TONY ENGELHART: IT’S ABOUT TIME >>>

With record sales approaching 100 million, the Ventures are the best selling instrumental rock band in music history. It’s a fact, I Googled it. For nearly 50 years, the band has continually made its presence known and has become entrenched in the fabric of society. Whether their music appears on a TV show, film soundtrack or a commercial, they have become an invaluable part of pop culture. The band has influenced everyone from Joe Walsh and Jimmy Page to the B-52s and The Raveonettes.

On Monday, March 10, the Ventures will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and for many fans, musicians, music critics and music historians, this honor is long overdue.

Founding members Don Wilson and Bob Bogle both had a passion for the guitar and the new form of music called rock and roll, but had no idea their style would change the face of music. “Bob bought two guitars at a pawn shop, and we taught ourselves to play,” recalls Wilson. “Our sound wasn’t really influenced by anyone. We were just experimenting with the trembolo bar and my heavy right handed rhythm.” The Ventures officially formed in 1958 with Wilson, Bogle and Nokey Edwards on bass and Skip Moore on drums.

After recording the go-nowhere single “Cookies and Coke,” the band looked to Edwards for the next record, “Nokey was a big Chet Atkins fan,” says Wilson. The band selected a song from Atkins called “Walk Don’t Run.” According to Wilson, it was his mother who had a huge hand in the success of the record as she took it to local radio station KJR where it was used as the news kicker. KJR disc jockey Pat O’Day placed a call to the Seattle-based Dolton Records and told them they had better take another look at the band because the phones were lighting up every time they played their song. The Ventures signed to the small label in 1960. Dolton had national distribution through Liberty Records, who gave “Walk” a huge push. Eventually the single climbed to No. 2 on the national charts, “That’s when we knew we had something special,” says Wilson.

The success in the U.S. and European markets paled compared to the success the band experienced in Japan, “Our success in Japan was mainly because they had never heard anything likes us before. On our first trip in 1960 they would only hire Bob and I. Both of us were playing electric guitars, which was something very new to them. We were the first band to bring electric guitars to Japan,” explains Wilson. “On our next trip to Japan, we took the whole band. Nokey was playing electric bass, something they had never seen before. I’d say they like us a lot."

To date, the Ventures have had 25 No. 1 hits in Japan and have made visits to the small country since 1960.

Despite the departure of Edwards in 1968, the untimely passing of long-time drummer Mel Taylor in 1996, and the recent retirement of Bogle in 2005, the Ventures are still going strong. On their 50th anniversary the band is going to release a yet-to-be titled CD with the remaining members of the Wailers, “I’m very excited about it,” says Wilson. “It will include some new songs and some old songs.”

The induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame follows the recent Grammy Hall of Fame addition of “Walk Don’t Run” by the Ventures as one of the most influential songs in music history. For Wilson, it is a fitting tribute at the right time.

“My first thought was ‘it’s about time,’” says Wilson, “I appreciate it more than I would have 20 years ago.”