Les Paul

Guitarist / Inventor

Name at birth: Lester William Polsfuss

Les Paul is a musician and inventor credited with inventing the solid-body electric guitar in 1941. A harmonica and guitar player from an early age, in his late teens he moved to Chicago, where he became a minor star on the country music circuit. By the late 1930s he was in New York as a regular player on Fred Waring's radio show. During World War II he served with the Armed Forces Radio Services, where he played behind stars including Bing Crosby. After the war he returned to New York for a time, then headed to Los Angeles where he ended up working again with Crosby. Paul was tinkering with electronics by then, and in the early 1940s he electronically amplified guitar strings and modified a tape recorder to create "sound on sound" -- what is now called overdubbing.

He married singer Mary Ford (b. Colleen Summer, 1928-1977) and together they had hit records during the 1950s, including "Mockin' Bird Hill" and "Vaya Con Dios." They also hosted a successful TV show, The Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home Show (1953-60). In the early 1960s Paul retired from performing (he and Mary divorced in 1961) but kept puttering around with electronics and in 1973 was awarded his third patent for an improved electrical pick-up. He returned to performing in the late '70s, and he and Chet Atkins released a Grammy-winning record, Chester & Lester (1978). In 2006, at the age of 90, Paul won Grammys for the pop instrumental "Caravan" and the rock instrumental "69 Freedom Special," both from the album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played.

Extra credit: In 2001 Les Paul was given a Grammy for technical achievements... He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988... The first "electric guitar" Paul made was a 4" x 4" chunk of pine with strings and a microphone pick-up attached; he called it "The Log."