Best of [Import]

Eddie Cochran | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 5, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Australia
• ASIN: B00024GSPK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,424 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Summertime Blues

2. C'Mon Everybody

3. Three Steps To Heaven

4. Sittin' In The Balcony

5. Drive In Show

6. Jeanie Jeanie Jeanie

7. Teenage Heaven

8. Somethin' Else

9. My Way

10. Cut Across Shorty

11. Twenty Flight Rock

12. Weekend

13. Hallelujah I Love Her So

14. Lonely

15. Sweetie Pie

16. Three Stars

17. Skinny Jim

18. Nervous Breakdown

19. Completely Sweet

20. Rock And Roll Blues

Editorial Reviews

20-track collection features all the rockabilly pioneer's UK hits including 'Summertime Blues', 'C'mon Everybody', 'Three Steps To Heaven', 'Somethin' Else', & 'Twenty Flight Rock'. EMI Gold. 2004.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the rock'n'roll greats, April 13, 2005

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

After a few years of rock'n'roll, American pop music went through a mellower phase with Pat Boone among its leading stars. This may explain why Eddie, a brilliant rock'n'roll performer, was ultimately more popular in Europe than his homeland.
Eddie's first single, Skinny Jim, failed to chart but he made the American top twenty with his second single, Sitting in the balcony. Following that, Eddie had a run of singles that made little impact until he recorded the song that he is best remembered for, Summertime blues. Most songs about summer are joyful and happy but this bluesy rocker was something different. It made the top ten in America and the top twenty in Britain.

So far, Eddie was more successful in America than Britain but his next single, C'mon everybody, made the top ten in Britain but was a much more modest top forty hit in America. Next came Teenage heaven, which just made the American top hundred but didn't chart in Britain. After that, Something else made the British top twenty but was only a minor American hit - it was also his last American hit.

His British hits continued with Hallelujah I love her so (a cover of the Ray Charles classic), which in turn was followed by Three steps to heaven. This was his biggest UK hit, going all the way to number one. Seventies rock'n'roll cover specialists Showaddywaddy almost repeated Eddie's achievement, taking the song to number two in 1975.

Eddie continued to make the UK charts with Sweetie pie, Lonely, Weekend (a top twenty hit), Jeannie Jeannie Jeannie and My way (no, not THAT song), this last hit being in 1963. Subsequently, Eddie only entered the UK charts via re-issues of old hits - Summertime blues, a top forty hit in 1968, and C'mon everybody, a top twenty hit in 1988. The 1968 re-entry of Summertime blues explains its inclusion on so many UK sixties compilations.

This compilation contains all the essentials by one of the rock'n'roll greats who was a major influence on those that followed.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gone Too Soon, February 2, 2007

By 

Mr. Natural "Music Lover" (Westminster, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

As usual, it was a particular song that led me to buy this CD. Because, you see, Eddie Cochran was before my time - his music that is. His career went from 1956 to 1960 and that was before I started listening to music.
The song I was interested in is "Summertime Blues". I've heard Blue Cheer's version from 1968 and The Who's live version from 1970, but Eddie co-wrote the song in 1958. I wanted to hear Eddie play and sing it. I was surprised how thin the recording is - just the guitar, bass and drums - and Eddie's voice. He had a strong voice and was masterful and quite innovative in his guitar playing. It's a good song and worth the price of the CD by itself.
Listening to all of the cuts, you can hear influences such as Rick Nelson, the Big Bopper and especially Elvis - all his contemporaries. There is lots of backup singing and hand clapping, but only one cut has a saxophone. His cover of a Ray Charles song on cut 13, is highly orchestrated and enjoyable. Only two cuts are slow songs. Several songs are very forgettable, but then you have cut 11, Twenty Flight Rock, which is tied to Paul joining the Beatles. I didn't like cuts 5 and 10, and cut 18 sounds way too much like cut 1.
Eddie not only recorded, but has had small musical parts in several movies. Mostly he was just a really talented fifties rocker. He was unique and had a wonderful energy. But now his songs of adolesence are frozen in time. He died in a car crash in 1960 at the age of 21. Imagine what might have been.