Day 337: Eddie Cochran – 12 of His Biggest Hits
Today I thought I’d go for a bit of old-school rock and roll by an artist who I’m just not even a little bit knowledgeable of: Eddie Cochran. All I know about him is that he died terribly young and did “Summertime Blues”, it’s high time I do something about that.
Album cover courtesy of Liberty Records
Born in 1938 in Albert Lea, Minnesota, Eddie Cochran was a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter who got his start in the music industry playing in a duo with songwriter Hank Cochran. They called themselves the Cochran Brothers despite not being related, and they recorded a few singles that were moderately successful. He went solo in 1956 and had a short career, as he died in 1960 at only 21 years old.
It’s probably not hard to guess what 12 of His Biggest Hits is, but I thought I’d go for that instead of his album, as some of his songs were released posthumously. This one was originally released as a collection of his best-known songs, but after his death it was re-released as a memorial album.
Having never really listened to Eddie Cochran before, it’s an interesting collection of songs. I like it when he goes into his lower register as I think those songs were a bit more engaging. Most notable of those ones probably “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” where the lower minimalistic singing combined with the lady “ooOOOoooO”-ing in the background kind of makes it sound like you’re being romantically pursued by a ghost. The lower register love songs like “Tell Me Why” also remind me a bit of Elvis, which makes sense as Cochran said that the reason he switched from country to rock and roll was that he saw Elvis live.
Sometimes you take a little journey into music history and discover something you love, sometimes you just learn some music history. Unfortunately today was the latter, I didn’t really get too much out of it. Songs like “Three Steps To Heaven” and “Drive In Show” are obviously very cute and quaint, and it’s fun to listen to what constituted a rebellious bad boy artist in the ‘50s, but it’s just not something I see myself listening to more than once. I guess you could argue that it’s not for me, a 30-something lady in 2026, and instead it’s for teenagers in the ‘50s, but I’d say there’s stuff from that same time to that same demographic that is infinitely better to listen to today.
In any case, I enjoyed this little exploration of music history, even if it wasn’t strictly speaking for me. Eddie Cochran’s collection of biggest hits gets a 7/10.