** THIS IS A TRIBUTE PAGE FOR THE MUSIC OF BONNIE GUITAR, IT IS NOT RUN BY BONNIE **
Bonnie Guitar was born Bonnie Buckingham on March 25, 1923 in Seattle. In early 1957, Randy Wood obtained a record from the Fabor label's owner, Fabor Robison. Bonnie had already been fronting her own band in Seattle as Bonnie Tutmarc (her married name), playing western swing, jazz, and anything else that came along. It was Robison that suggested that she change her name, and it was Bonnie that suggested "Bonnie Guitar." She was hired as a studio guitarist for the Fabor record label in California, and also began to record her own records. When a demo tape of Ned Miller's composition, Dark Moon came in, she knew the song would be perfect for her, and although Robison was going to give the song to Dorsey Burnette, Bonnie struck a deal with him to get the song. Robison released it as Fabor 4018 (with Miller himself playing acoustic guitar), then shopped the record to Dot, who reissued it as Dot 15550. It made 6 nationally, even though Gale Storm covered it (her version made 4, making it a double top-10 for Randy Wood). The song has since been recorded by such notables as Elvis Presley and Chris Issac, but Bonnie's is still the definitive version.
In order to make records for her fans, she started her own label with Bob Reisdorff and called it Dolphin. They signed a trio that had formed in an Olympia high school called the Fleetwoods, who promptly delivered a number one song with Come Softly To Me in 1959. The name of the label was changed to Dolton and the Fleetwoods recorded the next of their nine top 40 hits, Graduation's Here, followed by what was to become their second [and last] number one hit, Mr. Blue, later in the same year. Bonnie then came up with an even bigger artist when the Ventures came on board with Dolton and released their hit, Walk Don't Run, which reached number two on the national pop charts in 1960. The Ventures continued with Dolton through much of the 60's until it was sold, then recorded for Liberty.
Following the success of her own recording of Dark Moon on the Dot label, Bonnie had two more minor pop hits on Dot and one on Dolton. As her own career was beginning to take off, she sold Dolton which ended up with Liberty, and now is known as EMI. In the late 60's Bonnie put eight songs in the top forty on the country charts, including top ten songs I'm Living In Two Worlds, A Woman In Love, and I Believe In Love. She issued a number of albums on Dot and one on ABC-Paramount, and others on some minor labels. She continued putting songs on the country charts in the 70's and early 80's. Some of her songs were recorded by other artists, including Eddie Arnold, with whom Bonnie toured in the 60's.
Bonnie continues to write and perform near her home in Soap Lake, Washington. More info coming soon....
Hey Bonnie, thanks for adding the hobokollektiv as a friend. You are a true inspiration over the years. Hope we'll meet somewhere down the road to share tales and tunes as well.
Good night & travel well ... the Fritsch & the hobokollektiv
Does there exist a more longingly romantic record than Bonnie Guitar's "Dark Moon?" I don't think so. I am honored to be her MySpace friend. Love those youtube clips too!
I realized that if I wanted to hear more of her beautiful voice I was going to have to start searching down vinyl copies of each album. After much searching I have managed to acquire all of Bonnie’s releases up to and including "Green, Green Grass of Home." I was fortunate enough to find several albums that were still sealed. I have even managed to find a sealed copy of "Bonnie Guitar and Edna Leal Williams." Unfortunately, I have as of yet to find any trace of her 1987 Playback release "What Can I Say" and her 1988 Tumbleweed releases "Yesterday" and "Today." Does anyone happen to know where I could possibly find any or all of those albums, would you? Anyway, during my eBaying I also came across a copy of the winter ‘01-‘02 edition of Blue Suede News music magazine #57 that featured another fascinating article about Miss Guitar. Also, I just had the extreme pleasure of watching the videos of what looks like was a truly incredible weekend jam Bonnie had with the Tutmarc Brothers, Shane Tutmarc, Jerry Johnson and her daughter Paula at her home in Soap Lake. I figured that I would never have the opportunity to actually see her perform, so finding those videos on YouTube was a pleasant surprise.
I first became aware of Miss Bonnie Guitar after reading an article about her in the February 06 issue of “No Depression” magazine. Reading about how she was not only one of the very first ever female session guitarists, but also one of the first female producers and label owners was truly fascinating. Fortuitously, a few days after reading that article I was browsing through a stack of old vinyl at an antique store and actually came across two of her albums. Your 1966 release titled “Two Worlds” and 1969 release “Affair!” "Two Worlds" was pretty beat up, but I was surprised to find that it actually had no skips. "Affair" was in much better shape. Anyway, after listening to those two albums, I said to myself, "this lady is really talented.” “So, why in the heck haven't I heard of her until now?" And then I began to look on the internet for information about her career and was amazed to find that she had released nearly 20 albums. Then to my dismay I found that almost none of her material has ever been transferred to CD. There's one CD compilation of her early work called “Dark Moon” that Bear Family Records released on CD a while back. Otherwise, none of her seventeen or so albums are available in any form other than long out of print vinyl LP’s and 45’s. I don't know if anyone else has ever seen this website, but here is a link to a good site that lists almost her complete discography (however, they don't list "The Green, Green Grass of Home" or "Bonnie Guitar and Edna Leal Williams" LP’s) and a short bio:
http://www.lpdiscography.com/g/Guitar/guitar.htm
