page_title: The Ventures
section_title: Band members
hierarchical_section_title: The Ventures / Band members
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Photographie prise à NASHVILLE lors du "Chet AtkinsAppreciation Society" de 2009
context_page_description: The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band, formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar in the United States and across the world during the 1960s. While their popularity in the United States waned in the 1970s, the group remains especially revered in Japan, where they tour regularly to this day. The classic lineup of the band consisted of Wilson, Bogle, Nokie Edwards, and Mel Taylor.
  Their first wide-release single, "Walk, Don't Run", brought international fame to the group, and is often cited as one of the top songs ever recorded for guitar.
  In the 1960s and early 1970s, 38 of the band's albums charted in the US, ranking them as the 6th best album chart performer during the 1960s, and the band had 14 singles in the Billboard Hot 100.
  With over 100 million records sold, the Ventures are the best-selling instrumental band of all time.
  The Ventures have had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. The band was among the first to employ and popularize fuzz and flanging guitar effects, concept albums, and twelve-string guitars in rock music.
context_section_description: Current members
  Bob Spalding – lead guitar, bass guitar, rhythm guitar (2005–present; studio and live guest 1980–2005)
  Leon Taylor – drums (1996–present)
  Ian Spalding – rhythm guitar, bass (2016–present)
  Luke Griffin – bass, guitar (2017–present)
  Former members
  Don Wilson – guitar (1958–2015; no longer tours as of 2015)
  Bob Bogle – bass guitar, lead guitar (1958–2005; died 2009)
  George T. Babbitt (1959–1960) – drums
  Nokie Edwards – lead guitar, bass guitar (1960–1968, 1972–1985; as guest 1999–2016; died 2018)
  Howie Johnson – drums (1960–1962; died 1988)
  Skip Moore (1960) – drums
  Mel Taylor – drums (1962–1973, 1979–1996; died 1996)
  Gerry McGee – guitar (1968–1972, 1985–2017; died 2019)
  John Durrill – keyboards (1968–1972)
  Sandy Lee Gornicki – keyboards (1968)
  Joe Barile – drums (1973–1979)
  Dave Carr – keyboards (1973–1974)
  Biff Vincent – keyboards (1975–1976)
  JD Hoag - guitar (1981–1982)
caption: Nole "Nokie" Edwards in 2009 in Nashville at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society.
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