Back when rock and roll was, well, “rock and roll”, you had melding of styles like country, rockabilly and R&B trying to figure out how to amalgamate them all for Baby Booming music fans. Eddie Cochran, the pride of Albert Lea, MN (any link to the living Fender guitar legend?) was one of the pioneers, singing and looking like Elvis Presley, but more comfortable in finding his own swinging style of sound. He sure knew how to play the guitar (as well as piano, bass, and drums) and had a style that rivaled Chet Atkins and Les Paul, as demonstrated on the 26 songs on The Legendary Chuck Foreman Recordings 1953-55. Forman is on steel guitar, but Cochran is the star on instrumentals as on “Rockin’ It’” “Blue Gypsy”, “Jammin’ With Jimmy” while a take of “Stardust” is simply lovely.
The Portrait album has the Cochran you may be more familiar with, including the definitive take of “Summertime Blues”, “C’mon Everbody” and a not bad at all “Blue Suede Shoes”. Cochran’s rich voice worked well on the more R&B pieces like “Hallelujah! I Love Her So” and “I Almost Lost My Mind”, which makes you wonder what would have happened if he had lived past 21. Timeless tunes that still sound fresh.