Artist:Les Paul with Mary Ford
Song:How High The Moon
Album:The Best Of The Capitol Masters:90th Birthday Edition
Most of today's guitarists acknowledge Les Paul as a major influence, not only for his guitar playing technique but for his recording technology innovations. He was a huge star in the 50s and the great thing is he's still playing great today. He was born Lester William Polfus June 9, 1915 in Waukesha, WI. He started out playing in radio bands in Chicago in 1934. He was known as the hillbilly character Rhubarb Red but he also played jazz as Les Paul. His style was heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt. He spent several years with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians while experimenting on his own. He recorded with his own trio for Decca in 1945 and also played on Bing Crosby's radio show. It was at this point he started experimenting with multi track recording. After recovering from a serious car accident in 1948, Paul teamed up with his singer wife Colleen Summers and renamed her Mary Ford. His 1951 version of How High The Moon was his biggest hit. The song was originally a ballad in the musical Two For The Money. Paul reinvented the song as an energetic pop song. This comp is a single CD version of the 4CD Legend And The Legacy box set. Capitol issued a 90th Birthday Edition in 2005 with a couple of bonus tracks. Les Paul has continued to record and perform. In the 70s, he had some very successful recordings with Nashville guitar legend Chet Atkins. Mary Ford died in 1977 but I recently watched a PBS documentary about Les Paul and he still sounds great today. Les Paul's innovations have made him a living legend of modern music. Here's Les Paul with Mary Ford performing How High The Moon on Omnibus in 1953.
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