Post by erik on Mar 16, 2024 17:35:23 GMT -5
The Ventures, the most successful (primarily) instrumental group in rock and roll, are in the Pop Album Spotlight with a 1969 album that not only added to their luster as an institution but also gave a TV series a big boos as well.
HAWAII FIVE-O (The Ventures; Liberty; 1969)
Even though they may not have had quite the same recognition as, say, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or The Beach Boys, the Ventures had an unquestionable impact on rock and roll’s development during the 1960’s. On the most basic level, they achieved huge success by being rock’s most influential and successful instrumental band, with a tremelo electric guitar sound that would personify much of West Coast rock from the 1960’s onwards. Formed in Tacoma, Washington in 1959, the group came to prominence in 1960 with their version of jazz guitarist Jimmy Smith’s “Walk Don’t Run”, which hit #2 in August 1960. Their follow-up, a cover of the Alberto Dominguez-penned Latin classic “Perfidia” hit #15 in November of that year; and although in later years, their “surf” sound was co-opted by other far lesser known West Coast bands, they were nevertheless able to sell a lot in terms of albums; and because of their electric guitar-based sound, they became known as “The Band That Launched A Thousand Bands”. Their “surf” remake of “Walk Don’t Run”, “Walk Don’t Run ‘64”, reached #8 on the Hot 100 in August 1964.
Even with the Beatles and the British Invasion, the Ventures continued to sell quite well in America; and in Japan, their popularity was only rivaled by the Beatles themselves. And then in 1969, they got another big hit, both in terms of a single and a big-selling album, via the release in the spring of that year of Hawaii Five-O. Like a lot of albums of theirs, it included instrumental covers of then-current favorites, including “Galveston”, “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In”, and “Spooky”, as well as a minor #83 hit version of the Max Steiner-penned 1959 movie theme “The Theme From A Summer Place”. It was the title track of that album, however, that became such a huge hit. Composed by Morton Stevens for the CBS-TV crime drama series that, at the time, was in the first of what became twelve hugely successful seasons on the air, the Ventures’ version of “Hawaii Five-O”, though it clocked in at under two minutes, became one of the biggest hits of 1969, peaking at #4 on the Hot 100 in May 1969, and becoming, unsurprisingly, a big favorite on many AM stations on the West Coast. As an album, Hawaii Five-O, peaked at a hugely respectable #11 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart in late May and early June, going on to sell 700,000 copies.
Though they were not able to reach the heights they reached in the 1960’s, the Ventures kept recording and touring, primarily in America and Japan, where their influence and popularity among fans and musicians alike, including Joe Walsh (of The Eagles), Gene Simmons (of Kiss), and Carl Wilson (of The Beach Boys), remained undiminished. The group was finally enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
HAWAII FIVE-O (The Ventures; Liberty; 1969)
Even though they may not have had quite the same recognition as, say, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or The Beach Boys, the Ventures had an unquestionable impact on rock and roll’s development during the 1960’s. On the most basic level, they achieved huge success by being rock’s most influential and successful instrumental band, with a tremelo electric guitar sound that would personify much of West Coast rock from the 1960’s onwards. Formed in Tacoma, Washington in 1959, the group came to prominence in 1960 with their version of jazz guitarist Jimmy Smith’s “Walk Don’t Run”, which hit #2 in August 1960. Their follow-up, a cover of the Alberto Dominguez-penned Latin classic “Perfidia” hit #15 in November of that year; and although in later years, their “surf” sound was co-opted by other far lesser known West Coast bands, they were nevertheless able to sell a lot in terms of albums; and because of their electric guitar-based sound, they became known as “The Band That Launched A Thousand Bands”. Their “surf” remake of “Walk Don’t Run”, “Walk Don’t Run ‘64”, reached #8 on the Hot 100 in August 1964.
Even with the Beatles and the British Invasion, the Ventures continued to sell quite well in America; and in Japan, their popularity was only rivaled by the Beatles themselves. And then in 1969, they got another big hit, both in terms of a single and a big-selling album, via the release in the spring of that year of Hawaii Five-O. Like a lot of albums of theirs, it included instrumental covers of then-current favorites, including “Galveston”, “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In”, and “Spooky”, as well as a minor #83 hit version of the Max Steiner-penned 1959 movie theme “The Theme From A Summer Place”. It was the title track of that album, however, that became such a huge hit. Composed by Morton Stevens for the CBS-TV crime drama series that, at the time, was in the first of what became twelve hugely successful seasons on the air, the Ventures’ version of “Hawaii Five-O”, though it clocked in at under two minutes, became one of the biggest hits of 1969, peaking at #4 on the Hot 100 in May 1969, and becoming, unsurprisingly, a big favorite on many AM stations on the West Coast. As an album, Hawaii Five-O, peaked at a hugely respectable #11 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart in late May and early June, going on to sell 700,000 copies.
Though they were not able to reach the heights they reached in the 1960’s, the Ventures kept recording and touring, primarily in America and Japan, where their influence and popularity among fans and musicians alike, including Joe Walsh (of The Eagles), Gene Simmons (of Kiss), and Carl Wilson (of The Beach Boys), remained undiminished. The group was finally enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.