Guitar Great Les Paul Dead at 94

Reports are that Les Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, NY. His family and friends were by his side.

Lester William Polfuss, also known as Les Paul, was born on June 9, 1915. Besides performing and stringing together a series of his own hits, many of them with his wife, Mary Ford, he revolutionized music and rock-and-roll with his inventions.

One such Les Paul invention was multitrack recording. This enables artists to sing harmony with themselves, record different instruments at different times, and then finish up the recording later by balancing the “tracks."

Les Paul also developed "The Log", built in 1939. This was one of the first solid-body electric guitars. In the early 1950s, Gibson Guitars incorporated his designs into a "Les Paul" model. After testing the model, he signed a contract that prohibited him from being seen in public with a different model guitar.

In 1978, Les Paul and Mary Ford were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1983. In 1988, Paul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. May he rest in peace.