Bonnie Guitar was born on March 25, 1923 in Seattle, Washington. She adopted the name Bonnie Guitar as a teenager, having been born Bonnie Buckingham. Her recording career started in Hollywood with Fabor Records after she sent a demo tape on behalf of a songwriter whose work she recorded while working in a recording studio in Seattle. Fabor Robison, owner of Abbott, Fabor and Radio Records, was more interested in the singer than the songs. He invited Bonnie Guitar down to Hollywood, where she took up residence in Robison's recording-studio compound in Malibu and played on the sessions that Robison was constantly organizing. Her session work for Robison artists included Dorsey Burnette, Jim Reeves, and the DeCastro Sisters. Bonnie Guitar, the regular studio guitarist for Robison, begged to be allowed to record "Dark Moon" and was willing to give up artist royalties to do so. Robison transferred the song to Randy Wood at Dot Records, and while Bonnie Guitar's version was climbing the charts, Dot also put out a version by Gale Storm, which was also a hit and eventually, thanks to Storm's television show, outranked Bonnie Guitar's. Still, Bonnie Guitar was launched on a half-century career that included being a founder of Dolton Records (The Fleetwoods' "Come Softly to Me" and "Mr. Blue" and The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run"). Her recording career took off again as a country music star starting in 1966 with "I'm Living In Two Worlds," "A Woman In Love," "I Believe in Love" and, with country-music publishing legend Buddy Killen, the duet "A True Lover You'll Never Find (Than Mine)." In her ninth decade, she continues to record and work in Soap Lake, Washington.
