Favorite Albums: Buddy Holly "20 Golden Greats"

I’ve always been quite fascinated by the Fabulous Ffties (and what kid growing up in the seventies wasn’t? With movies like American Graffiti and Grease out and TV Shows like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, we were simply inundated with the stuff! HWne me and my friend began showing an interest in learning more of the music from that golden era, my friend’s mother introduced us to some of her LPS, and one of the ones I absolutely LOVED was a nifty little “Greatest Hits” collection of sorts by Buddy Holly called “20 Golden Greats”
 As the song implies, it was a record of 20 songs with 10 songs per side, and what awesome songs they were! First off I was amazed at just how many of Buddy Holly’s songs I already KNEW, with songs like “That’s Be The Day”, Everyday”, and "Maybe Baby” to name a few, but it was  equally surprising to find that even the songs I hadn’t heard before were soooo sooo good too! Songs like “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Think It Over” were pure pop masterpieces, and songs like “Oh Boy!”,“Rave On” and the kickin’ Chuck Berry classic “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” were as rock ‘n’ Rollin’ as you got!  And songs Like “True Love Ways and “Raining In My Heart” really captured that pure 1950’s essence that made me feel like I was being transported back to those days! After a few weeks of listening to the LP at his house, I HAD to go out and get my own!

I don’t know who chose these particular songs to make up this collection, but I want to shake his or her hand. Through the years I’ve gotten quite a few Buddy Holly collections, but none have had the perfect balance of pop, rock and ballads to them like 20 Golden Greats had. It was just perfection!

  The cover for 20 Golden Greats was pretty basic: Just a brick wall with the words “Buddy Holly Lives” sprayed on it, so I would spend the entire time listening to the record reading and re-reading the song credits on the back of the album with a stoic Buddy Holly  photo smiling down  upon me. But the words that summed it up best was the text above the picture of Buddy: “In Just 18 Months, Buddy Holly Recorded 9 Top Ten Smash Hits. He Was Ahead Of His Time. He Died Before His Time. His Music Lives On.”