Early Life & Rise To Fame
Born in 1923 in Seattle as Bonnie Buckingham, she took up playing the guitar as a teenager which led to her stage name, Bonnie Guitar. At the same time, she also started songwriting. Through much of the 1950s, Bonnie worked as a session guitarist at quite a few small labels, like Abbot, Fabor, and also Radio Recorders.
Working at these places got Guitar noticed as a professional guitarist as she ended up playing on sessions for many well-known singers, like Jim Reeves, Dorsey Burnette, Ned Miller, and the DeCastro Sisters. After working with so many singers, she acquired her own singing aspirations herself and a desire to make her very own recording career in the process.
In 1956 when Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley were beginning the first moves toward the New Nashville Sound, Bonnie heard the song "Dark Moon", from a publishing demo and found its composer Ned Miller among the singers with whom she worked as a session guitarist. However, Guitar liked "Dark Moon" so much she decided to waive her performance fee if she would be allowed to record the song herself instead and was given permission.
The song was originally issued under Fabor Records in 1956. "Dark Moon" was then issued over to Dot Records and by the Spring of 1957, "Dark Moon" hit the Pop Top 10 list and went into the Country Top 15 list. Guitar officially had a hit.
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