Search - Buddy Holly :: The Great Buddy Holly

BOGUS HOLLY ALBUM

Mark | Santa Monica, CA | 05/13/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

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This is certainly a lavish looking set, but before you buy look it up on allmusic.com and sample the tracks.



Sure enough -- it's them. Yet another uncredited repackaging of the Picks, defacing Holly's finest work with pointless and embarrassingly tasteless overdubbed vocal harmonies.



For the curious, here's what's going on....



Back in 1957 Holly's producer Norman Petty, inspired by the Jordanaires' backings on Elvis singles, added backing vocals to Crickets /Brunswick singles by the Roses or Picks (two local harmony groups). Buddy brought the Roses on tour in 1958 but not the Picks. The Picks' actual connection with Holly was slight.



After Holly's death, a number of under produced demos and acoustic rehearsal tapes were left behind. From 1960-69 these were overdubbed with varying success by Jack Hanson of Coral or Norman Petty with the Fireballs. Their purpose was to bring such demos up to commercial release quality - but they never, ever touched Holly's substantial body finished recordings on Brunswick/Coral.



That was then... Now fast forward to the mid-1980s...



Most of the past guardians of the Holly masters are now deceased or retired. And for some incomprehensible reason, someone in authority thought it a good idea to grant the obscure Picks license to overdub at whim anything and/or everything Buddy Holly ever recorded.



Remember, the Hanson and Petty overdubs of the 1960s (whatever you think of them) intended only to bring under produced demos up to commercial quality.



There is no such need or purpose here.



The Picks apparently seek only self-promotion by imposing vocal harmonies indiscriminately over the entire Buddy Holly catalog. They have shamelessly overdubbed even his finest classic works like "Peggy Sue".



It is heartbreaking to think many young rock fans seeking to learn about Holly are surely suckered into these minefields, where they are totally misinformed and surely disappointed with his music.



Because knowledgeable buyers avoided these tracks, their distributer is now omitting the Picks' name from albums so their mischief is harder to avoid. And constantly repackaging the same tracks under any number of fly-by-night labels: Pazzazz, Rajon, Prism, Prism Explorer, Prism Platinum, Double Pleasure, Lifet, Recall Records U.K., Dressed To Kill, Charly, Charly U.K., Red X, Solo Music, K-label, K-Tel...



Potentially any label unknown to you. It's like the old shell game - "Oops, gotcha!"



MCA, Universal, EMI, Geffin, BGO, and such are the real thing. So are many others such as the Netherlands "Singles" box, etc. If in doubt, try looking up the album by title AND label on allmusic.com.



I am seriously grateful to other Amazon reviewers who have for some time been pointing out credited or uncredited Picks overdubs.

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