Here we see Eddie Cochran just four days after Buddy Holly and the others were killed in a plane crash. One year later, Eddie would also be gone at age 21 when his taxi cab blew a tire while racing to the airport in London. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LRjlZ8x2uQM?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Remember him well. It was a tragic loss just about a year after the plane crash. He might have become a superstar. I always thought he bore a resemblance to Fabian, but unlike Fabian he could sing.
You know this music well Sid. Eddie Cochran was on his way. He wrote and produced his own music, and he was already a huge star in England where he was regarded as equal to Elvis. He was talking to Dick Clark and he had big plans... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HWbXCz9UZYo?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I don't think I knew that he wrote his own music. What an enormously talented young man he was, only to be gone too soon. Thanks, Jim, for the stroll down memory lane.
I always think of myself as a big 50's music fan, I have XM radio and I listen to the 50's station a lot. ...But I don't remember Eddie. I do though remember the second song you posted, but couldn't have told you who sang it.
An interesting article on Cochran's music and his influence on The Beatles. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eddie-cochran-dies-and-gene-vincent-is-injured-in-a-uk-car-accident
My first 45 record was Be Bop A Lula by Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps. I was 12. The flip side, Woman Love, was controversial. It had some suggestive lyrics, but Gene Vincent's throaty voice blurred them enough that they were not clearly understandable. I wore out that record (not really...you couldn't wear out a 45). I always leaned toward the edgy side of R&R. The reason I recall the fatal crash was that there were two stars involved whom I really liked.
8) Here's a complete TV show from beautiful Compton, California before it went to hell in a hand-basket... BTW- Eddie was more of a showman than he let on. He always told reporters that he was from Oklahoma, because it suited his rockabilly image. His act would later be the template for a group called The Stray Cats, but the truth was that he was born and raised in Minnesota. He was actually a local who had dropped out of Bell Gardens High School... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H8sLAFNOApU?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
In the beginning, there was still a lot of "western" in country-western music. Here's a TV show from a long time ago... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4nW7CDlEiB4?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Great stuff, Jim. I'm especially glad I finally got to hear that all time great C&W classic, Dimples or Dumplins.
:shock: I'm still in shock from seeing "Lorrie and Larry Collins." I don't remember them at all and that's good. Larry Collins was that head-shaking kid who has to be the most annoying thing I've ever seen on television... Other impressions: - Patsy Cline really did have one of the greatest voices of all time. - Johnny Cash was a special entertainer. He was a star in three different kinds of popular music: country, western and rock & roll... - I always wondered what was so special about Tex Ritter. Now I know: nothing. - I can't imagine most of this other stuff (Eyes of Texas etc.) even getting on television today.
LOL! As a kid who paid a quarter every week to attend the Saturday matinee in Brentwood, MO, I looked forward to the cowboy portion of the show, often starring Tex Ritter. Now THAT'S where he flourished, out on the open range. In the studio, not so much. :lol: P.S. I agree. The kid was annoying.
From beautiful Compton Calif...do they still like old time rock and roll in Compton! I googled the Collins...turns out that Ricky Nelson saw Lorrie at Town Hall Party and fell for her...she played his girlfriend on Ozzie and Harriet.
re: Compton I was shocked when I saw that old TV show was filmed in Compton. After I thought about it, I remembered how some of SoCal's best cities went from spectacular suburbs to dangerous ghettos overnight. This was because of a phenomenon called "white flight." As soon as the first black family moved into town, the entire white population would race to the exits, hoping to get out before property values fell too far. Of course, this hasty evacuation caused property values to sink like a sub, allowing even more black families the opportunity to move up to a better neighborhood. I remember when I was in high school, the city of Pomona lost it's white population in less then two years from 1966-1968. It had been named "America's Most Beautiful City" in 1964 and became America's murder capital by 1969. Most of these places, including Compton, are filled with Spanish speaking Central Americans now...
Here's more of the annoying Collins kids. As TOK pointed out, Lorrie played Ricky Nelson's girlfriend on the TV show. Amazingly, her annoying little brother Larry grew up to be a successful songwriter. His biggest composition was the song Delta Dawn... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IuP9UczTIT4?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
I saw Ricky Nelson live at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. I really liked him and his music. Of course, I had watched him grow up on the Ozzie & Harriet show.
Cruising the internet for more material, I rediscovered Brenda Lee. Her voice transported me back in time to places long forgotten. She was only 4'9" when full grown, but her voice filled the room. Her father died in a construction accident when she was 8 years-old and her singing made her the family bread-winner at age 10, when she first appeared on television. She had her first #1 single at age 13 with "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree." Here is the Brenda Lee that I remember... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wnApJcGBDFY?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4rm7ODV1S_0?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
She won a singing contest at age five, and she was a regular on the radio by age eight. She was one of the very few, true teenage phenoms in recording history... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tfJ-q0VFe_g?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>