If you knew Peggy Sue, then you'd know why I feel blue

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts.

31/03/63 : Bobby Vee Meets The Crickets - Bobby Vee & The Crickets

Bobby was so Buddy-like that I cannot consider myself surprised that he got together with The Crickets - giving us our third visit with Bobby in the year. I'm guessing it will be perfectly enjoyable - but possibly a bit more Bobby than anyone needs in swift succession.

Somewhat to my surprise, I actually don't think it is too much Bobby - and he's also not trying too hard to be Buddy either. There are a few Buddy tracks on there, with the opener "Peggy Sue" being a somewhat concerning statement of intent, but they don't go overboard with it. Most of the album is covers of 50's rock and roll numbers and they do a good job - I particularly liked their versions of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" and Little Richard's "Lucille". There's certainly an argument that it's a bit dated for '63 but I feel that's forgivable when it's done so well - I'm not entirely convinced by the cardigans on the album cover though.

We're at #14 in the charts this week on their 24th week of a very decent 27 week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its twelfth week - way more successful than I was expecting. The top five this week were Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra & Count Basie, Elvis Presley, Frank Ifield and West Side Story and the highest new entry was The Beatles (#8) about to start a 67 week run, closely followed by Buddy Holly (#9) about to start a 31 week run. 

Wikipedia tells us it's Bobby's seventh album and The Crickets' second one since the death of Buddy. They went through quite a few replacement lead singers before they settled on Jerry Naylor in '61 - at which point they pretty much immediately recorded this, so I'm not sure what Jerry had to say about that! Critically, it was very well received with New Record Mirror giving it the full five stars and AllMusic going as far as describing it as "enjoyable". And commercially it spent 23 weeks in the chart in the US, but surprisingly it only peaked at #42.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up an original copy of this for three quid but you can spend thirty quid on it if you really want to. Which I won't be doing, but if you're looking for Buddy-esque album then there are certainly far worse options that you could consider than this - I liked it.

07/04/63 - Musical wallpaper

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And all at once I owned the earth and sky

Image
A new year to start the New Year - starting my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 30/12/01 : Swing When You're Winning -   Robbie Williams There's a reasonable argument I should reject this album, but it was such a surprising cultural moment that even I don't feel I can, so it means we're starting the year with one that "we" own. This is our fifth visit with Mr Williams - I'm determined not to enjoy it, but I also have to admit I'm not going to hate it nearly as much as I would like to.  You know what? This is perfectly fine. Completely inessential, but he's not doing anyone any harm. For the most part, it's classic Sinatra-or-thereabouts tracks which Robbie does a decent job with on the vocals (along with some slightly peculiar guests) and they've obviously got some decent musicians in to lay down the backing tracks. He rarely does anything wildly original with them but, most importantly, he doesn't ruin them either - I don't...
Read more

I wanna keep the door from closing, yeah

Image
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 26/12/25 : I Barely Know Her - Sombr Christmas week gives us some odd albums - last year we had Lana del Rey's album from '12, which hasn't left the chart all year. I'm pleased to say we're somewhat more up to date this year with an album that came out in August - I met it as a new entry  and was somewhat nonplussed by it, but I have mentioned it a couple of times since because it's just not gone away, which is somewhat unusual. So let's see what I make of it on a second listen (this trick totally failed to convince me of the virtues of Addison Rae earlier today). Well, well, well - Sombr at least intrigues on second listen. I'd struggle to describe it - it's kinda poppy indie with a woozy vibe to it, but it feels like it has depths to it and I reckon the more you listen to it, the more you pick up on. Intriguing indeed - I'd love to tell you more but that's all I got for the time ...
Read more

In your grace, I looked for some meaning - but I found none

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #3 :  Essex Honey - Blood Orange Dev Hynes’ fifth album as Blood Orange felt uniquely keyed into the fragmented, distracted headspace that comes after someone passes, in his case, his mother. Essex Honey’s restive nature was summed up in its painful opening lines, which you could read as the dying’s acceptance of death starkly contrasting the living’s ability to meet them on those terms: “In your grace, I looked for some meaning,” Hynes sings on Look at You. “But I found none, and I still search for a truth.” That search is wide-reaching: The Field refashions the Durutti Column’s Sing to Me as a racing hymnal made for the stereo of a Ford Escort. There are tough little Robert Rental-style post-punk gems in The Train (Kings Cross) and Countryside that bristle with frustration. Vivid Light is a plainly soulful duet with Zadie Smith; Life, featuring Tirzah’s unmistakable vocals, basks in languid, flute-dappled funk. T...
Read more