June 16th, 2009 Bob Bogle of rock band The Ventures dies at 75

TACOMA, Wash. — Bob Bogle, lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band The Ventures, known for 1960s instrumental hits including “Walk, Don’t Run,” has died at age 75.

Don Wilson, the band’s other co-founder, told The News Tribune of Tacoma that Bogle became ill over the weekend and died Sunday.

The band sold millions of albums and heavily influenced other rock guitarists. It was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. The hall’s Web site hailed The Ventures as “the most successful instrumental combo in rock and roll history.”

“Walk, Don’t Run” reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart in 1960, and a revised version, “Walk, Don’t Run ‘64,” reached No. 8 in 1964. Among the band’s other hits were “Perfidia” and the theme from “Hawaii Five-O.”

The band got its start in 1958 in Tacoma. Bogle initially played lead and bass and Wilson played rhythm guitar. They were soon joined by Nokie Edwards, another guitarist, and drummer Howie Johnson, later replaced by Mel Taylor.

“Our aspirations were to pick up nothing heavier than a guitar,” Wilson said last year. “But it just mushroomed into something where we became internationally known.”

The Ventures were particularly popular in Japan, where Wilson and Bogle played as a duo during their first tour in 1962 because the promoter couldn’t afford to pay the other two band members.

The two Americans made such an impression, Wilson recalled last year, that when the band came back in 1964, “there were 6,000 people at the airport.” He said he didn’t realize at first the Japanese fans were there to see The Ventures.

Ventures Guitarist and Co-Founder Bob Bogle Dies at 75 Bob Bogle, the lead guitarist and co-founder of instrumental rock band the Ventures, died Sunday at age 75. Bogle suffered from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma but survived long enough to see the group get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.

The Tacoma-based band started in the late '50s when Bogle met Don Wilson and the two became co-workers in the construction business. After realizing they both dabbled in guitar, the pair decided to form a group in their spare time in 1958. Two years later, the band recorded an upbeat version of 'Walk Don't Run' -- based on Chet Atkins' 1957 take on the Johnny Smith jazz instrumental from two years earlier -- which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart only months later. The band's distinctive style, particularly Bogle's guitar leads, is credited as the inspiration for the unique "surf rock" sound. Speaking of 'Walk Don't Run' at last year's Rock Hall induction ceremony, Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty said, "That song started a whole new movement in rock 'n' roll. The sound of it became 'surf music' and the audacity of it empowered guitarists everywhere." The group later went on to have hits with 'Perfidia' and 'Hawaii Five-O.' Due to his failing health, Bogle stopped performing with the group in recent years and was unable to attend the Rock Hall induction ceremony in March 2008.

"Boy, I tell you, he's the brother I never had," Wilson told the Seattle Times. "And he is much more than any brother could be. He and I were partners for, like, 52 years. And to tell you the honest truth, we had never, ever had an argument in all that time -- never." Bogle is survived by his wife, Yumi, and funeral arrangements are still pending, though Wilson believes they will happen Thursday or Friday.