UK two-fer includes 'Holly In The Hills' (1965) & 'Giant' (1969 - deleted domestrically). Highlights include 'I Wanna Play House With You', 'Memories', 'Love Is Strange' & 'Smokey Joe's Café'. 2002.
UK two-fer includes 'Holly In The Hills' (1965) & 'Giant' (1969 - deleted domestrically). Highlights include 'I Wanna Play House With You', 'Memories', 'Love Is Strange' & 'Smokey Joe's Café'. 2002.
CD Reviews
Holly In The Hills/ Giant - Buddy Holly
Joseph Loughmiller | Asheville, NC United States | 03/05/2004
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Basically, here's the thing- the first 12 tracks are hard to find, vintage buddy holly, and showcase his early country roots. These aren't the best quality, but they're absolutely essential to any serious Buddy Holly collection. Now, that being said, i found the latter 10 tracks to range from "okay" to "tremendously awful". Not any fault of Holly himself- the problem here is POINTLESS AND ANNOYING OVERDUBS. What you're hearing isn't Buddy Holly as he sounded, but someone else's idea of what he SHOULD have sounded like. Tracks like "Love Is Strange" and "You're The One" are almost COMPLETELY RUINED by obnoxious and out-rightly GOOFY sounding strings overdubs, while "Slippin' And Slidin" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe" suffer from horribly un-authentic sounding backing tracks. They would have done MUCH better by simply presenting Buddy's original recordings as they were, without the hideous and gaudy additions of newer musical arrangements placed ON TOP of the original, un-marred performances. Frankly, I would sooner recommend searching out a bootleg recording rather than see anyone pay good money for a DOCTORED Buddy Holly album. Pretty disappointing."
It's been a long wait for this CD - grab it fast
Jacobus T. Boot | Perth, Western Australia | 05/09/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Holly In The Hills was the last album of new material, the bottom of the barrel. This is the album collecting the early country and western duets between Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery recorded well before the That'll Be The Day / Peggy Sue days when country was still the music commonly played and Elvis had yet to come and perform live in Lubbock to make that huge impact on Buddy and his friends that turned them to Rock'n'Roll. The country stuff is hokey yet it is great. It shows an important facet of the early Buddy Holly before Elvis and true BH fans will want it to complete their collection and rightly so !
The addition of Wishing is a real boost as before the release of this album it was hard to get other than on an Extended Play 45 vinyl record. Of course with CDs this all changed but the album is stronger for it. We have waited too long for this release, let us hope that the complete catalogue will be available sooner than later. A recommended buy for fans who want to hear Buddy in his early days.
Giant was the second last of the official `New' releases of the overdubbed demo performances from Buddy Holly after his death and like 'Showcase' and 'Holly In The Hills', the other overdubs, is for the fan's collection. The track `Love Is Strange' is the high point of the CD and sufficient to warrant the price. It is only the overdub version, yet it generates the true romantic atmosphere Buddy was trying to create for the teens of the day.
It is a pity Norman Petty did not use The Crickets instead of The Fireballs from the nostalgic point of view but the music works. It is not a studio album and no fan expects it to be and will accept it for what it is, an attempt to present the remaining tracks Buddy put down in demo or casual form.
Not popular with the critics but then that is nothing new. BH Fans will still want it."
Helps greatly to complete your Buddy Collection
William Lynd | Poestenkill, NY United States | 03/01/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I purchased this CD and was pretty happy to get some of these hard to find tracks. This is definitely no "Greatest Hits" collection though! What you are getting is 22 fairly rare tracks, most of which were very early recordings that were overdubbed by Norman Petty after Buddy was tragically killed in early 1959. If you are a fan of Buddy, these tracks gives you a deep look into his roots with some very "true" country music
and a quick look at what might have been as songs like "You're The One" and "Love is Strange" which were basically home demos recorded shortly before he died. Here they are overdubbed to sound almost like a finished recording.Had to go with 4 stars here because sound quality is lacking, but probably no fault of BGO, these are very early recordings and nothing much could likely have been done."
BUDDY HOLLY'S HIGH SCHOOL STREET BANDS
Mark | Santa Monica, CA | 11/02/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"
I. HOLLY IN THE HILLS (released 1965)
Buddy Holly was into music at a very early age, and by high school was all over Lubbock in a succession of bands. One business card reads "The Rhythm Playboys - Buddy, Bob, Larry" (Bob Montgomery/ Larry Welborn); another, "Buddy & Bob - Western & Bop"
Buddy's mom fondly recalled them playing the Saturday night sock hop with kids dancing cheek to cheek to "Queen of the Ballroom Floor".
But these were also "street bands"; back then merchants hired bands to play in parking lots on weekends to draw a crowd, everything from supermarket sales to drug store grand openings. According to one story Elvis was in Lubbock on a 1954 tour earning only $35 a night; Buddy cut him in on a gig at the Oldsmobile dealership showing the new 1955 Olds.
