It is hard to overestimate the influence Duane Eddy had on the rock instrumental groups that proliferated in the late 50s and early 60s. There were plenty of musicians playing rock'n'roll before he came along, but Duane was the first instrumentalist to achieve pop star status. His spell at Jami Records resulted in no less than 20 entries in Billboard's Top 100 chart between 1958 and 1961, bringing the guitar to the fore as a potent rock'n'roll symbol and inspiring and influencing most of the musicians in the surf genre. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.