RIP Les Paul

Guitar pioneer Les Paul has died at the age of 94. Those of you who play the guitar surely know who the man was...but for those who didn't, Paul pretty much invented the electric guitar and the process of multitrack recording and overdubbing, which revolutionized the way music was recorded in the 1950s. Multitrack recording allows musicians to record different instruments at different times and sing harmony with themselves.

Here's a perfect example of this, in footage of Paul with his then wife Mary Ford, whom he had many hits with in the 1950s. Here they are performing "How High the Moon." Yes, that is a young Alistair Cooke before his "Masterpiece Theater" days.


Paul was a legend to anyone in the music industry who could play the guitar and up until recently played a set weekly at a jazz club in NYC. Somewhere there's music, how high the moon...