.He scored numerous hit songs across the 1970s and 1980s, first as a member of the Raspberries , and then with his solo career, including hits such as "All By Myself", "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", "She Did It",...
, Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack is an American rock, blues and country guitarist and vocalist....
, Jennifer Batten
Jennifer Batten
Jennifer Batten is an American guitarist, who has worked as both a session musician and solo artist. She has released three studio albums: her 1992 debut, Above Below and Beyond, was produced by former Stevie Wonder guitarist Michael Sembello. In 1997, she released the worldbeat-influenced Jennifer...
, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
Jeff Baxter
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s...
, Dennis Coffey
Dennis Coffey
Dennis Coffey is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings.-Biography:Coffey learned to play guitar at the age of thirteen, in the Michigan Upper Peninsula town of Copper City...
, James Burton
James Burton
James Burton is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 , Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame...
, Billy Gibbons
Billy Gibbons
William Frederick "Billy" Gibbons is an American musician, actor and car customizer, best known as the guitarist of the Texas blues-rock band ZZ Top. He is also the lead singer and composer for many of the band's songs. Gibbons is known for playing his Gretsch Billy Bo guitar and his famous 1959...
, Lenny Kaye
Lenny Kaye
Lenny Kaye is an American guitarist, composer and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group.- Early life :...
, Steve Lukather
Steve Lukather
Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer, arranger, and session guitarist on more than 1,500 albums...
, Barbara Lynn
Barbara Lynn
Barbara Lynn is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, "You'll Lose A Good Thing" .-Life and career:She played piano as a child, but switched to guitar...
, Katy Moffatt
Katy Moffatt
Katherine Louella "Katy" Moffatt is an American musician, lyricist, composer, vocalist. She is the sister of country singer-songwriter Hugh Moffatt.-Midnight Radio:...
, Alannah Myles
Alannah Myles
Alannah Myles is a Canadian singer-songwriter, the daughter of Canadian broadcast pioneer William Douglas Byles. In 1989, she released her eponymous debut album...
, Richie Sambora
Richie Sambora
Richard Stephen "Richie" Sambora is an American rock guitarist, producer, musician, singer, and songwriter who is the longtime lead guitarist of the rock band, Bon Jovi. He and frontman Jon Bon Jovi form the primary songwriting unit of the band...
, The Ventures
The Ventures
The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
and Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
.
In February 2009, only months prior to his death, Les Paul sat down with Scott Vollweiler of Broken Records Magazine, in which would be one of Les Paul's final interviews. His candid answers were direct and emotional. Broken Records Magazine had planned to run that cover feature the following month but due to delays was held until the summer. 3 days before the release, Les Paul died. The issue would be his final cover feature of his storied career.
In August, 2009, Paul was named one of the ten best electric guitar players of all-time by Time magazine.
On June 9, 2010, which would have been Les Paul's 95th birthday, a tribute concert featuring Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, Imelda May
Imelda May
Imelda Mary Higham, Clabby , known as Imelda May, is an Irish vocalist and musician. She began her career in music at 15 and released her debut album in 2005. She also plays the bodhrán and guitar...
, Gary U.S. Bonds
Gary U.S. Bonds
Gary U.S. Bonds is an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer. He is also a prolific songwriter.-Career:...
and Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...
among others, was held at the Iridium Jazz Club
Iridium Jazz Club
The Iridium Jazz Club is a jazz club located on Broadway in New York City. The club hosts weekly performances by John Colianni, and also featured weekly performances by Les Paul for nearly fifteen years.- History :...
where Les Paul played nearly every week almost to the end of his life. The concert was released on the live album Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul)
Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul)
Rock 'n' Roll Party is a live album by Jeff Beck, recorded as a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul.The album is recorded at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City where Les Paul played almost every week until his death in August 2009. It was recorded on June 9, 2010, which would have...
in 2011.
On June 9–10, 2011 Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
celebrated what would have been Paul's 96th birthday with a Google doodle of an interactive guitar.
In 2010, Paul was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame
New Jersey Hall of Fame
The New Jersey Hall of Fame is an organization that honors individuals from the U.S. state of New Jersey who have made contributions to society and the world beyond....
.
Personal life
Paul married Virginia Webb in 1938. They had two children, Gene (Lester Jr.), born in 1941 and named after actor-songwriter Gene LockhartGene Lockhart
Eugene "Gene" Lockhart was a Canadian character actor, singer, and playwright. He also wrote the lyrics to a number of popular songs.-Early life:...
, and Russell (Rusty), born 1944, before divorcing in 1949. Later that year, Paul and Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers) were married. They adopted a girl, Colleen, in 1958 and their son Robert (Bobby) was born the following year. They had also lost a child, who was born prematurely and died only four days old. Les Paul and Mary Ford divorced in 1963.
