Buddy Holly - The Buddy Holly Collection

One of my early extravagences as budding nutcase record collector was The Complete Buddy Holly. This six-LP set had every Buddy Holly recording known up to that time. It sounded like a good idea. Problem is, not everything an artist records is all that great. I played all six LPs once (see, back in prehistoric times you couldn't easily skip to just the tracks you liked) and didn't touch the set again. My mom has it now. She was a teenager when Buddy was making hits and I doubt she's listened to it yet. Fast forward a decade or two and we now have The Buddy Holly Collection. A two-CD set that is much easier to digest. The fifty songs are arranged chronologically so you can hear Buddy's progression from rockabilly to Elvis wanna-be to his breakout That'll Be the Day. You can hear his style slowly emerging but it's that song where he finally blossomed. Buddy Holly is one of my three favorite rock and rollers from the fifties (the other two would be Elvis and Little Richard). He was more than just a performer, though, as his talents as a songwriter and producer were coming into their own at the end of his way-too-short career (he died when he was 23). If you listen closely, you can hear how songs like Well...All Right and Learning the Game would have influenced bands such as The Beatles. While you're at it, check out my favorite Buddy Holly tune, It Doesn't Matter Anymore.