One of the first melodies that he wrote was Dale Hawkins’s ‘Susie Q’, which James also played on. While still a teenager, he left for Los Angeles, where he joined Ricky Nelson’s band and began playing in the studio as a session musician. In 1964 he got a call from Johnny Cash to play dobro on a TV pilot for a new musical show called Shindig!, which turned out to be incredibly popular.

It was at this point he became one of the most in-demand session guitarists and a member of the legendary Wrecking Crew – the name given to the top studio musicians in Los Angeles. During this time, James worked with Phil Spector, Johnny Cash, the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell, Joni Mitchell, the Monkees and Buffalo Springfield, among countless others.

In 1968 James was invited by Elvis Presley – who had watched the Ozzie and Harriet show just to see him play guitar – to back him on his comeback television special. At the time he was working with Frank Sinatra and declined, but the following year Elvis called back and asked him to put up a band for his Las Vegas residency. James would remain with Elvis until his death in 1977. After that, James went on to work with John Denver – with whom he remained for 16 years – Roy Orbison, Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello. James also created the James Burton Foundation, which raises money to give guitars to children.

Not only did James invent and popularise ‘chicken pickin’’ – which became his trademark – the impact of his signature guitar sound, a blend of Louisiana twang and fast-paced blues, was instrumental in defining the evolutional guitar sound of the 1960s, which can be heard on many of the biggest records of the period.

Mike Read