Beauty's Beast by Lee Savino

Behind many of the great rock’n’roll instrumental acts of the late 1950s and early 60s was a great producer. The Fireballs had Norman Petty, the Champs had Dave Burgess, the Ventures had Bob Reisdorff, Sandy Nelson had Richie Podolor, Johnny & the Hurricanes had Harry Balk and, perhaps most significantly, Duane Eddy had Lee Hazlewood, who not only produced but also wrote many of his signature recordings. It took the emergence of Hazlewood and Eddy to turn what might have seemed a passing fad for rock’n’roll instrumentals into an identifiable genre. Previously, records without vocals tended to be regarded as novelties, but after ‘Moovin’ N’ Groovin’’ entered the charts early in 1958, followed by the Top 10 success of ‘Rebel-’Rouser’, such discs became a stand-alone category and soon every record company sought their own twangy guitar act.