| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
|---|
| Birth name | Lester William Polsfuss |
|---|
| Born | June 09, 1915Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States |
|---|
| Died | White Plains, New York, United States |
|---|
| Genre | Jazz, Country, Blues |
|---|
| Occupation | Innovator, Inventor, Musician, Songwriter |
|---|
| Instrument | Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica |
|---|
| Years active | 1928–2009 |
|---|
| Url | lespaulonline.com |
|---|
| Notable instruments | Gibson Les Paul |
|---|
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009)—known as
Les Paul—was an
American jazz and
country guitarist,
songwriter and
inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the
solid-body electric guitar which "made the sound of
rock and roll possible". He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was certainly not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with
overdubbing (also known as
sound on sound),
delay effects such as
tape delay,
phasing effects and
multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.
His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.
Among his many honours, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" along with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed.
Biography
Early life
Paul was born
Lester William Polsfuss outside
Milwaukee, in
Waukesha,
Wisconsin, to George and Evelyn (1888–1989) (
née Stutz) Polsfus. His family was of
German ancestry and Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's
Valentin Blatz Brewing Company and the makers of the
Stutz Bearcat automobile; his parents divorced when he was a child. The
Prussian family name was first simplified by his mother to Polfuss before he took his
stage name of
Les Paul. He also used the nicknames
Red Hot Red and
Rhubarb Red.
While living in Wisconsin, he first became interested in music at age eight, when he began playing the harmonica. After an attempt at learning the banjo, he began to play the guitar. It was during this time that he invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar. Paul's device is still manufactured using his basic design. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music singer, guitarist and harmonica player. At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis, Missouri, on KMOX.
Early career
Paul migrated to
Chicago in 1934, where he continued to perform on radio. His first two records were released in 1936. One was credited to "Rhubarb Red", Paul's
hillbilly alter ego, and the other was as an
accompanist for
blues-artist
Georgia White. It was during this time that he began playing jazz and adopted his stage name.
Paul's jazz-guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II, Paul sought out and befriended Reinhardt. After Reinhardt's death in 1953, Paul furnished his headstone. One of Paul's prize possessions was a Selmer Maccaferri acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow. (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins) and bassist/percussionist Ernie "Darius" Newton. They left Chicago for New York in 1939, landing a featured spot with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians radio show. Chet Atkins later wrote that his brother, home on a family visit, presented the younger Atkins with an expensive Gibson archtop guitar that had been given to Jim Atkins by Les Paul. Chet recalled that it was the first professional-quality instrument he ever owned.
Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created several versions of "The Log", which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber with a bridge, guitar neck and pickup attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings long after the development of his eponymous Gibson model.
While experimenting in his apartment in 1940, Paul nearly succumbed to electrocution. During two years of recuperation, he relocated to Hollywood, supporting himself by producing radio music and forming a new trio. He was drafted into the US Army shortly after the beginning of World War II, where he served in the Armed Forces Network, backing such artists as Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and performing in his own right.
As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore, Paul played with Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles, California, on July 2, 1944. The recording, still available as Jazz at the Philharmonic- the first concert- shows Paul at the top of his game, both in his solid four to the bar comping in the style of Freddie Green and for the originality of his solo lines. Paul's solo on 'Blues' is an astonishing tour de force and represents a memorable contest between himself and Nat 'King' Cole. Much later in his career, Paul declared that he had been the victor and that this had been conceded by Cole. His solo on Body and Soul is a fine demonstration both of his admiration for and emulation of the playing of Django Renhardt, as well as his development of some very original lines.
Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number-one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time." In addition to backing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters and other artists, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca label in the late 1940s.
In January 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 just west of Drumright, Oklahoma. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which rolled several times down a creekbed; they were on their way back from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after performing at the opening of a restaurant owned by Paul's father. Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Presbyterian Hospital told him that they could not rebuild his elbow so that he would regain movement; his arm would remain permanently in whatever position they placed it in. Their other option was amputation. Paul instructed surgeons, brought in from Los Angeles, to set his arm at an angle—just under 90 degrees—that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.
