Les Paul

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Les Paul's real name was Lester Polsfuss. He was born in 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. As a child he played harmonica, piano, banjo and guitar, and at thirteen he was already performing as a country singer. Even then he had started to tinker: to make his acoustic guitar louder, he fixed a record-player needle to the guitar and connected it to a radio loudspeaker. In Chicago he played country music on the radio by day under the name Rhubarb Red, and jazz as Les Paul in the evening. He admired Django Reinhardt, and with Bing Crosby he had a number 1 hit in 1945.

Music and breakthrough

In 1940 he built The Log, one of the first electric guitars with a solid body: a block of wood with a pickup and strings, to which, for the look of it, he attached two halves of a hollow guitar. A solid guitar gave less feedback and let notes sustain longer. Gibson was not interested at first, but in 1952 put the Gibson Les Paul on the market, based on his designs. That guitar later became one of the most important instruments of rock.

Influence

At least as important were his studio inventions. In his garage in Hollywood he recorded parts on top of one another, first on acetate discs and from 1949 on an Ampex tape recorder. On Lover (When You're Near Me) he played eight guitar parts, some of them recorded at half speed. With his wife, the singer Mary Ford, he made records in the 1950s on which her voice sounded in many layers. In this way he laid the foundation for multitrack recording and for effects such as tape delay. He died in 2009.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1950The New Sound!
• 1968Now!
• 1976Chester & Lester
• 1978Guitar Monsters
• 2005American Made World Played
• 2013Guitar Monsters
• ?The Hit Makers

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 9: The Instrument^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Gibson Les Paul TechnologyIn 1952, Gibson answered Fender with a solid body of its own, designed in collaboration with the guitarist and inventor Les Paul.
• Multitrack recording TechnologyAs early as around 1950, Les Paul recorded parts over one another by copying from one tape recorder to another.
• How High the Moon SongOn 4 January 1951, the guitarist Les Paul and the singer Mary Ford recorded How High the Moon in their apartment in Queens.