YEAR
2008
INDUCTED BY
John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
CATEGORY
Performers
The quintessential instrumental rock and roll band.
Few bands are as prolific as the Ventures—they released thirty-seven albums in twelve years, many of them thematic. They rocked America in the sixties and went on to lasting international fame and influence.
Bob Bogle
Don Wilson
Gerry McGee
Mel Taylor
Nokie Edwards
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By John Teagle
Fifty years ago, a pair of Tacoma, Washington, construction workers — Bob Bogle and Don Wilson — began picking guitars together in their spare time. The band they formed – the Ventures—would establish itself as the premier guitar-based combo in America.
Beginning with 1960’s “Walk Don’t Run,” the Ventures created a body of work that remains untouchable by any other instrumental group in the history of rock & roll. The band’s influence has extended from nascent surf music to the British Invasion, garage rock, psychedelia, heavy metal, new wave, and beyond.
