Ventures get the nod.

[Pretty Funky]

Rock hall inducts Ventures
Only the second Northwest act to be selected
By GENE STOUT
P-I POP MUSIC CRITIC

The Ventures' Don Wilson was quick to react to news that the legendary Northwest rock band will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"I wanna say, 'Thank you, it's about time,' " the guitarist said with a chuckle.

Along with Madonna, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen and the Dave Clark Five, The Ventures will be inducted at a ceremony March 10 at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

   
   
  "The Ventures" LP was released in 1961.
The artists were selected by a panel of 600 music-industry professionals.

"The 2008 inductees are trailblazers -- all unique and influential in their genres," said Joel Peresman, president and chief executive officer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

"From poetry to pop, these five acts demonstrate the rich diversity of rock 'n' roll itself."

The Ventures, who claim Seattle and Tacoma as hometowns, have been acknowledged as the most influential instrumental-rock band in history. The band's hits include "Telstar/ The Lonely Bull," "Ram-Bunk-Shush," "Perfidia" and the theme to TV's "Hawaii Five-O." The group has released dozens of albums, many in Japan.

The Ventures will be only the second Northwest act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jimi Hendrix was the first.

The band's first hit was "Walk, Don't Run" in 1960. According to Northwest rock historian Peter Blecha in his new book, "Images of America: Music in Washington, Seattle and Beyond" (Arcadia Publishing), the song became "a monster international hit that has since been credited with inspiring the whole subsequent 'surfer rock' movement."

Though more than a half dozen musicians have played in The Ventures, the hall of fame is officially honoring Wilson, Bob Bogle, Nokie Edwards, Gerry McGee and Mel Taylor.

The Ventures' biggest human asset in its early days was Wilson's mom, the late Josie Wilson, a self-taught record producer in a field dominated by men.

When she couldn't interest anyone in recording her band's guitar-driven version of jazz guitarist Johnny Smith's "Walk, Don't Run," Josie Wilson started her own label, Blue Horizon Records, and produced the recording at Joe Boles' Seattle studio. She had 300 copies pressed.

Getting radio airplay was a little tougher. "Mom was one to get on the phone and just call anybody," Don Wilson said last year after his mom's death at age 91. "She wanted it to be a hit. You've really got to want it. And she really wanted it for us."

Josie Wilson convinced Pat O'Day of Seattle rock 'n' roll station KJR to play the song as a "news kicker" before newscasts. Reaction from listeners was so strong that O'Day added the song to the station's playlist. The song went to No. 1 on KJR and reached No. 2 on the national charts (on Dolton Records).

Soon after, the group moved to Los Angeles, becoming popular with fans of surf music, a twangy genre of rock 'n' roll that glorified fast cars, parties and, of course, surfing. "We didn't know anything about that scene at the time," Don Wilson said last year. "We were just an instrumental rock group. The phrase 'surf rock' hadn't been coined yet."

The group went on its first tour of Japan in 1962, with singers Bobby Vee and Jo Ann Campbell, who recorded the hit song "(I'm the Girl on) Wolverton Mountain." For The Ventures, it was the start of a long and rewarding relationship with Japanese fans, who still view them as big stars. In fact, The Ventures' success in Japan may have inspired the phrase "big in Japan."

"In Japan, we outsold the Beatles two-to-one in their heyday," Wilson said.

In 2004, The Ventures were honored during a ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of relations between the United States and Japan. The group had visited Japan nearly 50 times since its formation in 1959 and, according to diplomats, had "greatly contributed to the development of Japan's rock music over a significant span of time."

The Ventures experienced a modest revival when Quentin Tarantino included "Surf Rider" in the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrackBut it wasn't The Ventures' version; it was a more gritty version by The Lively Ones.

Wilson, who lives in Sammamish, has described the group as "the Rodney Dangerfields of the rock business." Mention of the group often brings puzzled looks from younger rock fans.

KBSG-FM's Mark Christopher led a three-year campaign to get the band inducted. In 2005, the Seattle oldies station organized a "Beach Party" for the group at The Premier (now Showbox Sodo), complete with fake palm trees, surfboards and truckloads of sand.

"I have mixed emotions," Wilson said of the band's induction. "There's no doubt I'm going to break out the champagne. I'm excited about it. But it's been a long time coming."

[melissalynn]

It's about damn time. They were a great (often over-looked) band.