Happy Birthday Eddie Cochran

Anyone who knows this blog knows I love love love Buddy Holly. I generally make a big deal out of the day he died, or his birthday, or pretty much any opportunity I can. Meanwhile I love love love Eddie Cochran too, but I don't seem to yammer on about him as much. At 21, he was even a year younger than Buddy when he died. But he was as big as Holly in England

Perhaps Eddie Cochran’s biggest contribution was as a rock ‘n' roll ambassador to Europe. The UK youth were hungry for the music coming from the United States, but few performers left the States for their shores. It wasn’t cost effective. Cochran and Vincent were pioneers and went overseas. Because of that tour, they are still extremely popular in England. Not only did Cochran introduce the war-ravaged country to the new rebellious music, but he also sat down and taught them how to play it: He tutored their drummers on the proper beats; he showed the correct fingerings and chords to the would-be guitar slingers. His influence on the first wave of British Rockers was profound, and it is still visible today.

He's still seen as an incredibly young guitar prodigy who was an eager beaver when it came to adopting new technology:

Unlike most early rockabilly artists, Cochran wrote the majority of his songs. He revolutionized the genre, as a result. In his hands, it was more than sped-up blues and country. He introduced polyrhythmic beats and more complex rhythms — h wrote riffs, which was uncommon in the late '50s. Cochran was also a pioneer in the studio. Along with Les Paul, he was one of the first to experiment with multi-track recording and dubbing. He was also an astounding and prolific session player.

We always wonder how far Buddy Holly would've gone had he gotten his production mitts on The Beatles, but maybe asking the same about Eddie Cochran would be even more salient? And speaking of The Beatles, it was Cochran's incredible classic Twenty Flight Rock that Paul McCartney played to impress John Lennon on that famous July day they met. (Aaaaaaand creepy side note: the driver of the car that killed Eddie Cochran? George Martin. 😬)

Maybe it's because Buddy had a few more hits in that incredibly short span of months, or as fans we got The Buddy Holly Story but never a movie about Eddie Cochran, who's remained very much an enigma since his death over 60 years ago. 

There's not a lot of footage of Cochran since he was just a comet at the beginning of the very genre that is rock & roll, so enjoy. And Happy Birthday to the great, great, I won't say late, but I'll say "great" one more time, with this one, great, Eddie Cochran.