The Best of Eddie Cochran [IMPORT]

Eddie Cochran (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 2004)
• Original Release Date: 1985
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Emi Gold
• ASIN: B00024GSPK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #178,344 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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

2 of 2 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 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

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

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.