Duane Eddy, who died as a result of cancer, “had enormous success as a purely instrumental artist in the 1950s and 1960s” and was an important player in the use of the electric guitar in rock music, wrote “The New York Times” today. .
With a guitar technique through which melodies came out with a vibrato and reverberation that was unusual at the time – which ended up being characterized as “twangy guitar” -, Duane Eddy recorded several hits in the 1950s, particularly with musician and producer Lee Hazlewood.
Without knowing how to read music or write music, Duane Eddy left songs like “Rebel-Rouser”, “Cannonball” or “Because They’re Young” and among the albums recorded there is one of versions of Bob Dylan songs.
In the 1980s, Duane Eddy reached other generations of audiences when the British group Art of Noise invited him to play the song “Peter Gunn”, by Henry Mancini, of which the guitarist had already written his own version in 1959.
Rolling Stone magazine recalls that Duane Eddy was an idol for musicians such as George Harrison, Jeff Beck or Dan Auerbach, from The Black Keys, with whom the guitarist collaborated in 2017.
In 2023, the musician was included in the list of the best guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
