Guitarist Duane Eddy, who was famous for instrumental hits and TV theme songs like Peter Gunn, died on April 30, 2024. He was 86 years old.

Eddy was the first rock and roll guitarist to see success with instrumental hits in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. He had 16 singles on the Top 40 list, three Top 10 songs, and established the concept of guitar hero with his 1958 song, “Rebel Rouser.”

“Instrumentalists don’t usually become famous. But Duane Eddy’s electric guitar was a voice all its own. His sound was muscular and masculine, twangy and tough,” Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young said in a statement. “Duane scored more than 30 hits on the pop charts. But more importantly, his style inspired thousands of hillbilly cats and downtown rockers – the Ventures, George Harrison, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, Marty Stuart, to name a few – to learn how to rumble and move people to their core. The Duane Eddy sound will forever be stitched into the fabric of country and rock & roll.”

Born on April 26, 1938, in Corning, NY, Eddy started playing guitar when he was only 5 years old. He performed on local radio shows and when he was 16, Eddy and his friend Jimmy Delbridge cut a single. Three years later, Eddy released his first solo single, “Movin’ n’ Groovin’” which made the Hot 100 list.

It was followed by “Stalkin’” and then “Rebel Rouser” became a big hit, reaching No. 6 in the US. Eddy had a string of hits with “Cannonball,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road,” the Have Gun – Will Travel theme, “The Ballad of Paladin,” and “Have ‘Twangy’ Guitar Will Travel.” His final charting single was “The Son of Rebel Rouser” in 1964.

After that, Eddy worked on the production side, with Waylon Jennings, Phil Everly, and B.J. Thomas. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and continued performing in concerts and festivals through the early 2010s.