RS500 #92 - You know you love me baby still you tell me maybe someday well I'll be blue...

I think there's two camps of 50s white rock afficianados - those that think that Elvis was the most innovative influence on early rock-n-roll, and those that think just the same of Buddy Holly, and the two rarely meet. Where Elvis was the raw emotion of rock-n-roll, Holly brought craftsmanship and innovation to song structure to the game. The 2-CD set Gold attempts to prove the Holly side of the equation, bringing you 50 songs from Holly and the Crickets, a way bigger collection than the album that made #92 on Rolling Stone's "500 best albums of all time", 20 Golden Greats. While that album has most of his charting US singles (which Gold has all of) it only has one song missing from Gold - the remake of "Bo Diddley". Now of course it isn't missed - Holly's could never possible either eclipse or transform Bo's classic - but in it's stead are a more indepth set of album cuts and stray singles. However the collection's track order can cause some fatigue for the casual listener, since the first 13 songs were tracks cut before his "breakout" success, which is the eternal "That'll Be The Day". Not that these songs are bad (well, "Love Me" and "Rock Around With Ollie Vee" are expendable) but nothing stands out save for the possibly-about-a-prostitute ditty "Midnight Shift". There's also Holly's version of Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", which did make top-10 in the UK after his death. But after "That'll Be The Day" is pure magic. Holly was one of the first artists in rock to actually have strong album cuts, like the classics "Everyday" , "Not Fade Away" and "It's So Easy". All the big songs are here, with "Oh Boy" and "Peggy Sue" closing out disc 1 and "Maybe Baby", "Rave On" and "Think It Over" highlighting the tail end of Holly's musical legacy. There's also nuggets like "Raining In My Heart" and "Cryin' Wishing Hoping", bringing out Holly's tender frail side to contrast Elvis' lothario side. There is a lot of songs that do sound repetitive when put all together, and for the person who wants just a snapshot look at Buddy Holly, you're better off with a smaller collection like the new Definitive Collection or the old Greatest Hits (1996) sets.
With those you get all the cream, but anyone wanting to delve deeper into Holly's work (and life, since the liner notes are fantastic) are rewarding for plunking down the dough to pick up Gold.
And by the way I'm in the Elvis camp.


Grade: B+
Best Cuts: "That'll Be The Day", "Everyday", "It's So Easy", "Crying Waiting Hoping"
Weakest Links: "Rock Around With Ollie Vee", "Love Me"

Buddy Holly's Gold did not chart.
"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" hit #3 in the UK.
"That'll Be The Day" hit #1 pop, #2 R&B, and #1 in the UK.
"Listen To Me" hit #16 in the UK.
"Oh Boy" made #10 pop, #13 R&B, and #3 in the UK.
"Peggy Sue" made #3 pop, #2 R&B, and #6 in the UK.
"Maybe Baby" hit #17 pop, #4 R&B, and #4 in the UK.
"You're So Square (Baby I Dont Care)" hit #12 in the UK.
"Rave On" made #37 pop, and #5 in the UK.
"Fool's Paradise" made #58 pop.
"Think It Over" hit #27 pop, and #11 in the UK.
"Early In The Morning" hit #32 pop and #17 in the UK.
"Heartbeat" hit #82 pop and #30 in the UK.
"Wishing" hit #10 in the UK.
"Love's Made A Fool Of You" made #26 in the UK.
"Reminiscing" made #17 in the UK.
"True Love Ways" made #25 in the UK.
"It Doesn't Matter Anymore" hit #13 pop and #1 in the UK.
"Raining In My Heart" hit #88 pop.
"Peggy Sue Got Married" made #13 in the UK.
"Learning The Game" made #36 in the UK.
"What To Do" hit #34 in the UK.

You can find Buddy Holly's Gold at sites like here and here.

To download a sample of Holly's classic "It's So Easy" more popularly done by Linda Ronstadt, click here to download (rightclick to bring up in a new window)

and here's an old TV appearance of Holly and the Crickets singing "That'll Be The Day".