Surfing music of the 60s with The Ventures

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Load up your MP3 player with the hottest tunes from the original west coast surfing music scene. A selection of the best surf music bands on the planet!

The Ventures are the classic surfing music band; their signature sound has influenced countless artists since the early days of rock 'n roll. In fact, the influence of their music can be seen around the world, with record-breaking album sales and concerts in several countries. The Ventures started touring in the early 60s and they continue to give sell-out performances to their loyal fans.

The band is known for creating catchy instrumental versions of popular songs and creating a mix of the best music for their albums based on a theme or genre of music. Hawaii Five-O is filled with cover songs of music made for films, theater and television; The Ventures In Space is all about rocket ships and sound effects popular during the "race to space". They have over 100 LP records issued in the US, and many more titles distributed in other countries.

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The Ventures sound grew out of the great northwest, in Tacoma, Washington, near Seattle. The band started in 1958 when two brick layers, Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, got together because of their interest in music and guitars. They recruited Nokie Edwards and hired Howie Johnson on drums. After auditioning a few original numbers with vocal parts, the band started focusing on instrumental music to create unique cover songs of current pop music.

Johnson was injured in 1962 and left the band. He was replaced by Mel Taylor on drums who played with the band on and off until he passed away in 1996. Leon Taylor inherited the position of drummer from his father.

The current lineup of the band features the original members Don Wilson playing rhythm guitar, and Nokie Edwards playing lead guitar. Bob Bogle passed away in 2009, and now guitarist Bob Spalding tours with the band.

Surfing and swimming are excellent sports for endurance, strength - and lung capacity, it helps if you can hold your breath for a long time. Be sure to swim with a friend, learn about the underwater terrain and know what to do in a rip current.

50 years of great music

The Ventures created a partnership with the Mosrite guitar company early in their career. Manufactured exclusively for the band and appreciated world-wide for that perfect surf guitar sound. See the Ventures website directory (below) for their official website, current concert dates, reviews and more information from fan sites.

In addition to their unique instrumental music, The Ventures also worked on a novel scheme of packaging the songs together in "theme" albums which sold well from the start. In their fifty year career they have released at least 300 different LP records and compact disks. (Refer to the complete discography at Wikipedia). And the music is even more popular overseas. Their first tour of Japan was in 1965 and they continue to play big stadium concerts around the world. The Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and they hold the title as the best-selling instrumental band of all time.

Another great reason to collect The Ventures LP records is the album cover art. From the very first record released in 1960 - where the musicians are falling all over themselves for a girl - The Ventures have always released stylish album covers with pictures of beautiful girls in bikinis and imagery appropriate to the theme of the album. And there's many themes to choose from - Christmas albums, space age music, psychedelic music - all with The Ventures' distinctive instrumental arrangement for classic pop songs.

Just one problem, that's not The Ventures on the 1st album cover! Studio technicians stood in for the photographs while the band was away on tour. The album was re-released later with a new album cover featuring the original band members.

Telstar is the name of the very first communications satellite - launched into orbit around earth in July 1962. The world was captivated by the idea of fast communications, and a British band called the Tornadoes released a song named after the satellite in August of that year. The song was the number one single on the US and UK charts by December, and The Ventures performed Telstar on their fifth album, released in January 1963.

This was the first time that telephone and television signals could be sent overseas without using trans-oceanic copper wires stretched across the ocean floor. Now, there are approximately 8,000 satellites in the sky, with countless bits of "space junk", and Telstar has become a generic word for any communications satellite.

The Ventures played songs created by popular surf rock bands from the early sixties as well as a number of original hits. Bands like the The Bel-Airs, The Chantays, The Surfaris, The Tornadoes and Dick Dale and his Del-Tones created the surf sound that the Ventures molded into instrumental greats. The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean and later surf revival bands also created classic songs with that west coast surfing sound.

The Ventures produced over 300 different albums and performed around the world for 50 years. Find original album covers from this great legacy of music. Mono and stereo versions of the early LP records were published, and a few albums were re-released with different album cover art.