Also in 1962, Nokie Edwards moved from bass to guitar, while Bob Bogle swapped out guitar for bass. In 1962, Howie Johnson left the band as he didn't enjoy being away from his family because of touring and recording commitments, and Mel Taylor was hired after Bogle and Wilson saw him play at the Palomino Club in Los Angeles, completing the group's definitive lineup. 1961 brought a third hit single, 'Ram-Bunk-Shush,' which reached number 29, as well as no fewer than three albums, The Ventures, Another Smash!, and The Colorful Ventures (the latter dominated by songs that had colors in their titles). (By the time the single made the charts, Moore had left the band, and opted out of future royalties for the single Howie Johnson promptly took over behind the drum kit.)īefore 1960 was out, the Ventures landed another hit single, 'Perfidia,' which rose to number 15, and put out their first album, Walk Don't Run, which just missed the Top Ten, peaking on the LP charts at 11. 2 on the national singles charts, and the Ventures were rising stars. ( Babbitt would go on to become a four-star general in the United States Air Force.) For their next single, Bogle picked a song called 'Walk Don't Run' from a Chet Atkins album, and after first putting it out on Blue Horizon, the Seattle-based Dolton Records label picked it up for nationwide re-release. From that point on, the group put their focus on instrumental numbers, and Babbitt was replaced on drums by Skip Moore when he left the band to focus on his military career. The group self-released a debut single, 'The Real McCoy' b/w 'Cookies and Coke,' on their own Blue Horizon label the B-side was a standard issue rock tune with lyrics about a teenage party, but the A-side pointed to their future, with a tight guitar chart occasionally punctuated by Wilson imitating Walter Brennan's character of Grandpa Amos from the then-popular situation comedy The Real McCoys. Bogle and Wilson brought aboard a permanent bassist when they recruited Nokie Edwards to join the group, and they rounded out the lineup with drummer George Babbitt. As they began playing out regularly, they discovered the name the Versatones was already in use, and on the advice of Wilson's mother, they adopted the new moniker the Ventures. The two worked together in masonry, and after buying cheap guitars at a pawn shop, they learned to play ( Bogle on lead guitar, and Wilson on rhythm) and began gigging around the Pacific Northwest with a rotating lineup of bassists and drummers.

The Ventures' origins lie in a Tacoma, Washington group called the Versatones, formed around 1959 by semi-pro guitarists Bob Bogle and Don Wilson. The 1990 collection Walk Don't Run: The Best of the Ventures is a superb introduction to their catalog, featuring 25 tracks from their '60s releases, while Live in Japan '65 is an outstanding document of their live show, and 1963's The Ventures Play Telstar, The Lonely Bull is an archetypal example of their albums from their classic era. The group gained a sizable following outside their native United States, especially in Japan, where they toured often and recorded albums strictly for that market. Whether they were playing original compositions or interpreting familiar tunes, the group's trademark style proved to be surprisingly adaptable, and they released dozens of thematically programmed albums in the 1960s and '70s (17 of which made it into the Top 40 of the LP charts), as well as scoring hit singles such as 'Walk Don't Run' and 'Hawaii Five-O.' The Ventures inspired a small army of similar groups in their heyday, and plenty of aspiring rock guitarists learned the rudiments of the instrument from their 1965 album Play Guitar with the Ventures. The most popular and influential rock instrumental combo of their day, the Ventures pioneered a sound that anticipated surf music with their emphasis on clean guitar twang and a precise rhythm section that added a punchy kick to their melodies.

The ventures eight miles high