AP: Colin ArcherLes Paul performs with a Les Paul guitar

STATEN ISLAND, NYThe Associated Press is reporting that Les Paul has died at 94 years of age. A virtuosic electric guitar player whose influence on both pop and jazz music cannot easily be overstatedand is evidenced on countless recordings and the name of one of the most common kinds of the instrument had a commitment to his Peyton Manning Kids Jersey audience unparalleled in the buisness. He played a weekly gig in Manhattan that continued to wow music fans and curiosityseekers into 2009. When I recently interviewed Bucky Pizzarelli, a musical peer and friend of Paul's, he was covering a weekly gig for the guitarist, whose health had been deteriorating. Needless to say, Les Paul was, is, and likely ever will be a guitar legend, and his passing, while not a complete surprise, is a blow to anyone who loves popular music of the 20th century. AP story after the jump. (AP) Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.

According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.

He had been hospitalized in February 2006 when he learned he won two Grammys for an album he released after his 90th birthday, "Les Paul Friends: American Made, World Played."

"I feel like a condemned building with a new flagpole on it," he joked.

As an inventor, Paul helped bring about the rise of rock 'n' roll and multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing Wes Welker Kids Jersey harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the "tracks" in the finished recording.

With Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records and 11 No. 1 pop hits, including "Vaya Con Dios," "How High the Moon," "Nola" and "Lover." Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Peyton Manning Orange Jersey Paul the inventor had helped develop.

"I could take my Mary and make her three, six, nine, 12, as many voices as I wished," he recalled. "This is quite an asset." The overdubbing technique was highly influential on later recording artists such as the Carpenters.

The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the midtolate 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock the 1950s.

"Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of music," Wes Welker Youth Jersey Paul once said. "To have the dynamics, to have the way of expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn't think of singing a song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system."

A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called "The Log," a fourbyfour piece of wood strung with steel strings.

"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a tradition guitar shape.

In 1952, Gibson Guitars began production on the Les Paul guitar.

Pete Townsend of The Who, Steve Howe of Yes, jazz great Al DiMeola and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page all made the Gibson Les Paul their trademark sixstring.

Over the www.broncosnflofficialproshop.com/Nike-Von-Miller-Jersey.html years, the Les Paul series has become one of the most widely used guitars in the music industry. In 2005, Christie's auction house sold a 1955 Gibson Les Paul for $45,600.

Speed cameras to hit New York City, including Staten Island, next month; locations still www.broncosnflofficialproshop.com/Nike-Ryan-Clady-Jersey.html not specifiedWhen dreams diverge: King's niece a party to suit vs. 'Obamacare' by Staten Island's Priests for LifePhotos: NYPD designates mosques as terrorism organizations; reactions are heatedNYPD: Help us find woman wanted for grand larceny at Stop 'N' Shop.