On 3 October 1938 Edward Raymond Cochran was born to Frank and Alice Cochran in Albert Lea, Minnesota. Eddie had three older siblings: Gloria, Bill and Robert.
Bill taught Eddie his first guitar chords.
In the late '40s Frank, Alice and Eddie Cochran moved to Oklahoma, though serious health problems of Eddie's took them back to Albert Lea.
In 1951 the Cochran family moved to Bell Gardens, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. In September of that same year Eddie enrolled at Bell Garden Junior High, where he met his good friend Connie 'Guybo' Smith, who played bass, steel guitar and mandolin.
Connie and Eddie began rehearsing together and were soon on the school stage putting on good shows.
Guybo became Eddie Cochran's bass player and can be heard on most of Eddie Cochran's hits.
In 1953 Eddie met Chuck Foreman, a local musician, with whom he experimented with a two-track tape recorder. They recorded songs such as: Stardust, Candy Kisses, The Poor People Of Paris, Hearts of Stone and Cannonball Rag.
In June 1954 Eddie graduated from Junior High. In October of that same year he met Hank Cochran, a country singer.
In January 1955 Hank offered Eddie a contract as a guitarist and Eddie dropped out of school. For the next eighteen months they played and recorded together under the name The Cochran Brothers.
In October 1955 Hank and Eddie met Jerry Capehart, an aspiring songwriter who was looking for artists to play and sing his songs. In late 1955 Jerry acted as the Cochran brothers' promoter, getting them an immediate booking on The Big D Jamboree.
Around April 1956 The Cochran Brothers recorded four Rock&Roll sides, of which Tired & Sleepy y Fool's Paradise were released on EKKO 3001.
Slow Down y Open The Door were released 26 years later by the Rockstar label.
This was to be The Cochran Brothers' last session.
In July 1956 Skinny Jim y Half Loved (CREST 1026) became the first solo work of Eddie's to be released.
At the same time as his first released record, Boris Petroff, producer of The Girl Can't Help It, signed Cochran to appear in that film, for which he recorded Twnety-Flight Rock y Dark Lonely Street at Gold Star Studio in Hollywood.
In August they filmed his appearance for the picture at the Fox studios in Hollywood.
On 8 September 1956 Eddie Cochran signed a one-year contract with the Liberty label.
From that moment on his career was a run of hits and glory for the artist.
The next film he took part in was Untamed Youth', where he performed Cotton Picker, recorded at the Goldstar studios in Hollywood.
The star of the film was Mamie Van Doren.
In January 1957 Liberty released Eddie Cochran's first charting single. A cover of Johnny Dee's Sittin' In The Balcony, with Dark Lonely Street on the B side. It reached number 18 in the charts, while Johnny Dee's own version of the song barely got to 38.
In May of that year he was preparing and recording what would be his first album: Singin' To My Baby. It was the first album released in his lifetime.
Some of the songs recorded are: One Kiss, Have I Told You Lately That I Love You y Completely Sweet.
Drive-In Show y Am I Blue were also recorded at those same sessions and released on Eddie's third single for Liberty.
Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent toured Australia in October 1957, together with Little Richard and Alis Lesley (the female Elvis), on the first big Rock&Roll show to reach those shores. Every date carried a "sold out" sign.
From then on Gene and Eddie became good friends, to the point that Eddie sang backing vocals on seven occasions on recordings by Vincent and the Blue Caps. Songs where the Cochran flavour is easy to pick out, such as: Git It, Teeanage Partner o Lovely Loretta.
In March 1958 Dick D'Agostin and the Swingers, Eddie Cochran's touring band, backed him in his third film, Hot Rod Gang.
The Cochran bomb started to boil when, in June '58, Liberty released Summertime Blues, a single that came with Love Again on its B side.
The single reached number 8 and was Eddie's biggest hit in the United States.
The next release was C'mon Everybody / Don't Ever Let Me Go, which got no further than number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, though in the British charts it reached number 6. All of this was happening in October 1958.
In December the DJ Alan Freed put on a splendid show at the Loews State Theatre in New York, with guest artists of the stature of Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Bo Diddley and Eddie Cochran, among others.
A month later he appeared in a new film, Go, Johnny, Go!, playing Teenage Heaven. Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson and Ritchie Valens also took part in the picture.
When Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash in February 1959, Eddie Cochran recorded Three Stars, a song written by the DJ Tommy Dee. During the recording Eddie broke down in tears several times. It was never released because Liberty judged that no satisfactory master had been achieved.
In the summer of 1959 Somethin' Else reached number 58 in the Billboard charts. This was his seventh and last chart hit.
At his last session for Liberty Records he recorded Three Steps To Heaven, Cherished Memories y Cut Across Shorty with the Crickets on backing vocals. After the session he left for the United Kingdom to join Gene Vincent on tour. We are talking about the beginning of January 1960.
On the 16th of that month Eddie appeared for the first time on the television show Boy Meets Girls. Three more appearances on the same show followed.
Eddie Cochran left his mark on British teenagers and became a great influence on local musicians.
On 17 April 1960, on the way to the airport, the taxi carrying Eddie Cochran, his girlfriend Sharon Sheeley and Gene Vincent had a serious accident near Chippenham. Sheeley and Vincent were slightly injured, but Cochran was gravely hurt and died hours later of multiple head injuries.
The taxi driver was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison, and his licence was taken away for 15 years for reckless driving.
Three Steps To Heaven was Eddie Cochran's great posthumous hit, reaching number 1 in the British charts. By contrast, that same song did not even make the Top 100 in the American charts. It was May '60 and, at only 21, he became a true legend of Rock&Roll, one of its most significant exponents and a point of reference for all the Rock bands who still admire his work and career today.
More information and the source for this article: www.eddiecochran.info.
