Eddie Cochran - Legendary Masters Series #4 [2×Vinyl] (1971)

Legendary Masters Series is the fourth album posthumously released in the US after Eddie Cochran's death in 1960.

Perhaps if Eddie Cochran had died a more spectacular death than a car crash during a tour of Europe in 1960, he'd be better remembered today; while he doesn't always get his due as one of the best of the first wave of rock & rollers to emerge in the 1950s, few performers of the era can match the body of work he left behind for consistent quality.

Cochran's best (and best-known) songs were tough, guitar-based rockers that proved he'd forgotten little about life in the teenage nation after leaving high school to go pro ("Summertime Blues," "C'mon Everybody," "Something Else"). Dig a little deeper into his catalog, and you'll discover Cochran was a great guitar player (check out the instrumental fretboard workout "Eddie's Blues"), had a real knack for country-flavored material ("Pretty Little Devil" and "Thinkin' About You" suggest he would have been a natural for the C&W charts if his hitmaking days in rock & roll dried up), and could work well in other pop formats -- "Opportunity" sounds like one of the best Everly Brothers tunes Don and Phil never cut and, while "Three Stars," a weepy tribute to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, would have sounded like pure treacle in the hands of most singers, Cochran's take is dignified and genuinely moving (owing perhaps to the fact that he and Holly had been good friends).
Given the brevity of his recording career, a 30-track two-LP set might give you a bit more Eddie Cochran than you actually need, and Legendary Masters does have a certain amount of filler, most notably "Let's Get Together" (actually an alternate take of "C'mon Everybody") and "Cotton Picker" (a throwaway tune he cut for the movie Untamed Youth). But the vast majority of this set is great vintage rock, with Cochran always sounding tough and committed, even on the most suspect material. Add a superb liner essay from Lenny Kaye and you get one of the finest Eddie Cochran collections your money can buy -- and no record collection is truly complete without "Summertime Blues," right?