Twang Thang

Product Description:

Includes 6 previously unreleased tracks and a booklet with photos and liner notes.

David Letterman once asked first-generation rock & roll guitar hero Duane Eddy what his most important contribution to music was, to which Eddy replied without a pause "I never sang." The music collected on this typically definitive Rhino career retrospective goes a long way to proving Eddy's instrumental prowess. He had a simple formula--simple melody lines played on the lowest strings of the guitar and than heavily echoed--but it proved surprisingly adaptable and tremendously influential. Brian Wilson stole the opening riff from Eddy's "Movin' and Groovin' " for "Surfin' U.S.A.," and Ennio Morricone's scores for Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns are drenched in Eddy-derived guitar lines.

As you might expect, all the hits are here, from the infectious 1958 smash "Rebel Rouser" to the 1986 re-make of the theme from PETER GUNN that Eddy recorded with the Art of Noise. There are also some interesting oddities, including the Jeff Lynne-produced "The Trembler," which Trent Reznor remixed to great ominous affect for the soundtrack of Oliver Stone's NATURAL BORN KILLERS.