Bob Bogle of the Ventures dead at 75

VENTURES CO-FOUNDER BOB BOGLE DEAD AT AGE OF 75
Started Legendary #1 Instrumental Rock Band in Music With Don Wilson and Went on to Have Hits Like “Walk, Don’t Run” and “Perfidia”

Bob Bogle, who co-founded the best selling rock instrumental band in music history the Ventures after meeting Don Wilson while trying to buy a used car from a dealership owned by his father in 1958, passed away on Sunday at the age of 75 after long battle with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Although he hasn’t played live with the band in four years, he remained active in recording and producing. Bogle lived long enough to see the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March, 2008 and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the group’s founding in April of this year.

Bogle became ill over the weekend and was taken to a hospital, where he died, according to Wilson, who was his friend and musical collaborator for more than 50 years.
"That's when we started working together," Wilson said about meeting at his dad’s used car lot. "And then we found out that we each knew a few chords on the guitar, you know, and we had a lot of free time on our hands. But neither of us owned a guitar."

The Ventures scored their first hit with their version of the song, “Walk, Don’t Run,” in 1960. One of the most influential songs in rock history, it sparked a remarkable run that saw the Ventures chart with 38 albums from 1960 to 1972, selling more than 100 million records, becoming major superstars in Japan and all over the world. Their hits included “Perfidia,” “Telstar/The Lonely Bull” and the theme from TV’s Hawaii Five-O.

Among their fans was Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, who inducted the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying, “‘Walk, Don’t Run’ started a whole new movement in rock and roll. The sound of it became ‘surf music,’ and the audacity of it empowered guitarists everywhere. Every guitar player on this planet knows what I’m talking about.”

Though Nokie Edwards eventually became the Ventures’ lead guitarist, it was Bogle who established the template for the band’s influential sound, using the vibrato (or whammy bar) in a totally unique way.

Arrangements for a private funeral service are for this Friday, June 19th. He is survived by his beloved wife Yumi, brothers Clarence, Dennis and Curtis, his sister Sybil, his children Gary, Mike, Paul, Kathy, Randy and Brandon, and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.