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My Essential Albums: '20 Golden Greats' by Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Released: February, 1978

By Annie KapurPublished 5 years ago 9 min read
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The Cover Art for the Album

This album, also known as Buddy Holly Lives was released in the February of 1978 as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Holly, who died in a plane crash in 1959, went on to become immortalised through his incredible musical abilities at such a young age. He was just 22 years old at the time of his death. This album is filled with all your favourite Buddy Holly and the Crickets songs and is an absolute pleasure to listen to at any time of the day.

In this we're not going to cover all the songs, because then the article will be far too long and we'd be here all day with me rambling on. We're going to take a look at the essential songs I think you should be fully aware of when listening to the album. Let's get stuck in and I hope you enjoy some Buddy Holly!

"That'll Be the Day"

There are two versions of this song, rightly just named "version 1" and "version 2"—and they are both brilliant, though I prefer "version 2." The song is an incredible rock and roll classic. The song opens with the sound of a guitar strumming and then gets right into the first chorus of:

"That'll be the day when you say goodbye,That'll be the day when you make me cry..."

It is a truly memorable song and has some killer lyrics written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison. It also gives the feel of someone who doesn't want to be left alone, telling a story through a song—which many such as the Beatles and Bob Dylan would copy on their way to fame.

"That'll Be the Day" is an incredible song to listen to when you're down too as it's quite uplifting and has incredible vocals on the track. Buddy Holly's vocals are something to be revered and I'm being serious when I say you need to listen to this song, if not for the lyrics, but for that wild rock and roll soul-vocal sound.

"Everyday"

Possibly one of my personal favourite Buddy Holly songs ever, "Everyday"is a beautiful vocally-based song that carries incredible harmonies for Buddy Holly's voice throughout. As the B-Side to the awesome and iconic song "Peggy Sue," it still holds as one of Buddy Holly's most well-known and highly appreciated songs.

There have been many pretty good (but not Buddy Holly) cover versions of this song which include but are not limited to:

  • John Denver
  • Don McLean
  • James Taylor
  • Patrick Stump

(Yes, you read that last one correctly.)

The song itself is a brilliant recording of perfect lyrics and a brilliant backing sound. The memorable and iconic lyrics:

"Everyday, it's a-gettin' closer, going faster than a roller coaster..."

It's a brilliant way of remembering Buddy Holly as not only a musician, but a man with one hell of a voice. On this song, he sounds softer, but just as soulful—he sounds subtle, but just as powerful. His range is amazing and he has some of the greatest vocal chords in rock and roll, ever.

"Not Fade Away"

You knew this was going to be here. "Not Fade Away"is one of the greatest and most memorable songs by Buddy Holly and the Crickets—an iconic song of early rock and roll, it has been played, covered, recreated and revisited many times by many different musicians over the years ever since Holly's death.

The iconic lines, "My love is bigger than a Cadillac," probably inspired many artists, such as Bruce Springsteen, to include the Cadillac in their songs. I'm not going to lie, but that was probably it even if they say it wasn't. Buddy Holly was the first and there probably wouldn't be modern rock without him.

The song is a quick beat with a heavy guitar and Buddy Holly's vocals loud and clear over the top. The backing band of the crickets are a brilliant addition to the background vocals and the instrumentation of the song - making it almost three dimensional.

"Not Fade Away"has one of those pieces of excellent lyricism and singing from Holly, I mean just check this out:

"Your love for me, got to be real, for you to know just how I feel. A love for real not fade away..."

He is a genius of the vocals on this song, and you need to hear it if you listen to any Buddy Holly song at all in your life.

"Oh, Boy!"

This song is also one of my favourite Buddy Holly songs ever because of the fact it sounds so different for its time. This alongside Ritchie Valens's "Ooh My Head!"are some great 50s Rock and Roll tunes right there if you ever heard them. Here's a fun story:

I first heard the song "Oh, Boy!"when I was 13, but had no idea what it was, so I searched it up and couldn't stop listening to it and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I ended up in love with Buddy Holly.

"Oh, Boy!"just gets straight into the song:

"All my love, all my kisses,

You don't know what you been missing!"

A brilliant opening for a song if I ever heard one, with that rolling heavy beat at the bottom which comes in at the end of the chorus—it makes my heart skip a beat. I really am in love with this song.

Some people refer to this song as one of the essential rockabilly songs if you are to listen to rockabilly. Well, I agree—but the rock and roll in this song and possibly, the early hard rock in this song as well, is undeniable. You can just hear it.

