The man who wrote the surf guitar anthem "Walk, Don't Run" has died. Guitarist Johnny Smith died Tuesday night at his Colorado home of natural causes. He would have been 91 years old on June 25.
Smith's tune was a Top 10 hit for The Ventures - twice. The group's 1960 recording hit No. 2. They re-recorded it in '64 and that version got up to No. 8 - at that time, the first occurrence of the same song by the same group cracking the Top 10 twice. The Ventures never heard the songwriter's '54 recording of "Walk, Don't Run." Instead, they took their version from a '57 Chet Atkins record. ...
Smith was born in Alabama and grew up in Maine. After WWII, he landed a job as an NBC studio musician. He played on Ed Sullivan and The Arthur Godfrey Show. He played under the batons of such storied conductors as Arturo Toscanini and Dimitri Mitropoulos. He could play it all - and well - but he was first and foremost a jazz guitarist. ...
More (w/photo & terrific Ventures video):
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/06/13/191396165/johnny-smith-revered-guitar-player-has-died
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