FEATURES THE SMASH HIT:
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
Les Fradkin has the singular distinction of having been the first musician to portray "George Harrison" in the Original Cast Of the Broadway production of "Beatlemania." Chosen from over 2000 guitarists back in 1976, Les starred in the smash Broadway musical which ran for over 2 years and has toured all over the world.
Now, Les brings you 14 Guitar Instrumentals in a musical tribute to The Beatles. The CD offers 8 Lennon-McCartney tunes and 6 George Harrison compositions. And for Ventures fans, Nokie Edwards participates as a guest guitarist.
Les is offering something new and original here while keeping one foot in traditrional Beatles sound and production values. In particular, his stunning guitar duel, re-creating the "Abbey Road" "Golden Slumbers","Carry That Weight" and "The End" Medley is a must hear. His touching acoustic tribute to George on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" takes the Harrison standard into new territory. "I Feel Fine" recalls The Ventures treatment back in 1965.
"While My Guitar Only Plays" is now featured on "Breakfast With The Beatles" (99.5-The Mountain, Denver, CO.) and on Joe Johnson's "Beatlebrunch" Radio Show across the USA!
Les Fradkin Bio:
Les Fradkin is one of the guitar legends of the 1970's. As well as being a veteran member of The Original Cast of Beatlemania, he has found success as a recording artist, composer and producer with MGM Sunflower, ESP-Disk', Bell, Arista, RCA, and Laurie Records. Les has written the well known French hit "La Chansons Des Souvenirs" ("Song Of A Thousand Voices") for the famous Mireille Mathieu. He has played 12 and 6-string Guitar, Bass, Mellotron, and Piano on dozens of Top 40 hit records throughout the early 1970's , scoring many US and UK chart placings throughout his career.
Les Fradkin was also an original member / singer / guitarist for the pop group California on Laurie Records in the US and RCA Records in the UK for it's entire existence from 1973 through 1985. California had several chart records including the 1981 release "Summer Fun Medley"-a medley of Beach Boys hits, "Jeans On", "He's Almost You" (charting in the United Kingdom) and an appearance on the Dick Clark American Bandstand television show.
In 1976, Les was selected over thousands of other auditioning guitarists to appear in the original cast of the smash hit Broadway musical "Beatlemania" playing lead guitar and the part of "George Harrison" in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Running for two and a half years from May 1977 thru October 1979, every show (including over 1200 in New York alone) was sold out and the musicians quickly became celebrities with magazine cover stories ("Newsweek","Time", "People", "Rolling Stone") and many major television show appearances. With his guitar-playing in the international spotlight from the show, Fradkin developed a cult following that has avidly followed his career and made him a celebrity among guitar fans.
He has enjoyed chart success on the net as well with his songs reaching mp3.com's 1 position 16 times! New Gandy Dancer Rock Magazine named Les' CD "A Day At The Beach" it's 2004 Album Of The Year. In addition, Les has performed with The Ventures as 2nd Lead Guitarist. Nokie Edwards of The Ventures has performed with Les on several occasions and is a featured guest on his "While My Guitar Only Plays" CD. In fact, Les has been acknowledged as a guitar virtuoso for over 30 years and he has been featured in issues of 20th Century Guitar Magazine, Pipeline and New Gandy Dancer Magazines.
Today, Les has released 15 solo CD's on his RRO Entertainment Indie label and has had over 300,000 downloads bringing him several substantial hits on Apple iTunes and other download sites across the Internet.
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