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Not Fade Away: Buddy Holly 1957 - The Complete Recordings

Buddy Holly & the Crickets - Not Fade Away: Buddy Holly 1957 - The Complete Recordings Audio CD

A fair review of the Buddy Holly & the Crickets "Not Fade Away: Buddy Holly 1957 - The Complete Recordings" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Buddy Holly & the Crickets reviews here, or go back to the Buddy Holly & the Crickets tabs.

Band: Buddy Holly & the Crickets
Title: Not Fade Away: Buddy Holly 1957 - The Complete Recordings
Rating:

Release Date: 2008-03-11
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: I'm Lookin' for Someone to Love 2: That'll Be the Day 3: Last Night [Undubbed Original Version] 4: Maybe Baby [First Version] 5: Last Night 6: Words of Love [Demo Version] 7: Words of Love 8: Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues 9: Not Fade Away [Incomplete Alternative Take] 10: Not Fade Away 11: Everyday 12: Ready Teddy 13: Valley of Tears 14: Tell Me How 15: Buddy's Phone Call to Paul Cohen of Decca Records 16: Go Boy Goy [Kdav Demo] - Gary Dale 17: Gone [Kdav Demo] - Gary Dale 18: Go Boy Go [Norman Petty Demo] - Gary Dale 19: Golden Rocket [Norman Petty Demo] - Gary Dale 20: Gone [Norman Petty Demo] - Gary Dale 21: I Overlooked an Orchid [Norman Petty Demo] - Gary Dale 22: On My Mind Again - Billy Walker 23: Viva la Matador - Billy Walker 24: Whole Lot of Lovin' - Jim Robinson 25: Whole Lot of Lovin [Take 2] - Jim Robinson 26: Whole Lot of Lovin' [Take 3] - Jim Robinson 27: Whole Lot of Lovin' - Jim Robinson 28: It's a Wonderful Feeling - Jim Robinson 29: Starlight [Original Without Echo] - Jack Huddle 30: Believe Me [Original Without Echo] - Jack Huddle 31: Starlight - Jack Huddle 32: Believe Me - Jack Huddle 33: Peggy Sue [Alternate Take] 34: Peggy Sue 35: Listen to Me 36: Tat'll Be the Day [Promotional Recording for Bob Thiele of Coral Record 37: That'll Be the Day [Promotional Recording for Murray Deutch of Southern 38: Oh, Boy! [Undubbed Original Version] 39: Oh, Boy! 40: That'll Be the Day [Promotional Recording for Bill Randle of Were Radio 41: I'm Gonna Love You Too 42: Send Me Some Lovin' [Original Undubbed Demo] 43: It's Too Late [Original Undubbed Demo] 44: Send Me Some Lovin' 45: It's Too Late 46: Man from Texas - Jim Robinson 47: Honey, Honey - Gary Dale 48: Look to the Future - Gary Dale 49: By the Mission Wall - Fred Crawford 50: Wreck of the Old '97 - Carolyn Hester 51: Scarlet Ribbons - Carolyn Hester 52: Sugartime [Take 1] - Charlie Phillips 53: Sugartime - Charlie Phillips 54: One Faded Rose [Take 1] - Charlie Phillips 55: Sugartime - Charlie Phillips 56: One Faded Rose - Charlie Phillips 57: Humble Heart - Sherry Davis 58: Broken Promises - Sherry Davis 59: Moondreams - Norman Petty Trio, The Picks 60: Moondreams [Instrumental] - Norman Petty Trio 61: Moondreams [Version] - Norman Petty Trio, , The Roses 62: You've Got Love 63: Maybe Baby 64: Empty Cup (And a Broken Date) 65: Rock Me, My Baby 66: That'll Be the Day [Unidentified Live Fragment] 67: That'll Be the Day [Live on the Ed Sullivan CBS TV Show] 68: Peggy Sue [Live on the Ed Sullivan CBS TV Show] 69: Interview with Ed Sullivan 70: Little Baby 71: You're So Sqaure (Baby I Don't Care) 72: Look at Me 73: Mona [Rehearsal] 74: Mona [Take 1] 75: Mona [Take 2] 76: Mona [Take 3] 77: Peggy Sue [Live on the Arthur Murray TV Show] 78: Don't Do Me This Way! [First Version] - Rick Tucker 79: Patty Baby - The Picks, Rick Tucker 80: Don't Do Me This Way! - The Picks, Rick Tucker 81: Promotional Spot for Bill Randle of Were Radio, Ohio #1 82: Promotional Spot for Bill Randle of Were Radio, Ohio #2 83: Promotional Spot for Don Passerby of Cornwall Radio, Canada #1 84: Promotional Spot for Don Passerby of Cornwall Radio, Canada #2 85: Promotional Spot for Don Passerby of Cornwall Radio, Canada #3 86: Promotional Spot for Don Passerby of Cornwall Radio, Canada #4 87: Interview with Red Robinson of CKWX Radio, Canada 88: Promotional Spot for Red Robinson of CKWX Radio, Canada 89: Interview with Freeman Hoover of KCSR Radio, Nebraska 90: Promotional Spot for Freeman Hoover of KCSR Radio, Nebraska 91: Interview with Dale Lowery of KTOP Radio, Kansas

Buddy Holly Rocks!!
Could have done without the other tracks by other singers, but you have to give to take I suppose. Loved most of the stuff on here! By "most of" I mean all of Buddy's stuff. I have always loved Buddy Holly and thoroughly enjoyed all of the recordings on here with him in it.

