After Hendrix disbanded the Jimi Hendrix Experience in mid-1969, he formed Gypsy Sun and Rainbows to fulfill the contract for the Experience to play Woodstock. Bassist Billy Cox (who had played with Hendrix while they were in the army) had been rehearsing and playing with Hendrix since April, but the band was short-lived.

With Cox and his drummer friend Buddy Miles, Hendrix next formed the Band of Gypsys, this time to fulfill his obligation to produce an LP of new material for Ed Chalpin, to be released on the Capitol label. Hendrix, in interviews as early as March 1969, had already mentioned a "jam" album to be titled Band of Gypsys. Hendrix also mentioned in his introduction at Woodstock that "Band of Gypsys" was an alternative name for the group performing there.

Providing the soundtrack to numerous biker and teen exploitation movies in the mid- and late '60s, Davie Allan & the Arrows bridged the surf and psychedelic eras. Their driving, basic instrumentals featured loads and loads of fuzz guitar, as well as generous dollops of tremolo bar waggling and wah-wah. The guitarist and his band first made their mark with the minor hit "Apache '65," a version of the Shadows/Jorgen Ingmann's instrumental classic "Apache." Hooking up with notorious exploitation movie producer Mike Curb, the Arrows provided the soundtracks to numerous B-movies on the Tower and Sidewalk labels; their greatest success, "Blues Theme" (from The Wild Angels starring Peter Fonda), made the Top 40 in 1967. Curb abandoned racy movies for the Osmonds and purged MGM Records of their psychedelic acts, but the Arrows continued to play and record for various labels during the '80s and '90s. A slew of reissues during the new millennium broadened the group's appeal, and they returned in 2003 with Restless in L.A. ~ Richie Unterberger

If Duane Eddy's instrumental hits from the late '50s can sound unduly basic and repetitive (especially when taken all at once), he was vastly influential. Perhaps the most successful instrumental rocker of his time, he may have also been the man most responsible (along with Chuck Berry) for popularizing the electric rock guitar. His distinctively low, twangy riffs could be heard on no less than 15 Top 40 hits between 1958 and 1963. He was also one of the first rock stars to successfully crack the LP market...