Joe Mauldin (later Crickets bass player) worked at the local movie theatre, and remembers one time his mom picked him up. The tire dealer across the street was having a sale and Buddy ripped into Bill Haley's "40 Cups of Coffee." Joe's mom yelled, "Oh my God, it's Elvis Presley!!" Joe said, "Oh ma, that's just Buddy Holly - he lives right here in Lubbock.
Holly and Montgomery did "The Buddy & Bob Show" live on KDAV radio Sunday afternoons. Kids would park in the lot outside, watch through the glass studio window, listen on their car radios and dance in the lot.
Buddy cut many acetate demos at KDAV, usually with Bob Montgomery. Tragically, most are lost -- given away to managers of touring bands or mailed to record labels.
After his death, Buddy's parents found seven "Buddy & Bob" acetates plus "Play House". Norman Petty overdubbed these to various extents with the Fireballs, and filled out the original Jan 1965 "Hill in the Hills" album with:
(1) I Wanna Play House With You
(2) Door To My Heart
*(3) Fool's Paradise [flip of Think It Over]
(4) I Gambled My Heart
*(5) What To Do [Fireballs overdub of NY apt acoustic]
(6) Wishing [light Fireballs overdub of 1958 demo]
(7) Down The Line
(8) Soft Place In My Heart
*(9) Lonesome Tears [flip of It's So Easy]
(10)Gotta Get You Near Me Blues
(11) Flower of My Heart
(12) You & I Are Through
Bob Montgomery found more demos so the album now has 10. "Play House" is from that period but a Holly solo at a local studio; "Wishing" is a 1958 demo made along with "Love's Made A Fool of You" for the Everly Brothers.
I suspect all drums are overdubbed, but if not they are Holly's best friend Jerry Allison. Fiddle is Sonny Curtis.
Petty's overdub work is largely successful, especially on "Play House" and "Down the Line". Basically because (1) except for "Play House," they obscure little as possible of original work; (2) the overdub is pretty much of same sound quality as acetate; (3) these are monaural without separated tracks.
II. GIANT (1969)
Petty has been widely criticized for his Fireballs overdubs, but said he intended only to bring the material up to commercial release quality while adhering as much as possible to Holly's intentions.
Whatever your opinion on that, it must be said he kept Holly's memory alive with the posthumous releases "Reminiscing" (1963), "Buddy Holly Showcase" (1964), and "Holly in the Hills" (1965) which were generally very well received.
"Giant" (1969) was the last of the Petty/Fireballs overdubs, but regrettably during the four year gap since 1965 Petty's hand went cold.
"GIANT" RUNDOWN:
(1) `Love is Strange,' `Slippin' & Sliddin' (fast version), `Dearest', `Smokey Joe's Café' are acoustic demos from the same New York apartment tape as Holly's last six songs (`Peggy Sue Got Married' etc).
`Love is Strange' is easily the most successful track on the album, startlingly lovely and haunting. Most people think this an orchestrated strings session, but it's actually Petty on the beloved organ he played in "Norman Petty Trio" days. No CD I've heard does justice to the track; on the original vinyl ambient air fills the room with this eerily lush performance. Holly's undubbed acoustic original is still superior, but the two are so different they don't really compete.
`Dearest' is a pointless disaster. Petty/Fireballs already overdubbed this quite nicely on "Buddy Holly Showcase." This second attempt is heavy handed and corny, rather like those bogus Picks overdubs.
`Slippin' & Sliddin' works. `Smokey Joe' as Holly laid it down is difficult to overdub, and Petty seems unsure what to do with it.
(2) `You're the One' is a crime. Holly improvised this at a radio station where Waylon Jennings was DJ, and Waylon slapped his knees to accompaniment. It appeared undubbed on "Buddy Holly Showcase". Here the original is buried by the Fireballs and Petty on organ, a pointless garbled mess.
(3) `Good Rockin' Tonight', `Blue Monday', `Have You Ever Been Lonely', `Ain't Got No Home', `Holly Hop' are `50s rock standards probably made on an early wire recorder (before tape, there was literally a wire that ran reel to reel) resulting in poor fidelity somewhat like a telephone.
Petty's overdubs of such tracks was quite good in 1963-65 (compare "Play House"). But by 1969 "compatible stereo" had come in (a stereo album could now be played on mono players without damage) and separate mono pressings of releases were no longer made.
These 1969 overdubs are in state of the art sound too obvious against the acetate demos, a problem made worse by separated stereo tracks. The result is totally unnatural and often sounds garbled.
BOTTOM LINE:
Holly fans will want this, either for particular songs that otherwise unavailable or for the successes among many failures.
New fans should look elsewhere first, but will probably want to own this eventually. Holly's magic shines through quite wonderfully on enough of these.
Track Listings (22) - Disc #1