DICK DALE : The Very Best Of

It's hard to overestimate the talent and influence of Dick Dale. With the possible exception of Les Paul, no modern guitar player has done so much behind the scenes to create the sound and gear of contemporary electric guitar, from helping to develop the Showman amp and outboard reverb gear to his playing itself, which incorporated Middle Eastern scales in the late '50s and early '60s when such things were unheard of on electric guitar -- and he did all this by playing guitar left-handed, upside down and backwards, and at massive volume. This set balances nicely between his early classics like "Miserlou," middle-period tracks like his version of Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun," and later sides like his guitar duet with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the surf classic "Pipeline," making this release a nice introduction to a guitar legend.