Rockin' Song of the Week No.99 - Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy – Lonely Boy, Lonely Guitar
RCA 47-8180

Most Duane Eddy compilations are heavily stacked with his early Jamie recordings, but I actually prefer his RCA stuff. I love the Jamie recordings, in the most part they’re some hard rockin’ tunes, but I just adore some of the atmospheric, western tinged numbers he did at RCA. It’s probably because the first album I had of Duane was a cheap album, I think on RCA Camden, with a painting of Duane on the cover, that focussed on the RCA era (the same cover was used for the Hits & Rarities CD shown above). Things like The Ballad of Paladin, (Dance With The) Guitar Man and Fireball Mail blew me away. But the track that has always stuck with me and one of those that you sing to yourself for no apparent reason is Lonely Boy, Lonely Guitar.

Lonely Boy, Lonely Guitar was cut on Independence Day 1962 in Pheonix, Arizona with a four piece band and overdubbed vocals from the Rebelettes. Duane Eddy is acknowledged as the king of twang, but even by his standards this was amazing. There’s great contrast between the sweet high pitched harmonies of the Rebelettes and the deep, needle dragging twang of Duane’s guitar. The song only made number 82 in the US charts when released the following year, but just managed to sneak into the top 40 in the UK. What I find most amazing is the song is regularly overlooked by compilers the world over. If someone asked me how things like Desert Rat and The Iguana can make a Best of RCA CD but Lonely Boy, Lonely Guitar can’t, I’d find it easier to explain how Lost panned out.