Dick Dale
In the early pre-Beach Boys and pre-British invasion 1960s, Dale developed the twangy guitar and instrumental-only surf music sound. Heavily in debt to such guitar greats as Chuck Berry and Duane Eddy, surf music is considered by many critics to be the only original American music of the period. Playing his Stratocaster left-handed and upside down, legend has it Dale played so fast and hard that his picks would melt. And unlike the Beach Boys, Dale actually surfed. He continues to tour. Now and forever more, Dick Dale is “King of the Surf Guitar.”