Deep Dive: Duane Eddy, THE ROARING TWANGIES

Duane Eddy is a true guitar legend, a man known far and wide for his particularly twangy sound, but while he built his reputation on such classic instrumentals as “Rebel Rouser,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road,” “Because They’re Young,” and the theme to the TV series Peter Gunn, it’s easy to forget just how many albums Eddy’s issued over the years.

Take, for instance, today’s Deep Dive: his 1967 album THE ROARING TWANGIES, a collection of songs which found Eddy tackling some material that you might not normally expect to hear, including “Born Free” and “Hello, Dolly.”

One might easily argue that this is one of the deeper dives we’ve ever taken for this feature, since this was one of only two albums that Eddy released during the course of his stint on Reprise Records, the first being 1966’s THE BIGGEST TWANG OF THEM ALL. Neither album set the charts on fire, and the only single from THE ROARING TWANGIES – a song called, appropriately enough, “Roarin’” – failed to chart. 

That said, Eddy remains in fine form throughout THE ROARING TWANGIES, delivering these occasionally surprising tunes with his usual flair. Billboard wrote of the LP at the time of its release, “Attention, Easy Listening stations! Here’s some beautiful, exciting programming material – Duane Eddy as produced by Lee Hazlewood. With your help, this could be a tremendous seller; it deserves it.”

It may not have gotten what Billboard felt like it deserved, but it’s never too late: it’s still out there and available for you to give it a shot!