Eddie Cochran

Welcome to Rock & Roll Flashback!  Hey, Jumpin' John here, and on this podcast I will discuss the brief career of early rock and roller and rockabilly sensation, Eddie Cochran! 

Ray Edward Cochran was born in 1938 in Albert Lea, Minnesota.  When Eddie was in junior high school his family moved to Bell Gardens, California.  Cochran briefly took music lessons in school, and the school band director suggested that Eddie try the clarinet.  Cochran refused to even consider it.  He vowed to quit the band if he couldn't play what he wanted.  After quitting to play drums, he gravitated to learning guitar on his brother's Kay brand guitar (that's spelled K-A-Y).  Eddie bought a guitar chord book and was completely self-taught, playing country, blues, and other music he heard on the radio.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

Welcome to Rock & Roll Flashback!  Hey, Jumpin' John here, and we'll be looking back at some of Rock and Roll's greatest artists, songs, and stories.  On this podcast I will discuss the brief career of early rock and roller and rockabilly sensation, Eddie Cochran! 

Ray Edward Cochran was born in 1938 in Albert Lea, Minnesota.  When Eddie was in junior high school his family moved to Bell Gardens, California.  Cochran briefly took music lessons in school, and the school band director suggested that Eddie try the clarinet.  Cochran refused to even consider it.  He vowed to quit the band if he couldn't play what he wanted.  After quitting to play drums, he gravitated to learning guitar on his brother's Kay brand guitar (that's spelled K-A-Y).  Eddie bought a guitar chord book and was completely self-taught, playing country, blues, and other music he heard on the radio.

Fred Conrad Smith played upright bass in the school band.   Eddie befriended Connie Smith, who shared the same interest in music.  Smith would later became Eddie's bass guitar player.  In late 1953 they formed The Melody Boys, with Al Garcia on lead guitar, Connie on steel guitar, and Eddie playing rhythm.  During a 1954 performance at an American Legion hall, Eddie Cochran met Hank Cochran (same last name, but no relation).  Hank was a singer and songwriter.  The Melody Boys began playing country music as backup guitarists for Hank Cochran.  

In 1955, at the age of 16, Cochran dropped out of Bell Gardens High School, determined to become a professional musician.  That same year Eddie acquired the guitar he was most closely associated with, a Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins hollow body electric.  Then Eddie began recording with Hank Cochran, and they toured as the Cochran Brothers until 1956.  They recorded a few singles for Ekko (E-K-K-O) Records that helped to establish them as a performing act.  After seeing an Elvis Presley performance in Dallas in late 1955, Eddie decided to switch from country to rock and roll.  

In the fall of 1956, while buying guitar strings in the Bell Gardens Music Center, Eddie was introduced to Jerry Capehart.  Capehart would become Eddie's mentor and manager.   Capehart was looking for someone to demo his songs, and Eddie said that he and Hank would do it for a small fee.  They recorded three or four demos, but nothing came of them.  Eddie and Hank split up in late 1956, and Eddie began a songwriting career with Jerry Capehart.   

In the spring of 1956, Boris Petroff had asked Cochran if he would appear in the Jayne Mansfield musical comedy film The Girl Can't Help It.  Cochran agreed and performed the song "Twenty Flight Rock" in the movie, which was filmed in Deluxe Color and released on December 1st, 1956.  Then in July 1956, Eddie Cochran's first single, "Skinny Jim", was released by Crest Records.  In September 1956 he signed a contract with Liberty Records.  His first single for that label, "Sittin' in the Balcony", was released in January 1957 and reached #18 on the Billboard charts.  That chart success, coming at the same time as the movie The Girl Can't Help It, established Cochran as a major player on the rock and roll scene.  

"Twenty Flight Rock" was written by female AMI staff writer Ned Fairchild.  Ned was actual a pen name for Nelda.  The song was published in 1957 as having been written by Ned Fairchild and Eddie Cochran.  Nelda Fairchild provided the initial form of the song, and the co-writing credit reflects Cochran's major changes and contributions to the final product.  The first version of "Twenty Flight Rock" was recorded by Cochran in July 1956 at Hollywood's Gold Star Studios, with Connie Smith on the bull fiddle and Jerry Capehart tapping on a soup carton.  Cochran re-recorded a 1 minute and 40 second long version in 1957.  Liberty released this later version in the US in September 1957 with "Cradle Baby" as the "B"side.  It was a moderate seller, but was more popular in Europe and had steady sales for a long period.  The song would later be included in the soundtrack of the 1989 Australian film The Delinquents.  

"Twenty Flight Rock" also proved to be [pardon the pun] instrumental in the formation of the Beatles.  15 year old Paul McCartney auditioned for John Lennon on July 6, 1957, in Liverpool, England.   McCartney knew all the chords and words to "Twenty Flight Rock", and John Lennon was so impressed that he invited McCartney to play with his skiffle group, the Quarrymen. On The Beatles Anthology, McCartney says that:  [and I quote] "I think what impressed him most was that I knew all the words" [end quote].

In 1957, Cochran appeared in his second film, Untamed Youth, singing the song "Cotton Picker".  In the Summer of 1957 Liberty Records issued Cochran's only studio album released during his lifetime, entitled "Singin' to My Baby".

In 1958, Cochran and Jerry Capehart wrote the classic teenage anthem, "Summertime Blues".   The song was recorded on March 28, 1958, at Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.  Eddie Cochran sang both the vocal and bass vocal (the "work-a-late" portions), played all the guitar parts, and added the hand clapping with possibly Sharon Sheeley.  Connie  Smith played the electric bass and Earl Palmer drums.  "Summertime Blues" was released by Liberty in the US in July 1958.  It rose to #8 in the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 29, 1958, and reached #18 on the UK Singles Chart.  Originally it was intended as a "B" side, backed with the song "Love Again". 

