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Musician Bob Bogle dead at 75

VANCOUVER, Wash., June 17 (UPI) -- Musician and Ventures co-founder Bob Bogle has died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Vancouver, Wash., his longtime friend and collaborator said. Bogle was 75.

Bogle, who played guitar on the band's instrumental hits "Walk -- Don't Run," "Perfidia," "Diamond Head" and "Hawaii Five-O," died Sunday, said Don Wilson, who co-founded the Ventures with Bogle in the 1950s.

"He had a special sound that nobody could ever re-create. He was totally unique as a guitar player," Wilson said of his fellow former construction worker in an interview with CNNRadio.

"We had a lot of time on our hands after work, so we'd get together and play," Wilson said. "A year and a half later, we had a No. 2 hit called 'Walk -- Don't Run.'"

Thirty-eight of the Ventures' albums made it onto Billboard's Top 200 chart, including collections of country, dance and holiday covers. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.

Bogle is survived by his wife, Yumi, CNN said.

Swift, Paisley win big at CMT Awards

NASHVILLE, June 17 (UPI) -- Brad Paisley won the prizes for male video, collaborative video and performance of the year at the 2009 CMT Music Awards show in Nashville.

Paisley's male video statuette was for "Waitin' on a Woman," while the collaborative video honor was for "Start a Band," which he made with Keith Urban.

He shared his CMT performance of the year title with Alan Jackson, George Strait and Dierks Bentley for "Country Boy."

Taylor Swift picked up CMT awards Tuesday night for female video and video of the year for "Love Story."

For the seventh consecutive year, Rascal Flatts won the prize for group video, this time for "Every Day."

Sugarland took home the trophy for duo video for "All I Want to Do," which marks their third consecutive win in the duo category.

Kid Rock earned the honor for wide open country video for "All Summer Long," Zac Brown Band was this year's winner of the USA Weekend Breakthrough Video for "Chicken Fried" and Trey Fanjoy won the gong for video director of the year for her entire body of work during the last year, including Swift's "Love Story."

Actor/comedian Bill Engvall served as host of the 2009 CMT Music Awards show, which kicked off with a comedy sketch featuring a collaboration between rap artist T-Pain and Swift, rapping to a new version of "Love Story" called "Thug Story."

The show also featured Dierks Bentley performing his new hit, "Sideways," Darius Rucker introducing his third single, "Alright," and Lady Antebellum reenacting the video for their nominated song, "Lookin' for a Good Time."

Paisley also sang "Then" and Swift recreated the video for her hit "You Belong with Me."

50 protesters call for Letterman firing

NEW YORK, June 17 (UPI) -- About 50 protesters chanting "Fire Dave!" gathered Tuesday night outside of the New York studio where "Late Show with David Letterman" is taped.

The demonstrators called for Letterman's ouster in the wake of a crude joke he made about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's teen-age daughter last week.

Palin voiced her outrage over the joke, prompting Letterman to say he was sorry for the widely panned quip.

Although Palin has said she accepts Letterman's apology, dozens of protesters went through with their previously announced plan to call for his firing outside Manhattan's Ed Sullivan Theater, the New York Daily News said Wednesday.

The protest was organized through a Web site called FireDavidLetterman.com, which was established by Los Angeles radio talk show host John Ziegler and co-sponsored by New York State Assemblyman Brian Kolb.

Harrison's greatest solo hits released

HOLLYWOOD , June 17 (UPI) -- George Harrison's first career-spanning solo hits collection, "Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison," has been released in CD and digital formats.

Capitol/EMI Tuesday released the collection, which includes songs from the late Harrison's 1970 album "All Things Must Pass" through his 2002 CD "Brainwashed." The compilation also features recordings from the former Beatles' 1971 "Concert for Bangladesh," the record label said.

iTunes exclusively offers the digital album with a previously unreleased bonus track, Harrison's earliest demo version of "Isn't it a Pity."

The CD version includes a 28-page booklet featuring previously unseen and rare photos, and newly-written liner notes by Warren Zanes. The collection's 19 tracks have been digitally remastered by Giles Martin at EMI's Abbey Road Studios.

"'Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison' is a gathering of material that takes us far into the territory that was ultimately a place unique to George Harrison," Zanes wrote in his liner notes essay for the new collection. "The keyhole into the world of George Harrison is the music itself. Yet his songs and the accomplishments for which he's remembered are inextricably bound -- and those accomplishments are, without question, eclectic in scope."

Featured on the new album are the tracks "Got My Mind Set on You," "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)," "The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll)," "My Sweet Lord," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Live)," "All Things Must Pass," "Any Road," "This is Love," "All Those Years Ago," "Marwa Blues," "What is Life," "Rising Sun," "When We Was Fab," "Something (Live,)" "Blow Away," "Cheer Down," "Here Comes the Sun (Live)," "I Don't Want to Do it" and "Isn't it a Pity."