title: Neil Levang
text: Neil LeVang (January 3, 1932 – January 26, 2015) was an American musician who was best known from television's The Lawrence Welk Show, playing guitar, violin and banjo.
  
  Biography
  The younger of two boys, Levang was born in Adams, North Dakota, a farmer's son of Swedish and Norwegian descent. He got his start playing the banjo and soon added guitar and violin. As a young boy, Levang moved with his family between Adams, North Dakota and Bemidji, Minnesota before migrating west. They settled in Riverside, California when Levang was thirteen. At the age of fifteen, he was playing with area bands and establishing himself as a versatile and accomplished stringed instrumentalist. In 1948, Levang appeared with Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, as well as Jimmy Wakely and several other country swing bands.
  
  Levang joined the United States Coast Guard in 1951 which took him to Seattle, Washington. There he continued in the music scene playing with "Texas Jim Lewis and his Lonestar Cowboys". He also hosted his own radio show.  In 1959, he was hired as a temporary guitar and banjo player on The Lawrence Welk Show when Buddy Merrill left to serve in the United States Army. Welk was so pleased with his ability that he hired Levang on a permanent basis when Buddy completed his tour of duty in 1961. Levang stayed with the Welk Band until its final show in 1982. That same year, at the Country Music Association Awards he was nominated for best artist on a specialty instrument, the mandolin. He was also an accomplished studio musician, playing on several records for artists such as Glen Campbell, Frank Zappa, Bobby Darin, Bobbi Gentry, David Clayton Thomas, Neal Hefti ("Batman Theme"), Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Neil Diamond and Noel Boggs.
  
  Levang performed as a studio musician on many television shows including Little House on the Prairie, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Brady Bunch, The Monkees, Highway to Heaven, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and a host of Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He was the featured guitarist with Naomi and Wynonna Judd on the 1985 and 1986 Academy of Country Music Association Awards television broadcast. He was the subject of an extensive career profile by historian Rich Kienzle in the December 2009 issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine.
  
  Levang unknowingly created a new genre of music that would eventually be called Surf Rock with his 1961 arrangement of Ghost Riders In the Sky, performed on The Lawrence Welk Show.
  
  Levang died in Canyon Country, California at the age of 83.
  
  Film credits as a musician
  Neil also worked on music for several Hollywood motion pictures. His film credits include:
   
   All the President's Men
   The Apple Dumpling Gang
   At Long Last Love
   Barefoot in the Park
   Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
   Bless the Beasts and the Children
   Blue Hawaii
   California Suite
   Charlotte's Web
   Dead Again
   Dick Tracy
   Emperor of the North
   For Pete's Sake
   Friday Foster
   Goin' South
   Good Morning, Vietnam
   Hardcore
   Herbie Goes Bananas
   Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
   Hooper
   Hot Lead and Cold Feet
   Huckleberry Finn
   Hustle
   I'll Take Sweden
   The Last Hard Men
   The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
   Live a Little, Love a Little
   The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
   Nickelodeon
   Paint Your Wagon
   Pajama Party
   Pennies from Heaven
   Pete's Dragon
   Rosemary's Baby
   Smokey and the Bandit
   Sophie's Choice
   Thank God It's Friday
   Tony Rome
   True Grit
   Twice Upon a Time
   Zorro, The Gay Blade
  
  References
  
  External links
  
  American banjoists
  1932 births
  2015 deaths
  People from Walsh County, North Dakota
  Guitarists from North Dakota
  American people of Norwegian descent
  American male guitarists
  American people of Swedish descent
  Lawrence Welk
  20th-century American guitarists