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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGUITAR, Bonnie(b Bonnie Buckingham, 25 March 1923, Seattle WA; d 12 January 2019, Soap Lake WA) Country singer, songwriter; also session guitarist, hence the name. She started her own Dolphin label, later called Dolton, to make records for fans; signed local high school group the Fleetwoods (Gary Troxel, Barbara Ellis, Gretchen Christopher, all b 1939-40) whose national hits included no. 1 entries 'Come Softly To Me' and 'Mr Blue', both '59; also the Ventures, who were even bigger. She sold out when her own career got underway (the label ended up with Liberty, later EMI). With her own song 'Dark Moon' she reached no. 6 on the Billboard pop chart '57 on Dot (beaten by a Gale Storm cover at no. 4 on same label: Storm's last hit, Guitar's first). She had two more minor pop hits on Dot, one on Dolton, but continued to make the country charts: eight top 40 country hits '66-9 included top tens 'I'm Living In Two Worlds' '66, 'A Woman In Love' '67, 'I Believe In Love' '68. LPs included Whispering Hope and Moonlight '59, Dark Moon '60, Two Worlds Of Bonnie Guitar and Miss Bonnie Guitar '66, Award Winner '67, Affair! '69 (all on Dot), Allegheny on ABC-Paramount, others on minor labels. Later country chart entries were 'Happy Everything' '72 on Columbia; 'Honey On The Moon' '80 on 4-Star. Others recorded her songs, including Eddy Arnold, with whom she toured in the '60s. She had been named female vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music '66; she had made an album for RCA '59 which was not released until 2013 (on Bear Family, called Intimate Session--The Velvet Lounge) on which she sang in the romantic style of Peggy Lee or Julie London; on that album she was backed by future members of the California studio wizards called the Wrecking Crew. in fact she had already served an apprenticeship in a Los Angeles studio in the mid-1950s, used as a dogsbody but learning everything she could about making records before returning to Seattle to start her own label, and continuing to do it all when she went to Dot. She often did not get enough credit, but she was one of the first women who made their way in the record business back then.
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