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Profile: Les Paul

By , About.com Guide

Les Paul

Les Paul

source: washingtoncitypaper.com

Born:

Lester William Polsfuss on June 9, 1915, Waukesha, WI; died August 13, 2009, White Plains, NY

Genres:

Jazz, Pop, Pop vocal

Instruments:

Guitar

Contributions to music:

  • Invented the solid-body electric guitar, a prototype which now famously bears his name
  • The first to popularize multitrack recording of both vocals and instruments
  • Invented "close miking" of vocalists, a standard still used today
  • One of the first to experiment with delay and phasing effects
  • Perhaps the greatest jazz-pop guitarist of his time
  • With wife Mary Ford, one of the most popular musical acts of the early 1950s
  • A major influence on rock guitarists for over fifty years
  • His mix of country boogie, jazz, and blues guitar was a major component of rock guitar soloing

Early years:

A natural-born musician, Les Paul was playing harmonica at eight and country guitar at 13; he soon became well known in the Waukesha area and dropped out of high school to play on the radio in the Midwest. At 21, he was gigging in Chicago clubs (and also recording) as Rhubarb Red, and was also in high demand as a session guitarist on blues and jazz 78s, billing himself as Les Paul, a shortened version of his given name. Frustrated with the sound of the badly-amplified hollow-body guitars of the day, he worked with the Epiphone company in New York to build a solid guitar out of a block of wood.

Success:

Dubbed "The Log," Paul journeyed to Los Angeles, where Bing Crosby found himself entranced by the new instrument; to help Les, he cut a series of discs featuring them both. Thus was Les introduced to the national audience, and while he worked on Bing's weekly radio show, Paul also came up with several technical innovations, including a primitive form of overdubbing, that are used to this day. By 1949 he had met future wife Colleen Summers (Mary Ford), and together, the two stormed the early-Fifties pop charts with 16 Top Ten hits and a handful of enormously popular #1 smashes such as "How High The Moon" (9 weeks).

Later years:

By 1963 the marriage had soured, in part due to the financial toll rock and roll had taken on the duo's jazz-pop style, and they split in a famously ugly divorce. Paul, 47 at that point, decided to retire from the business entirely. But his inventions and musical legacy -- particularly the rock standard, the Gibson Les Paul guitar, introduced in 1952 -- kept his name alive, and by the late Seventies he'd begun making records again. In 1984, he begun a legendary regular Monday-night slot at Fat Tuesdays in New York (later at the Iridium Jazz Club), to which fans flocked for two decades in pilgrimage.

Other facts:

  • Known as the "Wizard of Waukesha"
  • Was sent home from piano lessons at age nine with a note from his teacher saying he was wasting his time
  • Created his first solid-body using a telephone coil and a gramophone needle
  • Picked wife Colleen's stage name, Mary Ford, out of a phone book so it would be as short as his own
  • Invented overdubbing when Bing Crosby presented him with the first American tape recorder
  • Paul's 1948 solo hit "Lover" was the first record recorded on eight tracks
  • Was injured in an Oklahoma auto accident in 1948; when doctors were unable to rebuild his elbow, Paul had it set at a guitar-playing angle, permanently

Awards/Honors:

  • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1988)
  • GRAMMY awards (1976, 2005)
  • GRAMMY Hall of Fame (1978)
  • National Inventors Hall of Fame (2005)
  • National Broadcasters Hall of Fame (2006)

Recorded work:

#1 hits:

Pop:

"It's Been A Long, Long Time" with Bing Crosby (1945)
"How High The Moon" with Mary Ford (1951)"Vaya Con Dios" with Mary Ford (1953)

Top 10 hits:

Pop:


"Rumors Are Flying" with The Andrews Sisters (1946)
"What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1948)
"Nola" (1950)
"Tennessee Waltz" with Mary Ford (1950)
"Mockingbird Hill" with Mary Ford (1951)
"The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" with Mary Ford (1951)
"Just One More Chance" with Mary Ford (1951)
"Tiger Rag" with Mary Ford (1952)
"Meet Mr. Callaghan" (1952)
"Lady Of Spain" (1952)
"My Baby's Coming Home" with Mary Ford (1952)
"Bye Bye Blues" with Mary Ford (1953)
"I'm Sitting On Top Of The World" with Mary Ford (1953)
"I Really Don't Want To Know" (1954)
"I'm A Fool To Care" with Mary Ford (1954)
"Whither Thou Goest" with Mary Ford (1954)
"Hummingbird" with Mary Ford (1955)

Top 10 albums:

Pop:

Les and Mary (1955)

Other important songs: "Lover," "Brazil," "Hip-Billy Boogie," "Caravan," "Cryin'," "Dry My Tears," "Goofus," "Little Rock Getaway," "Chicken Reel," "Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues," "Josephine," "I Wish I'd Never Seen Sunshine," "In The Good Old Summertime," "Three Little Words," "Jazz Me Blues," "Whispering," "Jingle Bells," "Carioca," "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)," "Smoke Rings," "Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me," "Deep In The Blues," "St. Louis Blues," "Mammy's Boogie," "Sleep," "Johnny Is The Boy For Me," "The Kangaroo," "Hear Them Bells," "South," "Auctioneer (I'll Buy That Dream)," "Mandolino," "Song In Blue," "Someday, Sweetheart," "No Letter Today," "On The Sunny Side Of The Street," "Just One Of Those Things," "Twelfth Street Rag," "Lies," "Nuevo Laredo," "The Best Things In Life Are Free," "Some Of These Days," "Farewell (For Just Awhile)," "Amukiriki (The Lord Willing)"
Covered by: Freddy Fender, The Drifters, Fats Domino, Willie Nelson, Anita O'Day, Bunny Sigler, Edith Piaf, Jo Stafford, Tex Williams, Dick Van Dyke
Appears in the movies: "" (1984)

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