The King of Surf Guitar Dick Dale has died at age 81.
Dale Dale & The Del Tones had a 1962 global hit with ‘Misirlou’. In 1994, film director made it a hit all over again when it was used as a main musical theme for his movie ‘Pulp Fiction’.
12 years later the song evolved into Black Eyed Peas ‘Pump It’.
Dale was involved with Fender creating custom made amps. He was the first person to use 100-watt guitar amp. He was also the first guitarist to use reverb. Dick Dale’s style directly influenced the works of Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.
Richard Monsour (aka Dick Dale) started out as a country singer. Richard was anointed Dick Dale by someone called Texas Tony because it “sounded country”.
His song ‘Let’s Go Trippin’ is considered the first-ever surf rock song.
As surf music took off Dale was in high demand for movies. He appeared in
‘Beach Party’ with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.
In 1987 he recorded a new version of ‘Pipeline’ with Stevie Ray Vaughan for the sequel ‘Back to the Beach’.
He also had a part in the movie.
Dick Dale was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville in 2009. He was inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach in 2011.
Dick Dale died on Saturday 16 March according to his bass player Sam Bolle.
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