Guitar builder
, one of the world's most popular electric guitars, was named after the man who invented it.]]
Paul's innovative guitar, "The Log", built after-hours in the
Epiphone guitar factory in 1940, was one of the first solid-body
electric guitars.
Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 1930s and
Leo Fender also independently created his own in 1946. Although Paul approached the
Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, they showed no interest until Fender began marketing its
Esquire and
Telecaster models.
The arrangement persisted until 1961, when declining sales prompted Gibson to change the design without Paul's knowledge, creating a much thinner, lighter and more aggressive-looking instrument with two cutaway "horns" instead of one. Paul said he first saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music-store window, and disliked it. Although his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Others claimed that Paul ended his endorsement contract with Gibson during his divorce to avoid having his wife get his endorsement money. Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG", which stands for "Solid Guitar", and it also became one of the company's best sellers.
The original Gibson Les Paul-guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton began playing the instrument a few years later, although he also played an SG and an ES-335. Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson and endorsed the original Gibson Les Paul guitar from that point onwards. His personal Gibson Les Pauls were much modified by him—Paul always used his own self-wound pickups and customized methods of switching between pickups on his guitars. To this day, various models of Gibson Les Paul guitars are used all over the world by both novice and professional guitarists. A less-expensive version of the Gibson Les Paul guitar is also manufactured for Gibson's lower-priced Epiphone brand.
On January 30, 1962, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Paul a patent, Patent No. 3,018,680, for an "Electrical Music Instrument."
Multitrack-recording innovations
In 1948,
Capitol Records released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "
Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the
master. ("Brazil", similarly recorded, was the
B-side.) This was the first time that Les Paul used multitracking in a recording (Paul had been shopping his multi-tracking technique, unsuccessfully, since the 30's. Much to his dismay, Sidney Bechet used it in 1941 to play half a dozen instruments on "Sheik of Araby"). These recordings were made not with
magnetic tape, but with
acetate discs. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multitrack recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. By the time he had a result he was satisfied with, he had discarded some five hundred recording disks.
Paul even built his own disc-cutter assembly, based on automobile parts. He favored the flywheel from a Cadillac for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the acetate-disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs. When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording rig on tour with him, even making episodes for his fifteen-minute radio show in his hotel room. He later worked with Ross Snyder in the design of the first eight-track recording deck (built for him by Ampex for his home studio.)
Electronics engineer Jack Mullin had been assigned to a U.S. Army Signal Corps unit stationed in France during World War II. On a mission in Germany near the end of the war, he acquired and later shipped home a German Magnetophon (tape recorder) and fifty reels of I.G. Farben plastic recording tape. Back in the U.S., Mullin rebuilt and developed the machine with the intention of selling it to the film industry, and held a series of demonstrations which quickly became the talk of the American audio industry.
Within a short time, Crosby had hired Mullin to record and produce his radio shows and master his studio recordings on tape, and he invested US$50,000 in a Northern California electronics firm, Ampex. With Crosby's backing, Mullin and Ampex created the Ampex Model 200, the world's first commercially produced reel-to-reel audio tape recorder. Crosby gave Les Paul the second Model 200 to be produced. Using this machine, Paul placed an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together on to a new track. This was a mono tape recorder with just one track across the entire width of quarter-inch tape; thus, the recording was "destructive" in the sense that the original recording was permanently replaced with the new, mixed recording.
Paul's re-invention of the Ampex 200 inspired Ampex to develop two-track and three-track recorders, which allowed him to record as many tracks on one tape without erasing previous takes. These machines were the backbone of professional recording, radio and television studios in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1954, Paul continued to develop this technology by commissioning Ampex to build the first eight-track tape recorder, at his expense. His design became known as "Sel-Sync" (Selective Synchronization), in which specially modified electronics could either record or play back from the record head, which was not optimized for playback but was acceptable for the purposes of recording an "overdub" (OD) in sync with the original recording. This is the core technology behind multitrack recording.
Les Paul & Mary Ford
Paul met country-western singer Colleen Summers in 1945. They began working together in 1948, at which time she adopted the stage name
Mary Ford. They were married in 1949. The couple's hits included "
How High the Moon", "
Bye Bye Blues", "
The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise", and "
Vaya con Dios". These songs featured Ford
harmonizing with herself.
