In his brief career Holly went through two clearly distinct phases. Like Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly spent the last years of his life on studio work, producing and pushing recording techniques forward. The first of those phases was shaped by the influence of Country-Western and by the arrival of Elvis.
Holly named his own style Western and Bop, and he cut a dozen rockabilly sides for the Decca label between 1955 and 56 that were there for good.
After disastrous sales, Decca let Holly go, and he went straight to the young, visionary producer Norman Petty with the demo of That’ll Be The Day in his hand (a song turned down, as it happens, by Paul Cohen, the Decca executive who had signed Holly), and Petty landed him a contract with Coral in New York — the funniest part being that Coral was a Decca subsidiary.
Coral did not want to cross its owners and signed Holly as The Crickets to the Brunswick label, which was in turn a subsidiary of Coral.
At the same time it signed Buddy Holly as an artist to Coral. So Holly found himself free to record with his group The Crickets and under his own name for Coral at once, and to experiment with new ideas that way.
This is where Holly's second phase begins. In October 58 the Crickets and Holly decided to go their separate ways, and Buddy Holly turned to writing and studio production, which would make him one of the pioneers of the pop music that later generations would take to its peak with the arrival of The Beatles, clearly influenced by Buddy Holly's music.
A tragic plane crash in February 59 would cut short the life of Buddy Holly, along with those of Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens…
If you are interested in Buddy Holly's music, I am going to recommend a couple of options…
The Buddy Holly Collection (MCAD2-10883 1993)
This double cd holds the best of Buddy Holly. The first three tracks are the earliest recordings Holly made in his career, Down The Line, Soft Place In My Heart and the instrumental Holly Hop, but the versions included here are the ones re-recorded in 1964 by Norman Petty, with the Fireballs added as backing, which leaves us without the original testimony of Holly at his freshest. The tracks that follow are the rockabilly sides Holly cut in Nashville, Love Me, Midnight Shift or the original take of Rock Around With Ollie Vee. The second version of that song, with Grady Martin on guitar, is not included.
It goes on with the Crickets' first hits, That’ll Be The Day, Tell Me How or Listen To Me, and the first cd closes with Peggy Sue.
The second cd carries on with the Holly classics, Maybe Baby, Oh Boy or Rave On, and ends with Holly's second phase, where the string arrangements and the harmonies are the key to his new musical direction, in examples like True Love Ways or Raining In My Heart. The cd finishes with the posthumous tracks Holly recorded in his New York apartment, Peggy Sue Got Married, Crying, Waiting, Hoping, Learning The Game and What To Do — again, the ones included here are the versions re-recorded at Norman Petty's studio with the Fireballs backing them.
All in all, an excellent collection of the best of this exceptional musician, and essential for anyone who loves Buddy Holly's music.
The cd comes with a booklet with a biography, photographs and a discography.
The Ultimate EP Collection - See For Miles
The English label See For Miles has just put out The Ultimate EP Collection, a double cd with 52 tracks plus an interview with Buddy Holly, fully remastered, and a delight to listen to. From the Nashville period it includes only 10 tracks.
The original LPs are out on cd as well, two LPs to a cd, and they hold a good many tracks that do not turn up on other cds.
And to finish, it is worth mentioning that there are two boxes, one of 7 cds and another of 8, with everything that exists by Buddy Holly. I do not think they are on the official label and I do not know what the sound quality is like. They can be tracked down now and then through the eBay.com site.
Baloo — November 2002