Paul was the instructor of rock guitarist Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band
Steve Miller Band
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in 1967 in San Francisco, California. The band is managed by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals, and is known for a string of mid-1970s hit singles that are staples of the classic rock radio format.-History:In 1965, Steve Miller and...
, to whom Paul gave his first guitar lesson. Miller's father was best man at Paul's 1949 wedding to Mary Ford.
Paul resided for many years in Mahwah, New Jersey
Mahwah, New Jersey
Mahwah is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 25,890. The name Mahwah is derived from the Lenni Lenape word "mawewi" which means "Meeting Place" or "Place Where Paths Meet".The area that is now Mahwah was...
.
Hit singles
| Year | Single | Chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US R&B Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
||
| 1945 | "It's Been a Long Long Time"(with Bing Crosby) | 1 | |||
| 1946 | "Rumors Are Flying"(with Andrews Sisters) | 4 | |||
| 1948 | "Lover" | 21 | |||
| "Brazil" | 22 | ||||
| "What Is This Thing Called Love?" | 11 | ||||
| 1950 | "Nola" | 9 | |||
| "Goofus" | 21 | ||||
| "Little Rock Getaway" | 18 | ||||
| "Tennessee Waltz" | 6 | ||||
| 1951 | "Jazz Me Blues" | 23 | |||
| "Mockin' Bird Hill Mockin' Bird Hill Mockin' Bird Hill is a 3/4 song was written by Vaughn Horton and published in 1951. It was popularized by Patti Page and by Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951, and for both of them following on to their big hit of "The Tennessee Waltz" the previous year... "(gold record) |
2 | 7 | |||
| "How High the Moon"(gold record) | 1 | 2 | |||
| "Josephine" | 12 | ||||
| "I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine" | 18 | ||||
| "The World Is Waiting For the Sunrise"(gold record) | 2 | ||||
| "Whispering" | 7 | ||||
| "Just One More Chance" | 5 | ||||
| "Jingle Bells" | 10 | ||||
| 1952 | "Tiger Rag" | 2 | |||
| "I'm Confessin'" | 13 | ||||
| "Carioca" | 14 | ||||
| "In the Good Old Summertime" | 15 | ||||
| "Smoke Rings" | 14 | ||||
| "Meet Mr. Callahan" | 5 | ||||
| "Take Me In Your Arms and Hold Me" | 15 | ||||
| "Lady of Spain" | 8 | ||||
| "My Baby's Comin' Home" | 7 | ||||
| 1953 | "Bye Bye Blues" | 5 | |||
| "I'm Sittin' On Top of the World" | 10 | ||||
| "Sleep" | 21 | ||||
| "Vaya Con Dios Vaya con Dios (song) "Vaya con Dios" is a popular song written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and published in 1953.... "(gold record) |
1 | 7 | |||
| "Johnny" | 15 | ||||
| "The Kangaroo" | 25 | ||||
| "Don'cha Hear Them Bells" | 13 | ||||
| 1954 | "I Really Don't Want To Know" | 11 | |||
| "I'm a Fool To Care" | 6 | ||||
| "Wither Thou Goest" | 10 | ||||
| "Mandolino" | 19 | ||||
| 1955 | "Hummingbird" | 7 | |||
| "Amukiriki" | 38 | ||||
| "Magic Melody" | 96 | ||||
| 1956 | "Texas Lady" | 91 | |||
| "Moritat" | 49 | ||||
| "Nuevo Laredo" | 91 | ||||
| 1957 | "Cinco Robles" | 35 | |||
| 1958 | "Put a Ring On My Finger" | 32 | |||
| 1961 | "Jura" | 37 | |||
| "It's Been a Long Long Time" | 105 | ||||
Albums
- Feedback (1944)—compilation
- Les Paul Trio (1946)—compilation
- Hawaiian Paradise (1949)
- The New Sound (1950)
- Les Paul's New Sound, Volume 2 (1951)
- Bye Bye Blues! (1952)
- Gallopin' Guitars (1952)—compilation
- The Hit Makers! (1953)
- Les and Mary (1955)
- Time to Dream (1957)
- Lover's Luau (1959)
- The Hits of Les and Mary (1960)—compilation
- Bouquet of RosesBouquet of RosesBouquet of Roses is an album by Les Paul and Mary Ford, released in 1962.-Track listing:#"I Love You So Much It Hurts Me"#"You Win Again"#"Four Walls"#"I Hang My Head And Cry"#"Someday "#"I'll Never Be Free"...