Like Crosby, Paul and Ford used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than from the singer's mouth. This produces a more-intimate, less-reverberant sound than is heard when a singer is or more from the microphone. When implemented using a cardioid-patterned microphone, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due to a cardioid microphone's proximity effect and can give a more relaxed feel because the performer isn't working so hard. The result is a singing style which diverged strongly from unamplified theater-style singing, as might be heard in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
Radio and television programs
Paul had hosted a fifteen-minute
radio program,
The Les Paul Show, on
NBC radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "
In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil" and "
Tiger Rag". Over ten of these shows survive among
old-time radio collectors today.
The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as a theme song. Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was widely syndicated during 1954–1955, and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film, therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards up until his death.
During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, like a guitar sound or a voice. Paul has stated that the idea was to explain to the audience how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster.
Later career
In 1965, Paul went into semi-retirement, although he did return to the studio occasionally. He and Ford had divorced in December 1962, as she could no longer cope with the traveling lifestyle their act required of them. Paul's most-recognizable recordings from then through the mid-1970s were an album for
London Records/
Phase 4 Stereo,
Les Paul Now (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits; and, backed by some of
Nashville's celebrated studio musicians, a meld of jazz and country improvisation with fellow guitar virtuoso
Chet Atkins,
Chester and Lester (1976), for
RCA Victor.
By the late 1980s, Paul had returned to active live performance. In 2006, at age 90, he won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played. He also performed every Monday night, accompanied by a trio which included guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinksi (and later, Nicki Parrott) and pianist John Colianni, originally at Fat Tuesdays, and later at the Iridium Jazz Club on Broadway in the Times Square area of New York City.
Composer Richard Stein (1909–1992) sued Paul for plagiarism, charging that Paul's "Johnny (Is the Boy for Me)" was taken from Stein's 1937 song "Sanie cu zurgălăi" (Romanian for "Sledge with Bells"). A 2000 cover version of "Johnny" by Belgian musical group Vaya Con Dios that credited Paul prompted another action by the Romanian Musical Performing and Mechanical Rights Society.
For many years Les Paul would sometimes surprise radio hosts Steve King and Johnnie Putman with a call to the "Life After Dark Show" on WGN (AM) in Chicago. These calls would take place in the wee hours of Tuesday Morning following his show at the Iridium Jazz Club. Steve and Johnnie continue to honor Les on Tuesday Mornings at 2:35 AM with their segment "A Little More Les" drawing from around 30 hours of recorded conversations with Les.
Death
On August 12, 2009, His family and friends were by his side Paul is survived by his four children and his companion Arlene Palmer. His attorney told the media Paul had been "in and out of the hospital" because of illness.
Upon learning of his death many artists and musicians paid tribute by publicly expressing their sorrow. After learning of Paul's death, former Guns N' Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash called him "vibrant and full of positive energy." U2 guitarist The Edge said, "His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten."
On August 21, 2009, he was buried near Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin at Prairie Home Cemetery which indicated that his plot would be in an area where visitors can easily view it. Like his funeral in New York on August 19, the burial was private, but earlier in the day a public memorial viewing of the closed casket was held in Milwaukee at Discovery World with 1,500 attendees who were offered free admission to the Les Paul House of Sound exhibit for the day.
Awards and honors
Paul was initiated into the
Gamma Delta chapter of the
Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the
University of Miami in 1952. He has earned the Presidential award from the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
In 1979, Paul and Ford's 1951 recording of "How High the Moon" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1983.
In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." In 1991, the Mix Foundation established an annual award in his name; the Les Paul Award which honors "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology". In 2005, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his development of the solid-body electric guitar. In 2006, Paul was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He was named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
A one-hour biographical documentary film The Wizard of Waukesha was shown at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition (FILMEX) March 4–21, 1980, and later on PBS television. A biographical, feature-length documentary titled Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90 made its world première on May 9, 2007, at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul appeared at the event and spoke briefly to the enthusiastic crowd. The film is distributed by Koch Entertainment and was broadcast on PBS on July 11, 2007, as part of its American Masters series and was broadcast on October 17, 2008, on BBC Four as part of its Guitar Night. The première coincided with the final part of a three-part documentary by the BBC broadcast on BBC ONE The Story of the Guitar.
