Customer Reviews

Heartbeats: The Original Recordings

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

To get the negatives out of the way first, the contents of this 2-CD set are not arranged in any particular order, which most devoted fans of Buddy will be able to discern at a moment's glance. Nor is there a discography showing recording dates, release details (i.e., singles and/or album cuts) and, obviously, chart information. As well, the liner notes, spread out over three pages of the fold-out insert and written by Neil Kellas in 2009, are minimal in the information department.

However, as for the music itself, this does provide you with 43 of his best selections (and adds one each by the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, who perished with him in that fateful February 1959 airplane crash). And since trying to piece together Buddy's recording career, even as short as it was, can seemingly be an exercise in futility, I have tried to show some of that information here in terms of the contents.

In 1956, Buddy and his back-up musicians got Decca (Nashville) sufficiently interested to tender him a contract, but made their first mistake in assigning to him their primary C&W producer Owen Bradley because Buddy was, first and foremost, intent on the new R&R sound. As a consequence, their first two singles, Blue Days - Black Nights b/w Love Me on Decca 9-29854 and Modern Don Juan b/w You Are My One Desire on Decca 9-30166 were improperly promoted and so went nowhere. Tha resulted in these other sessions being shelved: That'll Be The Day (the original version - unfortunately not here), Rock Around With Ollie Vee, Ting-A-Ling, Girl On My Mind, Changing All Those Changes, Don't Come Back Knockin' and Midnight Shift.

Not only did Decca show no further interest, the terms of the contract specifically stated that he could not re-record the selections for two full years, which didn't sit well wqith Buddy who would later say "they kicked us out the front door, so we just went in through the back door" in reference to re-recording That'll Be The Day in Clovis, New Mexico at the Norman Petty studio. Meanwhile, Petty attempted to secure a new contract for him elsewhere. but all turned him down, including giant Columbia.

Strangely enough, the labels that did finally show interest were the Coral and Brunswick subsidiaries of the main Decca company, with Coral trying first in June 1957 with Words Of Love b/w Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues on Coral 61852 billed to Buddy Holly & The Crickets. It failed to chart, but they all felt the re-worked That'll Be The Day was their best shot - except for the fact the Decca (Nashville) contract forbade its release. To get around that, it came out in August 1957 on Brunswick 55009 b/w I'm Looking For Someone To Love, billed as The Crickets and when it shot to # 1 R&B/# 2 Pop a pattern was set. All Coral releases would henceforth be billed as Buddy Holly & The Crickets and all those on Brunswick simply The Crickets. For a while it not only confused Decca (Nashville) but the fans as well.

And when they did realize what had happened, and with any tendency to file a law suit shot down by the main Decca offices since they'd be in the embarrassing position of taking themselves to court, they tried to capitalize on his sudden popularity by releasing their version of That'll Be The Day b/w Rock Around With Ollie Vee on Decca 30434 that same August. Billed simply as Buddy Holly, tt didn't chart. In the meantime, Coral and Brunswick added to the confusion by releasing, at virtually the same time, Peggy Sue b/w Everyday on Coral 61885 (# 2 R&B/# 3 Pop as by Buddy Holly & The Crickets) and Oh Boy b/w Not Fade Away on Brunswick 55035 (# 10 Pop/# 13 R&B as by The Crickets) - both peaking in November/December 1957.

Before the year was out, Brunswick had also released the first LP 54038 The "Chirping" Crickets which contained the above Brunswick hits and their B-sides along with You've Got Love, Maybe Baby, It's Too Late, Tell Me How, An Empty Cup (And A Broken Date), Send Me Some Lovin', Last Night and Rock Me My Baby. Meanwhile Decca tried again in January 1958 with a re-release of Love Me, this time backed with You Are My One Desire on Decca 9-30513, and in March, Coral issued I'm Gonna Love You Too /w Listen To Me on Coral 61947, but neither charted.

Decca then followed that up in April with an album, That'll Be The Day, billed to Buddy Holly & The Three Tunes, containing their version of the title tune plus the singles they already issued along with all the other tracks previously shelved, as noted above, in addition to yet another single pairing Ting-A-Ling and Girl On My Mind on Decca 30650, but with little success. In May, Coral's release of Rave On b/w Take Your Time only managed a modest # 37 Pop on Coral 61985 (Buddy Holly & The Crickets), and in July, Brunswick's Think It Over b/w Fool's Paradise did marginally better at # 27 and 58 Pop respectively, becoming his first two-sided hit as The Crickets. Almost on its heels came the now-classic It's So Easy b/w Lonesome Tears on Brunswick 55094 but this failed to dent any charts, and was the last single released as by The Crickets.

It was also in July that Coral issued their first LP called simply "Buddy Holly" (Coralk 57210) which contained their previous single releases plus Ready Teddy, Valley Of Tears, Little Baby, Look At Me and You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care) . A month later they came out with the single Early In The Morning b/w Now We're One (# 32 Pop on Coral 62006).

There would be other releases, but since none of these are in this set I won't make a long review any longer. This IS a nice collection to have and a 5-star release IF it had proper background information.

I bought this two disc set not knowing what to expect in regards to its sound quality! Being a lifelong fan of Buddy Holly I've recently been looking for remastered sets because of the improved sound. This set really has a nice sound and the selected tracs are very good. A very good buy.