(1962) - Warm and Wonderful (1962)
- Swingin' South (1963)
- Fabulous Les Paul and Mary Ford (1965)
- Les Paul Now! (1968)
- Guitar Tapestry
- Lover
- The Guitar Artistry of Les Paul (1971)
- The World is Still Waiting for the Sunrise (1974)—compilation
- The Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford (1974)—compilation
- Chester and LesterChester and LesterChester & Lester is a collaborative album by guitarists Chet Atkins and Les Paul released in 1976.It was recorded in the mid-1970s when Chet was in his fifties and Les in his sixties. Chet coaxed Les out of his decade-long retirement for this recording...
(1976)—with Chet AtkinsChet AtkinsChester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle... - Guitar MonstersGuitar MonstersGuitar Monsters is the title of a recording by Chet Atkins and Les Paul. It is their second collaboration together after their Grammy award winning release Chester & Lester....
(1977)—with Chet Atkins - Les Paul and Mary Ford (1978)—compilation
- Multi Trackin' (1979)
- All-Time Greatest Hits (1983)—compilation
- The Very Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford'
- Famille Nombreuse (1992)—compilation
- The World Is Waiting (1992)—compilation
- The Best of the Capitol Masters: Selections From "The Legend and the Legacy" Box Set (1992)—compilation
- All-Time Greatest Hits (1992)—compilation
- Their All-Time Greatest Hits (1995)—compilation
- Les Paul: The Legend and the Legacy (1996; a four-CD box set chronicling his years with Capitol Records)
- 16 Most Requested Songs (1996)—compilation
- The Complete Decca Trios—Plus (1936–1947) (1997)—compilation
- California Melodies (2003)
- Les Paul – The Legendary Fred Waring Broadcasts (2004)
- Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played (2005)
- Les Paul And Friends: A Tribute To A Legend (2008)
Singles
- "It's Been a Long, Long TimeIt's Been A Long, Long Time"It's Been A Long, Long Time" is a 1945 popular song that became a major hit at the end of World War II. The lyrics are written from the perspective of a person welcoming home his or her spouse or lover at the end of the war....
"—Bing CrosbyBing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
& The Les Paul Trio (1945), #1 on Billboard Pop singles chart, 1 week, December 8 - "Rumors Are FlyingRumors Are Flying"Rumors Are Flying" is a popular song.It was written by Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss and published in 1946.It was popularized in 1946 by Frankie Carle and by Les Paul. It was a number-one hit in America for eight weeks from late October that year....
"—Andrews Sisters & Les Paul (1946) - "Guitar BoogieGuitar Boogie (song)"Guitar Boogie" is a guitar instrumental recorded by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith. In 1948, the song became a hit, eventually selling nearly three million copies...
" (1947) - "Lover (When You're Near Me)" (1948)
- "Brazil" (1948)
- "What Is This Thing Called Love?What Is This Thing Called Love?"What Is This Thing Called Love?"is a 1929 popular song written by Cole Porter, for the musical Wake Up and Dream. It was first performed by Elsie Carlisle in March 1929. The song has become a popular jazz standard and one of Porter's most often played compositions.Wake Up and Dream ran for 263...
" (1948) - "Nola" (1950)
- "Goofus" (1950)
- "Little Rock 69 Getaway" (1950/1951)
- "Tennessee Waltz"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1950/1951), #1, Cashbox
- "Mockingbird Hill"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Cashbox
- "How High The MoonHow High the Moon"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock....
"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 9 weeks, April 21 – June 16; #1, Cashbox, 2 weeks; #2, R&B chart - "I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
- "The World Is Waiting for the SunriseThe World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" is a popular ballad with lyrics by Gene Lockhart and music by the concert pianist Ernest Seitz, who had conceived the refrain when he was 12. Embarrassed about writing popular music, Seitz used the pseudonym "Raymond Roberts" when the song was first published...
"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #2, Billboard; #3, Cashbox - "Just One More Chance"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
- "Jazz Me Blues" (1951)
- "Josephine" (1951)
- "Whispering" (1951)
- "Jingle BellsJingle Bells"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...
" (1951) - "Tiger RagTiger Rag"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time.-Origins:...
"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952), #2, Billboard; #8, Cashbox - "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
- "CariocaCarioca (song)" Carioca" is a 1933 popular song with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn, as well as the name of the dance choreographed to it for the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio...
" (1952) - "In the Good Old SummertimeIn the Good Old Summer Time"In the Good Old Summer Time" is an American Tin Pan Alley song first published in 1902 with music by George Evans and lyrics by Ren Shields.Shields and Evans were at first unsuccessfully trying to sell the song to one of New York's big sheet music publishers. The publishers thought the topic of...
"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952) - "Smoke Rings"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
- "Meet Mister Callaghan" (1952), #5, Billboard
- "Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
- "Lady of SpainLady of Spain (song)"Lady Of Spain" is a popular song, written in 1931 by Robert Hargreaves, Tolchard Evans, Stanley J. Damerell, and Henry Tilsley.-Performance:...
