The Great Buddy Holly [MCA]

• Artist: Buddy Holly
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1982
• Total Time: 22:40
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Rock

Review

In 1967, Decca Records reissued Buddy Holly's That'll Be the Day album with new cover art and this new title, minus one song ("Ting-a-Ling"). That album has remained in print to the present day, due in part to the fact that it's always been popular as a low-priced LP or CD -- the latter is a result of the ironing out of the contractual and potential legal difficulties that Buddy Holly had engendered by re-recording "That'll Be the Day" (which appears here in its early version); he surrendered any artist royalties to which he would have been entitled from these sides, so MCA owns them completely. Reference books and experienced listeners have always felt compelled to warn neophyte fans away from The Great Buddy Holly, not because it's bad (it's not), but because its ten songs were cut at Holly's 1956 Nashville sessions, before he had evolved and created (in the studio, at least) the sound that made him famous. In fact, this is a fun record, if not really representative of Holly's fully developed style, and ought to interest not only his fans, but also anyone who wants to learn a little more about the early days of the rock & roll boom, when even soon-to-be top artists and their producers were still trying to figure out how big a proportion of country to R&B, blues, and pop there ought to be in a rock & roll record. But better still, one should track down the imported reissue (part of a two-on-one CD) of That'll Be the Day from Beat Goes on Records, or the mid-'70s British LP The Nashville Sessions, both of which offer the same songs in better sound and with full annotation. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
You Are My One Desire	Don Guess	Buddy Holly	(2:23)
Blue Days, Black Nights	Ben Hall	Buddy Holly	(2:03)
Modern Don Juan	Don Guess, Jack Neal	Buddy Holly	(2:38)
Rock Around With Ollie Vee	Sonny Curtis	Buddy Holly	(2:13)
Girl On My Mind	Don Guess	Buddy Holly	(2:17)
That'll Be the Day	Buddy Holly, Norman Petty, Jerry Allison	Buddy Holly	(2:27)
Love Me	Buddy Holly, Sue Parrish	Buddy Holly	(2:05)
I'm Changing All Those Changes	Buddy Holly	Buddy Holly	(2:10)
Don't Come Back Knockin'	Buddy Holly, Sue Parrish	Buddy Holly	(2:13)
Midnight Shift	Earl Bud Lee, Jimmie Ainsworth	Buddy Holly	(2:11)

Credits

Buddy Holly (Guitar), Buddy Holly (Vocals), Buddy Holly (Main Performer)