Peter Gunn Theme

This was originally written by Henry Mancini for the TV series Peter Gunn. The show ran from 1958-1961, and used this song performed by Henry Mancini And His Orchestra as its theme. Many artists have since interpreted the theme, with Eddy's version being the most famous.

Eddy produced his signature 'twang' sound by means of a Gretsch 6120 with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece through a 100-watt amp-and a steel water tank for reverb.

In 1986 the British techno-pop trio The Art Of Noise covered this with Eddy guesting on guitar. It was a Top 10 hit around the world, peaking at #8 in the UK and won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. It also gave Eddy the distinction of being the only instrumentalist to have had Top 10 hit singles in 4 different decades in the UK.

Eddy recalled to Mojo magazine November 2010 why he decided to cover this song: "We were doing the second album, Especially For You. (Saxophonist) Steve Douglas said, 'Duane, I learnt Peter Gunn last night.' I said, 'Well, that's nice.' He thought it'd just be good as an album cut but I didn't think so. So we forgot about it and we got 11 or 12 songs done. Lee and me were sitting there discussing what we could do and Steve wandered over and said, 'We could do Peter Gunn.' I thought, 'What the heck! It's only an album cut.' So we figured out the intro, then the riff, and we cut it. It became a single because somebody in Australia in the record company took it from the album and it got to #3. Somebody in England noticed that so they released it as a single. It got to the top of the charts. Finally, Jamie noticed this and said, 'Maybe we should make this a single in the US.' So that's how Peter Gunn came to be."