The vocals on the bridge that goes, "Stars appear and the shadows a-falling..." is absolutely one of the best sets of vocals you'll ever hear on an early rock song I can guarantee you.

Well, I do hope you enjoy this crazy rock and roll song—it is something quite a bit different for Buddy Holly and yet, it works brilliantly.

"Maybe Baby"

I said I wouldn't cover a lot of songs but here we are.

"Maybe Baby"is a song which is very syllabic and is beautifully written and sung.

It is lyrically quite amazing and absolutely touching to listen to as it is your quintessential 50s love song. You've got Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Bobby Vee and Dion and the Belmonts that'll do that for you—they're the go-to for the 50s love song.

"Maybe Baby"has an amazing backing to it as well, you can really hear every instrument and those drums are amazing. The drums really bring out the syllabic vibe to the song and when it hits the chorus, it is quite literally one of the most amazing sounds in the world.

Even the bridge is great when it's only the backing singers singing. It stays in the rhythm of the song and keeps going on that giving it a really nice, repetitive feel and makes for great music others would copy in the future.

"It's So Easy"

Call me a softie, but this song is such a harmonically amazing love song from Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Not only that, but the vocals from Buddy Holly on this track are absolutely awesome.

Don't believe me? Just listen to the lines:

"People tell me love's for fools. So here I go breaking all of the rules!"

You cannot tell me that's not some brilliant vocal work. It goes low and high at different and appropriate parts of the track and the backing singers in the crickets are incredible.

I don't really have much to say about this song other than, it should be an essential Buddy Holly song to get to know exactly what his vocal range can produce—because just those lines alone should be able to get you to say yes to listening to Buddy Holly.

"Raining in My Heart"

The lyrics on this song are something different for Buddy Holly as it gives us that repetition we're most likely to see on early Bob Dylan tracks, verse, and then a two line chorus at the end of the verse. It is a brilliant masterpiece of vocals and a softer sound compared to what we're used to.

Buddy Holly's melancholic sound on this song is so perfect, his vocals are strung out, clear and yet incredibly harmonic.

"The sun is out, the sky is blue..." being the opening lines of the song are incredibly memorable and show you exactly where these vocals are going.

Listening to that bridge as well, is very satisfying: "Oh misery, misery, what's gonna become of me?" Melancholic and somewhat depressing yes, but just so incredibly sung that you ignore that it's so sad.

The power in this song though it's so soft is unbelievable—I love it for its character and the way every instrument and harmony in that song was so designed, it sounds brilliant.

"Brown-Eyed Handsome Man"

Now this, out of all the Buddy Holly songs, is my favourite. This album is definitely a gold-mine of Buddy Holly and the Crickets. This song is a faster, more upbeat song with some crazy lyrics that kind of remind you of Bob Dylan in the way that they tell several people's stories in one song. The first verse is probably the most memorable as it comes in just after the amazing guitar sound at the start of the song:

"Arrested on charges of unemploymentHe was sitting in the witness standThe judge's wife called up the district attorneySaid free that brown eyed manYou want your job you better free that brown eyed man"

Yes, it's very hard to hear all of the lyrics, but the song itself is incredibly designed, this verse sets up the whole situation. People are always looking for or finding "brown-eyed" men throughout the song and there's always something mysterious about them. The start of the song seems to sound like the brown eyed man was arrested and now, needs to be freed based on his eyes alone. It's a brilliant concept for a storytelling song.

The song goes on like this, repeating different situations in which the "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" character is either present or being spoken about—it is an incredible story of a song, it really is. I sound like I'm appreciating it far too much but please, give it a listen for yourself. That song is pure talent.

Conclusion

Buddy Holly was an amazing artist and yes, we all believe he was taken from us far too young. We sure as hell wanted more music out of him because he was just so good so young, he would've been even more iconic than he already is if he had lived longer. He's been immortalised through the music he made and the sub-genres he created. From the Beatles naming themselves after the Crickets, to Bob Dylan seeing Buddy Holly in a Duluth Concert two days before Holly's plane crashed in 1959, and to Don McLean's "American Pie." Buddy Holly's death has been immortalised as "The Day the Music Died" and his influence on to classic rock is quite possibly, unrivalled.

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About the Creator

Annie Kapur

190K+ Reads on Vocal.

English Lecturer

🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)

🎓Film & Writing (M.A)

🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd)

📍Birmingham, UK

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