Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Class of 2008
Walk Don't Run
Walk Don’t Run
Walk Don't Run went to #2 on the charts in July, 1960.
It was the first hit for The Ventures.
The song was said to define a whole new instrumental music genre, that would lead to the surf guitar craze a few years later.
READ what Joe Walsh said about Walk Don't Run:
JOE WALSH
The James Gang, The Eagles, Solo Artist
In response to a question about the greatest guitar solos in guitar history —
“I don't really know if it's a solo or not, but I'd have to say that “Walk, Don't Run” by The Ventures changed an awful lot of guitar players' lives. It was one of the foundational instrumentals. It made instrumentals okay to do . . .
It had been done before with Duane Eddy, but with The Ventures, America discovered the vibrato bar. I didn't even play guitar at the time, but I loved Walk, Don't Run. I was just 13 when that came out in '60, and my mom was making me practice a stupid metal clarinet for orchestra. I borrowed a guitar just to learn how to play that lead part.
A lot of people ended up playing guitar because of that song. We used to look at their second album cover, and nobody could believe that there was a Fender Jazzmaster and a Fender Strat and a perfect Precision. Later on The Ventures went to Mosrites, but that band and that particular song really paved the way for a whole new approach to instrumentals, and “lead guitar” became so much more important in the song”.