Buddy Holly - You'll Miss Me (1958)

 So in 1957, Buddy Holly and The Crickets hit it big with a long line of hit singles, most of which made it onto their debut album. More hits followed on the next album, issued in '58 as a Holly solo album, though the group still performed on it. In addition to all that, there were still plenty of outtakes, b-sides, and whatnot. A lot of them would appear in 1959 on the "The Buddy Holly Story" LP, rush-released after his death in February. They could have been put out as another LP, however, which I've tried to put together here.

Once again, all of these are undubbed, as they were complete when they were originally recorded. EXCEPT! "Wishing", of which the original undubbed version no longer exists, or is otherwise lost. However, the overdubs seem to have been kept tasteful, or otherwise to a minimum on that release, so I reckon it's okay.

Side One

1. Wishing
2. That's My Desire
3. Well... All Right
4. Take Your Time
5. Fool's Paradise
6. Think It Over

Side Two

1. Lonesome Tears
2. It's So Easy
3. Heartbeat
4. Love's Made A Fool Of You
5. Early In The Morning
6. Now We're One
   

Buddy Holly - Holly At Home (1956)

The Crickets were the first garage band. At least if the liner notes of the Not Fade Away box are anything to be believed. The group recorded a number of home demos in the Holley family home's garage. Once again, these are lo-fi recordings, in line with the Buddy & Bob recordings, except these tracks are very plainly rock and roll. Immortals like "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" and "Blue Suede Shoes" find homes here. These aren't all of the Crickets' garage tapes, however. During these demo sessions, they also did versions of "Bo Diddley" and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", of which I've included the studio versions as bonus tracks on the previous "Holly Hits!" EP. However, if you wish to include them, and to catigorise this as a live album, by all means.

I wasn't keen on the overdubs of these, as I found that the professionally recorded backing tracks clashed with the existing lo-fi instrumentation. 

Side One

1. Rip It Up
2. Good Rockin' Tonight
3. Gone
4. Have You Ever Been Lonely? (Have You Ever Been Blue?)
5. Honky Tonk

Side Two

1. Shake, Rattle, and Roll
2.  Blue Suede Shoes
3. Blue Monday
4. Ain't Got No Home
5. Holly Hop
   

Buddy Holly - Holly Hits! EP (1956)

 Throughout 1956, Buddy Holly recorded several songs for Decca Records, and of them, four or so were put out as singles. They didn't do well, so Decca shelved them, because they're thots or something, idk. Later, in 1957, when Holly hit it big on a smaller label (though still technically owned by Decca), Decca realised their mistake, and finally put out 11 of his early recordings with them on an lp, decepively titled That'll Be The Day, to capitalise on the hit single of the same name. The version of the track on that album was very different from the hit single version, since it was recorded earler and with a different producer, who didn't give Holly much freedom (probably explaining why Decca didn't have any hits with him). 

There were still a handful of good tracks in the Decca vaults that they didn't issue on the LP, so I've put them together in this here EP. At the time, if I reccall correctly, EPs were still a viable concept in the states, so I don't see why they wouldn't have put this out at the time. I've also included two bonus tracks recorded with Norman Petty as producer, who would go on to lead Buddy to stardom. They didn't really fit anywhere else, and they were recorded around the same time as these tracks, plus one of them isn't the best quality, but I'll touch on that later.

Once again, all tracks are their undubbed originals

Side One

1. Baby Won't You Come Out Tonight
2. I Guess I Was Just A Fool
3. It's Not My Fault

Side Two

1. I'm Gonna Set My Foot Down
2. Rockabye Rock
3. Because I Love You
   

Bonus Tracks

• Bo Diddley
• Brown Eyed Handsome Man
  

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Buddy Holly - Buddy & Bob (1955)

 The Buddy Holly Story is one that is equal parts inspiring and tragic. Following a shockingly quick rise to stardom, Buddy Holly would infamously pass away in a plane crash alongside The Big Bopper and Richie Valenz. What Holly left behind were three studio albums, a handful of non album singles, buckets of outtakes, some early demos, some later demos, and some mid era demos. After his death, these tracks would be plundered and overdubbed to varying levels of success in no particular order. 

What I've tried to do is, using the Not Fade Away box set, compile all the orignal, undubbed recordings in a logical order. After he died, some of the demos Buddy Holly recorded were simple acoustic recordings done in his apartment in New York. Overdubbing those made sense, I reckon. What I take issue with was the overdubbing of earlier material that didn't need to be done, as the original recordings were complete tracks to begin with. I've used those original recordings in all but one instance, and the overdubs I don't really take issue with I've put in their own catigory. 

