Google sings in the tunes of Lester William Polsfuss (June 9 1915 – August 12 2009), who is known as Les Paul, on his 96^th birthday.

He, who was an American jazz and country guitarist, song writer and inventor, made the sound of rock and roll possible through his discovery of the solid-body electric guitar. He is attributed with numerous recording innovations which attracted wide spread attention. His try-outs with overdubbing, which is also known as sound to sound, delay effects such as tape play, phasing effects and multi track recording are few among the same.

Paul migrated to Chicago in 1934, where he continued to perform in radio. In 1936 his first two records were released, of which one was credited to “Rhubarb Red”, Paul’s hillbilly alter ego, and the other was an accompanist for blues-artist Georgia White. It was during this period that he began playing jazz and adopted his stage name.

He remained distinct from his contemporaries through his innovative talents which extended to his playing style along with licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, for which he was inspired by many guitarist of the present day.

Les Paul and Mary Ford got married and began to live their life together in 1949. In 1950s he started recording with her and they sold a millions of these records.

He bagged many honours in his life and in addition to it, he was known to be one of a handful of artists with a permanent stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Report by Sharika