DISQUS

A little ducation on the Ventures.

Approaching 100,000,000 units sold.

14 chart singles (6 top 40, 3 gold top ten) in the 1960s.

Walk Don't Run - Grammy Hall of Fame. Gold / Walk Dont Run '64 - First act to go Top 10 with two different versions of the same song. Gold / Hawaii-5-0 - Surf anthem and biggest TV theme hit of the 1960s. Gold

1962's 2,000 Pound Bee - first single ever to chart using the fuzz tone on the electric guitar. The Ventures had a customized fuzz box created as Maestro was designing a commercial model.

6th BEST ALBUM PERFORMER AMONG 1960s ACTS (Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums) with 33 charted in the decade, 16 of them Top 40.

4th BEST 1960s ALBUM PERFORMER AMONG ROCK-RELATED ARTISTS after Elvis, the Beatles, and Ray Charles. Among the first rock acts to sell albums on a style and sound, not needing hit singles on the albums.

1965's Play Guitar with The Ventures - first musical instrument instruction album to chart. Thousands, including future rock stars, learned to play from this.

Credited by the All Music Guide To Rock as among the first to create thematically oriented or concept albums, rather than just collections of songs.

Guitar Player magazine (20 Who Mattered) - 'The Ventures influenced not only styles, but also a generation's choice of instruments'.

Encyclopedia Brittanica on-line - 'The Ventures were a prototype for the guitar bands which followed'.

Among artists listing them as a favorite/influence; George Harrison (Beatles), Joe Walsh (James Gang, Eagles), Keith Moon (The Who), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Carl Wilson (Beach Boys), Stephen Stills, Peter Frampton, Roger Fisher (Heart), Roger Glover (Deep Purple), Jeff Baxter (Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan), Gene Simmons (Kiss), Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith).

Opened the Orient to electric guitar rock (40 million units in Japan).

Minor career? Do your homework.