You say you're gonna leave, you know it's a lie

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

19/11/61 : That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly

Having said I'd listen to all the albums this year, I just can't bring myself to listen to the original London cast recording of The Sound Of Music - I checked it out quickly and it was like the film soundtrack with a lot of the charm operatically ironed out of it.  So let's have some Buddy instead, who I think I like but I only really know a couple of singles of his (including the title track here) so it will be interesting to see what I think of it.

Yeah, it's interesting - it feels quite evolutionary with obvious skiffle roots (includng washboard in places) and heading towards either pop or rock and roll, but it feels like he's not quite sure which way to go (and why should he have to decide?).  I didn't recognise any of the tracks except for the title track, but I quite enjoyed them all (particularly "Changing All Those Changes") and at 29:38, you certainly can't accuse it of hanging around.  I'm not sure the image consultants were given the opportunity to work on the album cover though.

We're heading further down the chart to #8 this week on his sixth week of a fourteen week run, with it having peaked at #5 in his third week - I thought he was more popular than that.  The top five this week were George Mitchell Minstrels (#1 and #4), South Pacific, Elvis and Cliff Richard and we have an odd mix of new entries from Frank Sinatra (#14), Spike Milligan (#17) and The Temperance Seven (#20).

Wikipedia tells me this is his second and final studio album - he didn't exactly have a huge catalogue for someone still quite well known.  Apparently the recordings were done in '56 and a couple were released as singles but did nothing, so the record label shelved the lot.  He then re-recorded "That'll Be The Day" with The Crickets and achieved some success, so they packaged them up as this album - but continued to tinker with them and re-release them all the way up until 1984.  

"Customers also listened to" an awful lot of Buddy Holly albums - especially considering how few he released in his lifetime.  I quite liked this and it really felt like a bit of musical history, so that added to the enjoyment.  I've also just realised that 19/11/61 is the same upside down - things like that always entertain me!

12/11/61 - Way more enjoyable than I expected
26/11/61 - Surprisingly improved by the addition of Cliff

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