Search - Buddy Holly :: That'll Be the Day

A "cash in on a hit" album that is actually pretty good

Jacobus T. Boot | Perth, Western Australia | 05/09/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This re-mastered version of the original Nashville recordings for Decca by Buddy Holly and the Crickets is an interesting collection. Although not up to the standard of the recordings created later in 1957 at Clovis, New Mexico with Norman Petty, they are still a good indication of the talent Buddy already was beginning to reveal. `That'll Be The Day' included here is the original and rather poor version of the song where Buddy listened to the producers and the professional musicians in the studio rather than going with his gut feeling as he did later in creating the hit version of the song. Some of the other tracks are very much beginner efforts but then there is also `Blue Days, Black Nights' `Rock Around With Ollie Vee' `Changing All Those Changes' and especially `Midnight Shift' four tracks that are Rockabilly fun and entertaining and should have done so much better than they did at the time.The album was released after Buddy Holly and The Crickets had major hits with `That'll Be The Day' and `Peggy Sue' and was a blatant attempt by Decca to cash in on the hits calling the album `That'll Be The Day' and being very careful not to reveal that this was not the hit version.The re-mastered CD includes alternate versions of `Rock Around With Ollie Vee' `Changing All Those Changes' as bonus tracks. Interesting as the tracks are they again show the learning process Buddy was going through. So sad he was to die so young . . . . . . . ."