Artist:The Ventures
Song:Hawaii Five-O
Album:Walk Don't Run: The Best of the Ventures
Of course The Ventures are the most successful instrumental act of all time. They are especially popular in Japan. A version of The Ventures tours today. Of course their biggest hit was the 1959 single Walk Don't Run. But they had two other top five hits including this 1969 recording of the theme from the hit TV show Hawaii Five-O. The Ventures are from Tacoma, WA founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. They brought in Nokie Edwards to play bass but it wasn't long before he was lead guitarist. It was also his idea to record Walk Don't Run after he heard it on a Chet Atkins record. The Ventures struggled after Walk Don't Run and they left Dolton Records for Liberty in 1967. Edwards left The Ventures and was replaced by Jerry McGee whose father was a Louisiana fiddle whiz. I guess the idea at the time was for The Ventures to try psychedelic music which was hot at the time. The 1967 album Super Psychedelics and the 1968 album Underground Fire were attempts at this. They were working with veteran instrumental music producer Joe Saraceno. The Ventures had recorded TV themes in the past. Hawaii Five-O had become a big hit and Morton Stevens' theme looked like a sure fire hit single if someone covered it. And that's what The Ventures did. Hawaii Five-O reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It sounded just like the TV version. The arranger was George Tipton who went on to compose TV themes himself. At the time he worked a lot with Harry Nilsson. The album Hawaii Five-O was certified Gold. You can get it on this comp which is part of Capitol's Legendary Masters series. These are remastered original recordings. Though The Ventures never had another hit single, they continued to record and a version of The Ventures tours today. Bob Bogle died in 2009. Mel Taylor died in 1996. Nokie Edwards died in 2018. Jerry McGee died in 2019. The final original member of The Ventures Don Wilson retired in 2015. Here's what appears to be a 1969 promotional video for Hawaii Five-O by The Ventures.
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