Les Paul, inventor of the first solid body electric guitar died today in New York. His guitars and musical inventions influenced entire generations of musicians, including the Beatles, U2, and Led Zeppelin. Paul, who was considered a country and jazz guitarist continued to play music well into his nineties, playing Monday nights at the Iridium club on Broadway in New York City. Paul invented a number of technical innovations - such as multitrack tape recording and overdubbing - that are still used in the music industry today. Listen to the above YouTube clip of one of Paul's first uses of multitrack recording on a 1950 song called "How High the Moon" in which he recorded and overdubbed 12 guitar tracks with 12 tracks of his wife Mary Ford's singing. Legend has it that Mary sang into a microphone hanging over the kitchen sink at home.
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