I got some money in my jeans, and I'm really gonna spend it right

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts.

13/01/63 : Cherished Memories - Eddie Cochran

I'm assuming this is a best-of, which feels even more of a cheat than usual because we've already had a best-of from him - but we're in no place to be rejecting albums this year (and I also don't remember listening to the previous one either).

Hmmm - well. I'm sure these are memories for some and maybe even cherished for a few - but I can't say they did a lot for me. I recognised "Let's Get Together", but that's because it's exactly the same as "C'mon Everybody" except that those phrases are interchanged. The rest sounded pretty similar, but not all that enjoyably so. I can understand that it was big at the time and is historically significant but it's not something that I need to listen to now. 

We're at #15 in the charts this week on his second week of a three week run - I'm guessing those memories weren't quite as cherished as they hoped. The top five this week were The Shadows, West Side Story, Bobby Vee & The Crickets, Elvis Presley and The George Mitchell Minstrels, with there being no new entries in the chart this week.

Wikipedia tells us this is his third compilation album - all of them posthumous, but "he" would go on to release another 25 of them, with the last coming out in '20 called The Liberty Years (whatever they are!). His entry reminds me he died young after a car crash in the UK, but I didn't know he was friends with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. He was shaken up after their deaths and was convinced he would die young, so tried to give up touring - but financially, this just wasn't possible and so he agreed to tour the UK with Gene Vincent. They'd just completed their last show of the tour in Bristol and caught a taxi to Heathrow, but their driver lost control of the car in Chippenham and Eddie was thrown out of the vehicle and never regained consciousness. Jeepers!

discogs.com tells us this is a reasonably expensive album, setting you back £7 for just a basic copy but if you want a UK first pressing complete with a black & silver Liberty label then it's going to cost you £90. Needless to say, I am not tempted by such a thing but it does feel a shame that he died so young.

20/01/63 - Very pedestrian

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