"Summertime Blues" established Eddie Cochran as one of the most important influences on rock and roll in the 1950s, both lyrically and musically.  That 1958 Liberty Records single by Eddie Cochran was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.  The song is ranked #73 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at #77 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.  The song is also on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum list of "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".  "Summertime Blues" would later appear in the films Caddyshack, This Boy's Life, and American Shaolin, as well as season 4 of Beverly Hills, 90210.

In October 1958 Liberty released Eddie's next single, "C'mon Everybody."  The song was originally intended as the "B" side to "Don't Ever Let Me Go".  In 1959 it peaked in the UK at #6 and later, in 1988, the track was re-issued there and became a #14 hit.  In the United States the song reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Cochran was a master of studio over dubbing.  He sang all the parts on "C'mon Everybody" and "Summertime Blues".  

Cochran was becoming a talented guitarist and an energetic stage performer, and he began touring extensively.  Then in 1959 Cochran would appear in his third film Go, Johnny, Go, singing "Teenage Heaven."

In January 1960 Cochran embarked on a successful tour of the United Kingdom.  On April 16th he and his friend and fellow performing artist, Gene Vincent, had just finished performing at the last of their scheduled concerts in Bristol.  Vincent, Cochran, and Cochran's girlfriend (the 20 year old songwriter Sharon Sheeley) decided to hire a taxi to take them to their next venue.  Tragically, the taxi was involved in a high-speed traffic accident.  Cochran was ejected from the vehicle, sustaining a massive brain injury from blunt force trauma to the skull.  Eddie never regained consciousness, and died the following day.  Vincent and Sheeley both survived the crash.  Vincent suffered a fractured collarbone and severe injuries to his legs, and Sheeley had injuries to her back and thigh.

Ironically, while they were preparing to board their taxi, Vincent and Cochran had turned down fellow musician Tony Sheridan's request to ride along with them, resulting in Sheridan's avoiding involvement in the accident.  Sheridan later became influential in the musical training of many British groups playing in Hamburg, Germany - even recording with an unknown backing group known as the Beatles.

Eddie Cochran's untimely death only seemed to add to his iconic status.  Though Cochran's best-known songs were released during his lifetime, even more of his songs were released after his death.  Hits such as "C'mon, Everybody", "Somethin' Else", "Teenage Heaven", and "Three Steps to Heaven" all posthumously rose in the charts in Ireland and the UK in 1960.  Other posthumous hits included "Weekend", "Nervous Breakdown", and "My Way" (which appeared on the 1964 compilation album also called My Way).  Still another of his posthumous releases was "Three Stars".  It was a tribute song to Cochran's friends Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, and to J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper).  All three of them had died in a plane crash just one year earlier.  Written by disc jockey Tommy Dee, it was recorded by a grieving Cochran, and you can really hear the emotion in Eddie's voice during the spoken lyrics about his friends Valens and Holly.

Eddie Cochran was one of the first rock-and-roll artists to write his own songs and overdub tracks.  His short musical career also included some work as backup musician and producer.  Eddie demonstrated his skill as a rockabilly guitarist at number of sessions in Los Angeles.  Cochran could sing and play the guitar, piano, bass, and drums.  He experimented with multi-track recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing even on his earliest singles.  In a session for Gene Vincent in March 1958, he contributed his trademark bass voice, like he had done on "Summertime Blues".  The recordings were issued on the album A Gene Vincent Record Date.  In 1959 he played lead for Skeets McDonald at Columbia's studios for "You Oughta See Grandma Rock" and "Heart Breaking Mama".  

Eddie Cochran came to epitomize the rebellious look and attitude of the 1950's rocker.  Cochran's songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s.  In 1987 Eddie Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.   Eddie's pioneering contribution to the genre of rockabilly has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #84 on its 2003 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. 

The list of artists who have covered Eddie's songs reads like a who's who of music greats.  Here are a few prominent examples:

•"Summertime Blues" has been covered by many artists, including being a number-one hit for country music artist Alan Jackson.  Brian Setzer recorded his version for the 1987 film La Bamba, in which Setzer portrayed Cochran.  Jimi Hendrix performed it in concert.  T. Rex recorded their own rendition of the song for their self-titled debut album T. Rex in 1970 and performed it live.  Pete Townshend of the Who was heavily influenced by Cochran's guitar style.  "Summertime Blues" was a staple of live performances by the Who, and is featured on their album Live at Leeds.  The band Blue Cheer's 1968 version of "Summertime Blues" was their signature hit song, and has been described by some as the first heavy metal song.  

•Other bands who covered Eddie's tunes included the Rolling  Stones, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Tom Petty, Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard, the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, the White Stripes, the Sex Pistols, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Sid Vicious, Rush, George Thorogood, Paul McCartney, the Move, David Bowie, Johnny Hallyday, U2, and so on.

Several guitarists have admired Cochran's Gretsch guitar.  T-Rex guitarist Marc Bolan so revered Eddie that he had his main Gibson Les Paul guitar refinished in a transparent orange to resemble the Gretsch 6120 played by Cochran.  Brian Setzer owns numerous Gretsch guitars and frequently plays a 6120 almost like that of Cochran.  The Gretsch company continues to honor the legacy of Eddie Cochran by producing the Gretsch 6120 EC Signature Eddie Cochran hollow body model in an orange stain called Western Maple.

This has been Rock and Roll Flashback…a discussion of the short but influential career of rock and roll and rockabilly pioneer, Eddie Cochran!   I'm Jumpin' John McDermott and until next time….Rock On!