The first of these albums I've put together would've been in 1955, with the earliest recordings going back to potentially 1953. These are, by and large, country and western recordings either put down on Acetate or done on home recording equiptment. Lo-Fi stuff. Some of it sounds alright, while others sound like they've seen better days - but are still putting up a fight. I've included three bonus tracks that sound a lot rougher than the others, one of which was Buddy Holly's first ever recording, a cover of the track "My Two Timin' Woman", recorded when Holly was just 13 (His voice hadn't even dropped yet!). 

Just about all of these recordings are with Bob Montgomery, as Holly was in a duo with him called "Buddy & Bob", hence the name of the album. Other members include Sonny Curtis, who featured on fiddle and guitar. This would have made an interesting start to Buddy Holly's career, and one can see the roots of this style in his Decca recordings.

Side One

1. Flower of my Heart
2. Door To My Heart
3. Soft Place In My Heart
4. Gotta Get You Near Me Blues
5. I Gambled My Heart
6. You And I Are Through

Side Two

1. Down The Line 
2. Baby, It's Love
3. Memories
4. Queen of the Ballroom
5. Footprints In The Snow
6.  Baby, Let's Play House

Bonus Tracks

• My Two-Timin' Woman
• I'll Just Pretend
• Take These Shackles From My Heart
  

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young - The Cost of Freedom (1970)

 CSNY are one of the greatest bands of all time, but oh were they fleeting. One album in 1969, a second in 1970, and then a live album in 1971, and then... a five year hiatus, after which nothing was the same. Lighning in a bottle, those three years were. Between those two albums, however, were more than enough outtakes for a third LP. Between these, there's a couple covers, and some studio versions of tracks that they'd only ever play live. Additionally, they recorded songs that each member would use later on respective solo projects, but I'll be ignoring those (for now).

Ignoring songs the band used latter, that leaves me with 14 songs to use. This is a combination of outtakes from their debut album and from Deja Vu, plus the Ohio / Find The Cost Of Freedom 45. Now, that comes out to about 48 minutes of music, which wouldn't have fit on an album. Taking the two covers off of the album ("Blackbird" and "Everybody's Talkin'") brings it to a comfortable 12 tracks and 42 mintues and 32 seconds. To this point, CSN(Y) had only included 10 tracks on both of their albums, but, well, who cares? They had the tracks.

 

For the cover I used a modified version of the Ohio / Find The Cost Of Freedom single sleeve

Side One

1. Ohio
2. How Have You Been?
3. Horses Through A Rainstorm
4. Thirty Dollar Fine
5. Sea of Madness
6. Ivory Tower
7. Right On Rock And Roll

Side Two

1. Same Old Song
2. Everyday We Live
3. The Lee Shore
4. I'll Be There 
5. Find The Cost Of Freedom

• Everybody's Talkin'
• Blackbird
  

The Hollies - Listen To Us (1968)

 1968 was the last year Graham Nash would be in The Hollies, growing dissatisfied with their infighting, and seeking hope in L.A. with CSN. Before he left to join Crosby and Stills in the states, he recorded some more singles before bouncing from The Hollies. Again, there's only eleven tracks, and one of them is an edit where they took the vocals from a Nash solo demo of the later CSN tune "Marrakesh Express", and laid them over an instrumental backing track recorded by The Hollies in '68.

The cover is a modified version of the 1968 "Hollies' Greatest" lp

Side One

1. Open Up Your Eyes
2. Do The Best You Can
3. Relax
4. Tomorrow When It Comes
5. Man With No Expression (Horses Through A Rainstorm)
6. Like Every Time Before

Side Two

1. Wings
2. Jennifer Eccles
3. Blowin' in the Wind (Nash Version)
4. Listen To Me
5. Marrakesh Express
   (To get the version of Marrakesh Express, look up "Rare&UnreleasedHollies", and it's on the soundcloud)
   

The Hollies - King Midas In Reverse (1967)

 In 1967, The Hollies made the great leap into psychedelic rock, mostly spearheaded by Graham Nash. They recorded and released two psych classics that year, Evolution and Butterfly. They also releases several singles that didn't end up on either album, either. Cheif amoung these is Nash's "King Midas in Reverse", which he would go on to perform with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, despite the underperformance of the song when released by The Hollies. 

Also in '67, The Hollies recorded two singles specifically for release in Italy, two of the four songs being in Italian. Huh. There's only Eleven songs this time around, and they're bookened by the Italian tracks. All 11 of the songs were recorded in '67.

The cover is from The American release of Butterfly, which included "King Midas in Reverse", so was titled Dear Eloise / King Midas In Reverse, but I removed the "Dear Eloise" part, since that's the opening track of Butterfly.

Side One

1. Non Prego Per Me
2. We're Alive
3. On A Carousel
4. Carrie Anne
5. All The World Is Love

Side Two

1. Schoolgirl
2. Everything is Sunshine
3. Sighns That Will Never Change
4. Kill Me Quick
5. King Midas in Reverse
6. Devi Aver Fiducia In Me