Richie Allen

One of the unheralded architects of the Southern Californian surf sound, Allen (real name Richie Podolor) played a lot of session guitar on surf and hot rod records in the early '60s, particularly for producer Gary Usher. He also played guitar for drummer Sandy Nelson on the classic "Teen Beat" and other instrumentals, and recorded quite a few surf instrumentals under his own name, although these were rather placid and routine when stacked up against the best of the genre. Reverting to his real name, Podolor racked up production credits with Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, and Three Dog Night in the late '60s, and remains active behind the boards today.