Buddy Holly - 20 Golden Greats: Buddy Holly Lives (1978)

Buddy Holly spent his teenage years kicking around Texas playing straight country music until, at 19, when he got a gig opening for Elvis Presley. With that, Holly later claimed, he became a rock & roller. For the next two years, he put his trademark vocal hiccup on springy rockabilly, orchestral ballads, and Chuck Berry covers an eclecticism that had a huge impact on the future Beatles. “Rave On,” “Peggy Sue,” and “Not Fade Away” made Holly one of rock’s first great singer-songwriters. He was also its first major casualty: dead at 22, in a plane crash after a show in Iowa in 1959.

This early Buddy Holly hits collection will please vinyl fans in search of the bespeckled one's late-'50s hits. Including perennials like "That'll Be the Day," "Oh Boy," "It's So Easy," and "Peggy Sue," the album also features fine covers of "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "Bo Diddley," not to mention lushly orchestrated stunners such as "Raining in My Heart," "True Love Ways," and the Paul Anka-penned "It Doesn't Matter Anymore." Along the way, one hears hefty premonitions of the Beatles' pre-1965 sound, one of the first self-contained rock bands in fine form, and some of most lyrical and substantial songs from the music's golden beginnings. Holly's sound was more country than R&B, and as such also prefigured the folk-pop of both the British Invasion and the West Coast sound of the '60s. A perfect introduction for those trolling the discount bins.