In June 2008, an exhibit showcasing his legacy and featuring items from his personal collection opened at Discovery World in Milwaukee. The exhibit was facilitated by a group of local musicians under the name Partnership for the Arts and Creative Excellence (PACE). Paul played a concert in Milwaukee to coincide with the opening of the exhibit.
Paul's hometown of Waukesha is planning a permanent exhibit to be called "The Les Paul experience."
In July 2005, a 90th-birthday tribute concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Jose Feliciano and a number of other contemporary guitarists and vocalists, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation.
On November 15, 2008, he received the American Music Masters award through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a tribute concert at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. Among the many guest performers were Duane Eddy, Eric Carmen, Lonnie Mack, Jennifer Batten, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Dennis Coffey, James Burton, Billy Gibbons, Lenny Kaye, Steve Lukather, Barbara Lynn, Katy Moffatt, Alannah Myles, Richie Sambora, The Ventures and Slash.
In February 2009, only months prior to his death, Les Paul sat down with Scott Vollweiler of Broken Records Magazine, in which would be one of Les Paul's final interviews. His candid answers were direct and emotional. Broken Records Magazine had planned to run that cover feature the following month but due to delays was held until the summer. 3 days before the release, Les Paul died. The issue would be his final cover feature of his storied career.
In August, 2009, Paul was named one of the ten best electric guitar players of all-time by Time magazine.
Personal life
Paul married Virginia Webb in 1938. They had two children, Gene (Lester Jr.), born in 1941 and named after actor-songwriter
Gene Lockhart, and Russell (Rusty), born 1944, before divorcing in 1949. Later that year, Paul and Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers) were married. They adopted a girl, Colleen, in 1958 and their son Robert (Bobby) was born the following year. They had also lost a child, who was born prematurely and died only four days old. Les Paul and Mary Ford divorced in 1963.
Paul was the godfather of rock guitarist Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, to whom Paul gave his first guitar lesson. Miller's father was best man at Paul's 1949 wedding to Mary Ford.
Paul resided for many years in Mahwah, New Jersey.
Discography
Hit Singles
Albums
Feedback (1944)—compilation
Les Paul Trio (1946)—compilation
Hawaiian Paradise (1949)
The Hit Makers! (1950)
The New Sound (1950)
Les Paul's New Sound, Volume 2 (1951)
Bye Bye Blues! (1952)
Gallopin' Guitars (1952)—compilation
Les and Mary (1955)
Time to Dream (1957)
Lover's Luau (1959)
The Hits of Les and Mary (1960)—compilation
Bouquet of Roses (1962)
Warm and Wonderful (1962)
Swingin' South (1963)
Fabulous Les Paul and Mary Ford (1965)
Les Paul Now! (1968)
Guitar Tapestry
Lover
The Guitar Artistry of Les Paul (1971)
The World is Still Waiting for the Sunrise (1974)—compilation
The Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford (1974)—compilation
Chester and Lester (1976)—with Chet Atkins
Guitar Monsters (1977)—with Chet Atkins
Les Paul and Mary Ford (1978)—compilation
Multi Trackin' (1979)
All-Time Greatest Hits (1983)—compilation
''The Very Best of Les Paul with Mary Ford'
Famille Nombreuse (1992)—compilation
The World Is Waiting (1992)—compilation
(1992)—compilation
All-Time Greatest Hits (1992)—compilation
Their All-Time Greatest Hits (1995)—compilation
Les Paul: The Legend and the Legacy (1996; a four-CD box set chronicling his years with Capitol Records)
16 Most Requested Songs (1996)—compilation
The Complete Decca Trios—Plus (1936–1947) (1997)—compilation
California Melodies (2003)
''Les Paul - The Legendary Fred Waring Broadcasts (2004)
Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played (2005)
Les Paul And Friends: A Tribute To A Legend (2008)
Singles
"It's Been a Long, Long Time"—Bing Crosby & The Les Paul Trio (1945), #1 on Billboard Pop singles chart, 1 week, December 8
"Rumors Are Flying"—Andrews Sisters & Les Paul (1946)
"Guitar Boogie" (1947)
"Lover (When You're Near Me)" (1948)
"Brazil" (1948)
"What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1948)
"Nola" (1950)
"Goofus" (1950)
"Little Rock 69 Getaway" (1950/1951)
"Tennessee Waltz"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1950/1951)
"Mockingbird Hill"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
