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I was Googling "Lipstick on your Collar" (Connie Francis) to find out who played the great guitar solo that I always mean to try and learn. I thought it a bit of a long shot, but the answer was there - on Wikipaedia. It was George Barnes - a jazz guitarist. He also has his own entry and I was surprised to learn that he claims the first recording using a non laptop electric guitar - on 1st Mar 1938, only 19 years before Hank got his hands on one!

Does anybody know of any other pop recordings he was on?

Marvin Rainwater's "Whole Lotta Woman" has a solo that sounds as if it could be one of his attempts (and is in the right time frame).

Wikipaedia also states that the electric guitar was invented in 1931.

That's enough of the history lesson!

I've got a 1962 LP by The George Barnes Guitar Choir on the Mercury label called "Guitars A'Plenty"...in stereo! I haven't played it for years but might give it a spin later. It's an example of the 'guitar orchestra' idea - like Hank's Guitar Syndicate album. I suspect Jim Nugent may know more about George Barnes...

There are two 2CD compilations of GB's solo and session work just released recently (and reviewed by yours truly in Pipeline magazine). He played on a lot of country and blues tracks (including Chet Atkins).

George

By coincidence, I've just been reading about George Barnes in Les Paul's autobiography "...In His Own Words".

I first heard of George in the mid-sixties when he was in London doing some clinics for Guild Guitars. He had his own signature model with a McCarty-style electric pickguard and no electronics built directly into the guitar, though oddly, it had no F-holes (presumably to dampen feedback tendencies).

Over the years I've gathered together a few recordings by George, but as the first post hints, there are probably loads more in everyone's collection since he was one of the great unacknowledged session-players.

A few years ago, we had a female vocalist/keyboard player in our band, who shared lead vocals with me and the rhythm player- as we do all '50's and early '60's rock, we used to do that song, and I loved the solo on the record, so I used to use the recorded solo as a basic template to play something improvised but similar- sounded good with my Squier Tele.

George was a legendary player and a very talented chap..he was a good mate of Ivor Mairants- and met him when he played in the UK years ago- there's a lovely photo around of George with Ivor- no relations, but they looked like twin brothers!

cockroach wrote:George was a legendary player and a very talented chap..he was a good mate of Ivor Mairants- and met him when he played in the UK years ago- there's a lovely photo around of George with Ivor- no relations, but they looked like twin brothers!

From Dave Gould's Guitar Pages site...


Bill

The 'Guitars By George!' LP appeared in 1952 on Decca, while the 'Guitars A'Plenty' album (called Guitars Galore in the US) was preceded by 'Guitar Galaxies', also on Mercury. All make good listening, but his most trendy and upbeat effort had to be 'Guitar - Twangy With A Beat', released under the alias of Dean Hightower in an unsuccessful effort to appeal to a younger audience.