Breakin' rocks in the hot sun

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

30/04/61 : In Style With The Crickets - The Crickets 

I guessed that the lack of Buddy's name on this meant he wasn't involved - I assumed it was because of his death but Wikipedia explains he left the band in late '58 and some of this album was recorded before his death in February '59. Either way, my expectations weren't exactly sky high for this.

Well, it's not dreadful but I'd struggle to describe it as great - it's also a lot more rock and roll than I was expecting, but toned down to remove any element of danger from it.  I did however, really like "Deborah" and I'd never heard it before, so I'm glad I listened to it - I also knew their version of "When You Ask About Love".  I was also very surprised to hear "I Fought The Law" which I only knew from The Clash's version - The Crickets' version is a lot closer to The Clash's than I was expecting.  Wikipedia tells me it was written by Sonny Curtis (of The Crickets) but was first a hit for The Bobby Fuller Four in '66.  Back to the album, it's an interesting enough listen but very much of its time.

We're at #14 in the charts this week on their third week of a four week run, which was their second run after an earlier three week attempt where it managed to peak at #13.  The top five this week were Elvis, South Pacific, Cliff, George and The Everly Brothers and there was one new entry in the chart for The Music Man (#16).

Wikipedia tells us that the group chose Earl Sinks to be their vocalist due to a similarity with Buddy's singing style - Earl then left the band in a strop before the album was released. Several of the songs have been covered by other artists - apparently Leo Sayer did a version of "More Than I Can Say".  And that's your lot!

"Customers also listened to" a lot of albums featuring The Crickets with a random selection of other people - and I'm pretty fine not listening to any of them.  As I said, this was quite interesting (particularly for "Deborah" and "I Fought The Law") but there's no danger of me revisiting it.

23/04/61 - Skilful but dated
07/05/61 - Really quite something

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