" (1952) - "My Baby's Coming Home"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
- "Bye Bye BluesBye Bye Blues (song)"Bye Bye Blues" is a popular and jazz standard written by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray and published in 1930.The year it was introduced it was sung by The Vikings on the NBC radio series, The Vikings. It has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known recording is one...
"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953) - "I'm Sitting On Top Of The WorldI'm Sitting on Top of the World"I'm Sitting on Top of the World" is a popular song.The music was written by Ray Henderson, the lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. The song was published in 1925.The song was first recorded by either Art Gillham or Al Jolson...
"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953) - "Sleep" (Fred WaringFred WaringFredrick Malcolm Waring was a popular musician, bandleader and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." He was also a promoter, financial backer and namesake of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric...
's theme song) (1953) - "Vaya Con DiosVaya con Dios (song)"Vaya con Dios" is a popular song written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and published in 1953....
"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 11 weeks, August 8 – October 3, November 7–14; #1, Cashbox, 5 weeks - "Johnny (Is The Boy For Me)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #15, Billboard; #25, Cashbox
- "Don'cha Hear Them Bells"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #13, Billboard; #32, Cashbox
- "The Kangaroo" (1953), #25, Billboard; #23, Cashbox
- "I Really Don't Want To Know"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
- "I'm A Fool To Care"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
- "Whither Thou Goest"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
- "Mandolino"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #19, Billboard
- "Song in Blue"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #17, Cashbox
- "Hummingbird"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
- "Amukiriki (The Lord Willing)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
- "Magic Melody"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
- "Texas Lady"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)
- "Moritat" (Theme from "Three Penny Opera") (1956)
- "Nuevo Laredo"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)
- "Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1957)
- "Put A Ring On My Finger"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1958)
- "Jura (I Swear I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1961)
- "Love Sneakin' Up On You"-Les Paul, Joss Stone & Sting (2005)
Compositions
Les Paul was also a prolific composer. Some of the songs he wrote were "Song in Blue", "Cryin'", "Hip-billy Boogie", "Suspicion", "Mandolino", "Magic Melody", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The Kangaroo", "Big-Eyed Gal", "All I Need is You", "Mammy's Boogie", “Pacific Breeze”, “Mountain Railroad”, “Move Along, Baby (Don’t Waste My Time)”, "Five Alarm Fire", and "Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues".See also
- AmpexAmpexAmpex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
- Discovery WorldDiscovery WorldDiscovery World is a museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 500 N. Harbor Drive. When the museum moved to Milwaukee's lakefront in 2006, it changed its name to Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin. It formerly was located at 815 N. James Lovell Street....
- Gibson Les PaulGibson Les PaulThe Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
- Gibson SGGibson SGAt the launch of the SG in 1961, Gibson offered four variants of the SG; the SG Junior , the SG Special, the SG Standard, and the top-of-the-line SG Custom. However, Gibson's current core variants as of 2010 are the SG Standard and the SG Special...
- List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
- Mary FordMary FordMary Ford , born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits...
External links
- History of Les Paul
- Les Paul: Chasing Sound (may require subscription) PBS Documentary on the life of Les Paul, including extended interviews with Paul.
- Remembering Les Paul Photos and extended interviews with Les on WGN Chicago's Steve & Johnnie early morning show
- Staff writer (August 13, 2009). "Les Paul", obituary at The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
(Accessed August 24, 2009) - "Les Paul, 'The Wizard of Waukesha'", a biography (undated) at the Wisconsin Historical SocietyWisconsin Historical SocietyThe Wisconsin Historical Society is simultaneously a private membership and a state-funded organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of North America, with an emphasis on the state of Wisconsin and the trans-Allegheny West...
's official website - Les Paul – Discovery World 2005 video (requires Adobe FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
) at Discovery WorldDiscovery WorldDiscovery World is a museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 500 N. Harbor Drive. When the museum moved to Milwaukee's lakefront in 2006, it changed its name to Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin. It formerly was located at 815 N. James Lovell Street....
's (museum) official website - The Les Paul Show, archive of Paul's NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
radio show at the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
's official website (includes MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
files (free) of eleven of their radio shows including their audition show) - lespaulfoundation.org, Les Paul Foundation website (includes Legacy, Foundation & Community websites)
- "Les Paul: Legacy of a Guitar Hero" at LIFELifeLife is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
- The Wizard of Waukesha (1980) at Allmovie's official website
- Les Paul – 'Miles of Music, two video interviews of and performances by Paul (5–6 minutes each; requires Adobe FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
) with Bob Miles on Miles of Music (milesofmusic.tv), a Public-access televisionPublic-access televisionPublic-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV program - CLASSIC TRACKS: Les Paul & Mary Ford 'How High The Moon'
- Photo Library from performances at Iridium
- Les Paul's final interview