Summertime Blues
#8 in 1958

Ray Edward 'Eddie' Cochran was born October 3, 1938, in Albert Lea, Minnesota. . He took music lessons in school, but quit the band to play drums, he would have been required to take piano lessons also. Instead, he began playing his family's guitar and playing the country music he heard on the radio. In 1955, Eddie's family moved to Bell Gardens, California. Eddie's guitar playing kept improving and he formed a band with two friends from his Jr. High School. His most famous hit, "Summertime Blues" (co-written with Jerry Capeheart), was an important influence on music in the late 1950s, both lyrically and musically. Cochran's brief career included only a few more hits, such as "C'mon Everybody," "Somethin' Else," "My Way," "Weekend," "Nervous Breakdown," On the night of Saturday April 16, 1960, at about 11:50 p.m. while on tour in the United Kingdom, Cochran died in a traffic accident in a taxi He was 21. The taxi crashed into a lamp post on Rowden Hill. There was no other car involved. A plaque erected there shows the actual spot. He was taken to St. Martin's Hospital, Bath, but died at 4:10 p.m. April 17, 1960. Songwriter Sharon Sheeley (Cochran's fiancée) and singer Gene Vincent survived the crash.
This is a non-profit, informational web page, meant to be a reminder of the music we listened to 50 years ago. Use of copyrighted material is consistent with the "fair use" provisions contained in section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976; the use of copyrighted material is of a nonprofit, educational nature, intended for the sole purposes of research and comment and does not significantly negatively affect "the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work(s)."
Copyright © 2006/7 by VernOblisk.com:, All Rights Reserved.