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Buddy Holly is Dead! Long Live Buddy Holly!

It’s the 50th anniversary of the day the music died.

Buddy Holly’s style of rock has been hugely influential ever since its release. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones early sound was clearly based on Holly’s. Bob Dylan has admitted to being influenced. The Beatles even named their band after his “Chirping Crickets”! But even if you listen to AM oldies radio, you only ever hear “Peggy Sue”, maybe “That’ll Be the Day”.

Every track off Holly’s two albums is a classic. If you haven’t heard them, if you don’t have them in your personal collection, it is long past time to correct that mistake.

The “Chirping” Crickets was the group’s first album release, in November of 1957. It is essentially a collection of the singles the had previously released. The 2004 rerelease I’ve linked to also includes the two singles and their b-sides that were released shortly after the album originally came out.

Buddy Holly came out not even six months later, on 20 February 1958, just a couple weeks after his death. This is the album Holly was promoting on the ill-fated tour.

Both albums have been remastered and sound absolutely fantastic, better than the day they were released, I’ll wager. Both are less than $10 new. And both are the only two albums you really need, despite the 500 or so various “best-of” and “definitive” collections that have been released and rereleased and rerereleased albums since his death.

This is great, timeless music. It sits on my iPod’s permanent “Best Rock Ever” playlist. If it’s not in yours too, you are missing out on a critical piece of our rock history.