Buyer beware
It's actually a bootleg. I was pretty excited about getting this, as I thought it was a legitimate import release. The sound quality is only OK, a lot of tracks taken off of records. Compared to the latest official releases of rarities, this suffers big time in comparison. It's still great music, but the fidelity is only average. Nice idea though.

For the real collectors
Having a far from modest collection of lp's and cd's, I still did not have all the songs which are included in the package (this is about the songs on which Buddy doesn't have the lead vocal of course). Real Buddy collectors (such as I am) can't afford to miss this package.

Naturally, it's a pity that no better tapes are found of the undubbed versions of It's too late and Send me some lovin' but of course. . . you can not blame the people who made this package for that.

Personally, I'd rather have seen that all the titles with Buddy's lead vocal on them were on the first 2 cd's (or the first one and a half) and the rest on the last cd (or the last one and a half). But that's only a question of real personal taste and doesn't prevent me from playing all 3 again at this moment.

BUDDY LIVES ON
The previous review from Mark,CA,gives a great description of the discs contents,and along with the songs we all know and love, the demos,interviews,promos,etc. This,along with its companion set, is the Buddy Holly release his fans have been longing to hear for fifty years. are fascinating listening. Also includes many of the recordings Buddy played on,which showcase the music scene that was happening out in West Texas late 50's.
The sound is excellent,informative notes on the recording sessions add up to an outstanding release of the music of one of the true pioneers of rock'n'roll.
MCA will or cannot make these recordings available, so a big thank you to ELTORO RECORDS in Barcelona,Spain for making this material available, grab it while you can!!.

EXTRAORDINARY LOOK AT HOLLY AT WORK IN 1957
"

That just for starters.
For starters this 3 disk set includes all Buddy Holly's studio recordings for 1957 -- the complete "Chirpin' Crickets" sessions and singles like "Peggy Sue. . .

Intermingled chronologically are a surprising number of rare or previously unreleased demos versions, mostly of studio quality. Here is an alternate take of "Peggy Sue" plus demos of "Words of Love," "Last Night, "Send Me Some Lovin'", "Not Fade Away" and others.

A high point for me is a sound check of the echo chamber in Petty's studio.

Buddy created this chamber by tiling up (with broken bathroom tile from his father's tile business) an upstairs store room in the filling station next door owned by Norman Petty's father. They ran a line to this room (now a "chamber"), then installed an input speaker and output mic in there; the sound that returned to the studio had that ringing fullness that inspires people to sing in the shower.

For the echo test Buddy performs Bo Diddly's "Mona"; his off-mike vocal is only a whisper, but his Stratocaster rings with startling clarity.

(For the curious, that's drummer Jerry Alison doing his own test, saying "Beeee. . . Oooooo" in a deep voice like a fog horn. He's imitating a popular deodorant commercial on TV back then (BO = body odor). A young man snappily dressed in suit and tie steps onto an elevator, where a pretty girl at first takes notice of him. Then like a voice from the heavens comes "Beeee. . . Ooooo!". She frowns and turns away, leaving the guy disappointed and mystified. )

Buddy recorded "That'll Be the Day" in February of 1957. After Norman placed it at Brunswick records, he and the Crickets recorded two brief reworded versions expressing thanks to Bob Thiele and Murray Deutche of Brunswick -- both included here.

During the long spell between finishing "That'll Be the Day" in February and its breakout in September, Buddy worked as a session musician at Petty's studio. His firery guitar backing is exciting and unmistakable on a number of these recordings by various artists; happily, most are quite good and an interesting insight in the West Texas music scene of that period.

After the breakout of "That'll Be the Day," Buddy toured extensively and recorded stations breaks and plugs for a number of stations playing his hits. A number of these are included here, along with interviews with Buddy, and some live performances.

The fragments from Buddy's life in 1957 to be found here are tragically few compared to what has been lost. In the studio, once Norman Petty got a finished take he would clip it from a reel, and use the reel with its false starts, studio talk, and alternate takes as junker tape to be recorded over. We do have a pitifully few scraps found at the tails or between songs from reels by other artists in Petty's vault. Similarly, the demos Buddy made were mostly discarded. And disc jockeys had so many station plugs by stars that mostly these and interviews were lost or discarded when no longer timely. But amazingly a few precious fragments have have survived and are used here to document the year Buddy Holly emerged as a major star.

Overall, I would recommend this package to anybody and everybody. For Holly fans it is simply priceless. For those new to Holly, it is a unique insight into his appealing personality -- shy and unassuming, but bursting with enthusiasm and the sheer love of being alive.

He was really here for a only short while, and some years back now. . .

Listening to these three disks gives you the feeling of having spent a little time with him back then, in the studio and on the road.

What a great trip that is. . .

.

You can see a complete list of all Buddy Holly & the Crickets discography, or go back to the Buddy Holly & the Crickets tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.