The Ventures
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the 1960s. While their popularity in the United States waned in the 1970s, the group remains especially revered in Japan, where they have toured regularly. The classic lineup of the band consisted of Wilson, Bogle, Nokie Edwards, and Mel Taylor.
Their first wide-release single, "Walk, Don't Run", brought international fame to the group, and is often cited as one of the top songs ever recorded for guitar.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, 38 of the band's albums charted in the US, ranking them as the 6th best album chart performer during the 1960s, and the band had 14 singles in the Billboard Hot 100.
With over 100 million records sold, the Ventures are the best-selling instrumental band of all time.
The band was among the first to employ and popularize fuzz and flanging guitar effects, concept albums, and twelve-string guitars in rock music. Their instrumental virtuosity, innovation, and unique sound influenced many musicians and bands, earning the group the moniker "The Band that Launched a Thousand Bands".
Their recording of "Walk, Don't Run" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for its lasting impact,
and in 2008 the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
History
Formation and rise to fame
Don Wilson and Bob Bogle first met in 1958, when Bogle was looking to buy a car from a used car dealership in Seattle owned by Wilson's father. Finding a common interest in guitars, the two decided to play together, while Wilson joined Bogle performing masonry work. They bought two used guitars in a pawn shop for about $10 each. Initially calling themselves the Versatones, the duo played small clubs, beer bars, and private parties throughout the Pacific Northwest. Wilson played rhythm guitar, Bogle lead. When they went to register the band name, they found that it was already taken. Disappointed, they cast about for an appropriate name. Wilson's mother suggested the name "The Ventures", upon which they eventually agreed in 1959.After watching Nokie Edwards play at a nightclub, they recruited him as bass player. Bogle owned a Chet Atkins LP, Hi-Fi in Focus, on which he heard the song "Walk, Don't Run". Soon, the group was in a recording studio playing the new song, with Bogle on lead, Wilson on rhythm, Edwards on bass, and Skip Moore on drums. They pressed a number of 45s, which they distributed to several record companies. Later, Skip Moore opted out of the group to work at his family's gas station. When "Walk, Don't Run" was recorded, he also opted out of the royalties from the recording, taking $25 for the session instead. He later sued to collect royalties but failed because of his prior opt-out. "Walk, Don't Run" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.
File:The Ventures with Dick Clark.png|thumb|The band with Dick Clark. Left to right: Bob Bogle, Howie Johnson, Dick Clark, Don Wilson and Nokie Edwards.
Needing a permanent drummer for the group after George T. Babbitt Jr. dropped out because he was not old enough to play night clubs and bars, they hired Howie Johnson and, in the midst of a fast-paced touring schedule, recorded an album to capitalize on the success of the single. The lineup of Bogle, Wilson, Edwards and Johnson remained intact until September 1962, when Johnson was replaced by Mel Taylor. The group found early success with a string of singles, but quickly became leaders in the album market.
The Ventures were among the pioneers of concept albums where each song on several of their albums was chosen to fit a specific theme. Some of the Ventures' most popular albums at the time were a series of records of dance music. In the early 1960s "golden age of hi-fi", with the novelty of stereo still in its experimental stages, the Ventures found their characteristic style of recording each instrument in either the extreme left or right channel, with little cross-over, enhancing the stereo effect to its fullest limits.
In 1963, Edwards, a talented guitarist in his own right, suggested that Bogle's lead guitar abilities were being stretched, and that they were in essence wasting Edwards' talents by keeping him on bass. Bogle agreed, and rapidly learned the bass parts to all their tunes, allowing Edwards to take lead guitar full-time, although he had played lead previously on several tracks on their first studio sessions/albums. This move would prove vital in modernizing the band's sound, ensuring success in an ever-changing market well into the late 1960s.
