Today is the 96th birthday of musician Les Paul and Google Doodle helps us celebrate with a playable guitar logo!!!

So for 24 hours, the logo on Google.com will be replaced with the strings of a guitar that allows you to jam, go ahead strum those strings with your mouse, it’s a twanging good time and I'm driving the office crazy! Here in the U.S., users can click the black "compose" button and record a 30-second track. Clicking this button again will gives you a link to share the song you've just created. Can you say duet anyone?

Google said it was inspired to include the record button because Paul, in addition to his guitar work, also "experimented in his garage with innovative recording techniques like multitracking and tape delay," Alexander Chen, a designer (and musician) with Google's Creative Lab, wrote in a blog post.

"The electric guitar brings back memories for me of exchanging riffs with friends and wearing out cassette tapes as I meticulously learned songs," Chen wrote. "Today, we're attempting to recreate that experience with a doodle celebrating the birthday of musician and inventor Les Paul."

Some History:

Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss in 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. By age 9, he built his first crystal radio—and picked up his first guitar. Four years later, Paul was performing as a country-music guitarist and working on sound-related innovations, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, into which Paul was inducted in 1988.

Paul built his first electric guitar in 1941, but he is most well-known for the Gibson Les Paul, which debuted in 1952. The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold in 1952.The Les Paul was designed by Ted McCarty in collaboration with popular guitarist Les Paul, whom Gibson enlisted to endorse the new model. It is one of the most well-known electric guitar types in the world, along with the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster.

"It grew out of his desire, as a musician and inventor, to create a stringed instrument that could make electronic sound without distorting," the Hall of Fame said. "What he came up with, after almost a decade of work, was a solid bodied instrument—that is, one that didn't have the deep, resonant chamber of an acoustic guitar."

Did you know that Gibson Guitars initially rejected Paul? They referred to his creation as a "broomstick with pickups." Gibson was skeptical that guitarists would want to carry around both an acoustic and electric guitar. Thanks to Gibson, Leo Fender was first in the market in 1948 with his electric guitar, the Fender Broadcaster. I forgive you Gibson.

Following a near fatal car crash in 1948, Paul worked on jazz-pop music of his own with his wife, Mary Ford. Some of their hits include "How High the Moon" in 1951 and "Vaya Con Dios" in 1953. The songs are some of the first to use overdubbing, or layers guitar sounds on top of one another. Les Paul was an Innovator in many ways.

Les Paul worked steadily throughout his life. In 2005, at age 90, he released "American Made/World Played," which included appearances by a variety of well-known musicians and earned him two Grammys. Paul died at his home in Mahwah, New Jersey on August 13, 2009.

The guitar doodle was created by Google engineers Kristopher Hom and Joey Hurst as well as doodle team lead Ryan Germick. Using a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas (used in modern browsers to draw the guitar strings), CSS, Flash (for sound), and tools like the Google Font API, and goo.gl App Engine.

A guitarist/tech nerd myself… I love the Google Doodle.

Innovation respectfully honoring an innovator wicked cool...

Bobby Bruso

Creative | Director

Access to Media