England's Beat Goes on Records has done listeners a service with this two-on-one release, though some listeners may hesitate to buy this disc based on the relatively low-ranking reputations of the two Buddy Holly albums featured here. The truth is that while neither Holly in the Hills nor Giant represent Holly's music as he would have wanted it known, or even would necessarily have recognized it, it's all good listening; the first 12 cuts, off Holly in the Hills, veer from hard rockabilly to soft country ballads and feature ...
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England's Beat Goes on Records has done listeners a service with this two-on-one release, though some listeners may hesitate to buy this disc based on the relatively low-ranking reputations of the two Buddy Holly albums featured here. The truth is that while neither Holly in the Hills nor Giant represent Holly's music as he would have wanted it known, or even would necessarily have recognized it, it's all good listening; the first 12 cuts, off Holly in the Hills, veer from hard rockabilly to soft country ballads and feature lots of harmony singing shared by Holly and his then-performing partner, Bob Montgomery, and the last ten are mostly heavily redubbed Holly demos and song fragments, the added accompaniment generally approximating his instrumental style to varying degrees and showing him off in renditions of songs associated with Little Richard, Fats Domino, Mickey & Sylvia, and more, and having fun, in particular, with Clarence "Frogman" Henry's "Ain't Got No Home." It's all a lot of fun to hear and enjoyable enough, if not a serious Holly release, and it's never sounded better, nor are any of these tracks likely to show up anywhere else (like in the U.S. catalog) anytime soon, and the annotation by John Tobler is worth a few reads. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
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