Classic lineup
In the fall of 1957, Johnson had been injured in an auto crash, which caused irreversible spinal damage. This forced him to play with a neckbrace at first. However, he was able to play without it shortly after joining the group. Johnson played on the first four LPs and recorded on about half of the tracks on the fifth LP and about half of their sixth LP. He did not like spending so much time away from his new family by having to commute from Seattle to Los Angeles to record, and because of this, he left the band. Johnson continued to play locally in the Washington area with local groups until his death on May 5, 1988, at age 54.At the time Johnson quit the Ventures, Bogle and Wilson already knew Mel Taylor, house drummer at The Palomino in North Hollywood. Taylor was known for a hard-hitting style of drumming. The group invited him to some recording sessions, which led Taylor to become a permanent member of the Ventures. The band continued to remain a constant presence in the American music landscape during this time; between 1962 and 1967, they released 22 albums, and all but one reached the top 100 of the Billboard albums chart. They experienced more moderate success in the singles market, with six singles charting on the Billboard Hot 100. Their most successful single during this time was "Walk Don't Run '64", which reached No. 8.
During this time, the Ventures' popularity overseas began to increase significantly. In particular, the Japanese music market embraced the Ventures' music after Bogle and Wilson toured the country in 1962. By the time they returned in 1964, this time as a full band, their music became immensely popular in Japan, and were greeted by thousands of fans at the airport. Their 1965 single "Diamond Head" reached only No. 70 in the United States but was a major hit overseas, reaching No. 1 in the Japanese and Hong Kong markets, and becoming the first million-selling single in Japan. The Ventures were responsible for a period in Japanese music known as the 'eleki boom', where thousands of Japanese purchased electric guitars and many guitar-based bands started up.
Decline and resurgence in the US
The combination of Edwards on lead guitar, Taylor on drums, Bogle on bass and Wilson on rhythm guitar remained unchanged until Edwards left the band in 1968, to be replaced by Gerry McGee, son of the famous Cajun fiddle player Dennis McGee.Edwards came back in 1973 and remained with them until 1984, although he has toured and gigged with them dozens of times in the subsequent years. Edwards' replacement in 1984 was, once again, Gerry McGee. Mel Taylor left in 1972 to pursue a solo career when the Ventures became a nostalgia act. His intentions were to concentrate on new material and the progressive side of music. He returned in 1979 and stayed with the Ventures until his death from cancer in 1996.
File:The Ventures 1970.png|thumb|The band in 1970. Left to right: Gerry McGee, Bob Bogle, Don Wilson, Mel Taylor, and John Durrill
Their commercial fortunes in the US declined sharply in the early 1970s due to changing musical trends. In the late 1970s and into the 1980s, a resurgence of interest in surf music led to some in the punk/new wave audience rediscovering the band. The Go-Go's wrote "Surfin' And Spyin'" and dedicated it to the Ventures. The Ventures recorded their own version and continue occasionally to perform the song. Their career again rejuvenated by Quentin Tarantino's use of the Lively Ones' version of Nokie Edwards' "Surf Rider" and several other classic surf songs in the soundtrack of the hit movie Pulp Fiction. The Ventures became one of the most popular groups worldwide thanks in large part to their instrumental approach—there were no language barriers to overcome.
Recent years
When Mel Taylor got sick he was replaced by his son, Leon Taylor.The Ventures continue to tour in the US and Japan, and since Don Wilson retired in 2015, the current lineups of The Ventures feature no original members. The band is led by Bob Spalding, who joined as a session extra and guitar/bass substitiute member in 1980; he joined full time when Bogle retired in 2004. Mel Taylor's son Leon is still active in the group and Bob Spalding's son, Ian, has been in the group since 2016.
Deaths
Howie Johnson died in 1988.Mel Taylor died on August 11, 1996, of cancer, at the age of 62. He was diagnosed two weeks before his death.
Bogle retired from the band in December 2004 and was replaced by Bob Spalding. Bogle lived in Vancouver, Washington, for years and died there on June 14, 2009, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma; he was 75.
Nokie Edwards left the band in 1985 but from 1999 until 2016 made occasional guest appearances with the band on stage. He died on March 12, 2018 from complications after hip surgery. He was 82.
Gerry McGee, who was in the band for nearly 35 years after returning to the group in 1985, died on October 12, 2019, after having a heart attack and collapsing onstage four days earlier in Japan. He was 81.
Don Wilson continued to record with the band, but retired from touring at the end of 2015. He died of natural causes on January 22, 2022, at the age of 88.