Only CDs Is Sounding Like These # 22: Buddy Holly, The Very Best of Buddy Holly and The Crickets (1999)

A new occasional series - CDs are coming back baby! And I’m here for it. BIGTIME! Also, some albums just REALLY suit the format, right

I’m a bit of a clown, I know. You’d think I’d have a preferred format for Buddy Holly that was either the cassette tape or vinyl LP. So, yeah, typical me, I decide it has to be the CD.

I surely first heard Holly on tape. Soundtrack albums that featured his songs, and my dad have a compilation that covered most of what you needed. I definitely then moved to LPs, buying a bunch of Best of The Crickets and Best of Buddy comps over the years. Many of them good/great, but if I ever found the definitive one it was probably in less than definitive condition…

So, at some point, when freshly out of home and reconnecting with the Elvis and Sinatra and Ray Charles my mum loved, and the Beatles and Animals my dad was so keen on, I found a very good Very Best of Buddy Holly, a double CD I’ve never seen again, and foolishly ditched at some point.

Recently I found a brand new compilation from the very late 90s - shrink wrapped still. It is a single disc, but contains 36 songs, and comes in at close to an hour and 15 minutes; so it is basically a double album squeezed onto a CD.

What I love most about Holly is how thoroughly great and complete the songs are, though not many graze three minutes. He kept it clean and said what he needed to say in two minutes, or occasionally pushed the boat out to two minutes and 40 seconds.

That’ll Be The Day, Oh Boy, Peggy Sue, Everyday, I Guess It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, Heartbeat, It’s So Easy, Maybe Baby, Crying Waiting Hoping, Well All Right…

I mean they’re immaculate songs. Every one a gem. Almost impossible to pick a single favourite, right?

And the rhythm section is always doing exactly what it’s meant to do — and never anything more.

How did a kid from Texas write all of this, record it, tour it a little bit — that’s actually a worthy question on its own. And then how did he do all of that by 22. In less than three years, Holly reset the course of music. He cleared the path, only after redefining it.

I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said a thousand times already.

But, Oh boy, I just love his music. And having this big-serve set of 36 songs all spooned onto the one disc…? Heaven. It’s heaven. It’s the best! The very best! He was so influential, and still sounds so great. And I love going on a wee Buddy Holly binge of the hits. There’s just so much magic — it’s finite, absolutely. But he had a special gift. And the tragedy of his early passing, his short life, well, that’s undeniable. I cannot believe how brilliant so much of this still sounds. It alway will.