"How High The Moon"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 9 weeks, April 21 – June 16; #1, Cashbox, 2 weeks
"I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
"Just One More Chance"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
"Jazz Me Blues" (1951)
"Josephine" (1951)
"Whispering" (1951)
"Jingle Bells" (1951)
"Tiger Rag"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Carioca" (1952)
"In the Good Old Summertime"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Smoke Rings"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Meet Mister Callaghan" (1952)
"Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Lady of Spain" (1952)
"My Baby's Coming Home"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Bye Bye Blues"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)
"I'm Sitting On Top Of The World"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)
"Sleep" (Fred Waring's theme song) (1953)
"Vaya Con Dios"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 11 weeks, August 8 – October 3, November 7–14; #1, Cashbox, 5 weeks
"Johnny (Is The Boy For Me)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)
"Don'cha Hear Them Bells"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #13, Billboard; #32, Cashbox
"The Kangaroo" (1953), #23, Cashbox
"I Really Don't Want To Know"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
"I'm A Fool To Care"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
"Whither Thou Goest"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
"Mandolino"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
"Song in Blue"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #17, Cashbox
"Hummingbird"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
"Amukiriki (The Lord Willing)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
"Magic Melody"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
"Texas Lady"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)
"Moritat" (Theme from "Three Penny Opera") (1956)
"Nuevo Laredo"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)
"Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1957)
"Put A Ring On My Finger"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1958)
"Jura (I Swear I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1961)
"Love Sneakin' Up On You"-Les Paul, Joss Stone & Sting (2005)
See also
Ampex
Discovery World
Gibson Les Paul
Gibson SG
List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
Mary Ford
References
External links
lespaulfoundation.org, Les Paul Foundation website (includes Legacy, Foundation & Community websites)
Remembering Les Paul Photos and extended interviews with Les on WGN Chicago's Steve & Johnnie early morning show
Staff writer (August 13, 2009). "Les Paul", obituary at The Daily Telegraph (Accessed August 24, 2009)
Staff writer (November 15, 2007). "Les Paul Receives 2007 National Medal of Arts", article at Modern Guitars Magazine (Accessed September 4, 2009)
"Les Paul, 'The Wizard of Waukesha'", a biography (undated) at the Wisconsin Historical Society's official website
Les Paul - Discovery World 2005 video (requires Adobe Flash)at Discovery World's (museum) official website
The Les Paul Show, archive of Paul's NBC radio show at the Internet Archive's official website (includes MP3 files (free) of eleven of their radio shows including their audition show)
The Wizard of Waukesha (1980), at Variety's official website
The Wizard of Waukesha (1980) at Allmovie's official website
Les Paul - 'Miles of Music', two video interviews of and performances by Paul (5–6 minutes each; requires Adobe Flash) with Bob Miles on Miles of Music (milesofmusic.tv), a cable-access television program
CLASSIC TRACKS: Les Paul & Mary Ford 'How High The Moon'
Photo Library from performances at Iridium
Les Paul's final interview
Category:American jazz guitarists
Category:American musical instrument makers
Category:American radio personalities
Category:Capitol Records artists
Category:Columbia Records artists
Category:Deaths from pneumonia
Category:Decca Records artists
Category:American musicians of German descent
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Guitar makers
Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York
Category:Inventors of musical instruments
Category:Lead guitarists
Category:Musicians from New Jersey
Category:Musicians from Wisconsin
Category:National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees
Category:People from Mahwah, New Jersey
Category:People from Waukesha, Wisconsin
Category:RCA Victor artists
Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Category:1915 births
Category:2009 deaths
