Ohh! Annie! The 1956 Sessions

In Steve Rash's 1978 film The Buddy Holly Story, Buddy and his band the Crickets travel from Texas to Nashville for their first professional recording session only to be faced with a redneck producer who wants them to play country music at its drippiest. This is far from the only historical inaccuracy in the movie, but it does twist the facts in an especially odd direction; while Holly's first sessions in 1956 didn't capture him to his advantage, it wasn't because folks in Nashville didn't want Holly to play rock & roll, but because he was still working out his sound and hadn't quite hit upon the formula that would make him an overnight star a year later. Disc one of Rollercoaster Records' collection of Holly rarities Ohh! Annie! collects nearly all the surviving material from Buddy's 1956 visit to Nashville (including multiple takes of several tunes and some studio chatter), and if anything the results suggest Buddy and bandmates Sonny Curtis and Don Guess (then calling themselves the Three Tunes) were still working their Elvis Presley influences out of their system when they rolled into Owen Bradley's studio. The recording emulates the echoey textures of Sam Philips' sessions with Elvis, Guess' bass slaps in the classic Memphis rockabilly manner, and Holly's guitar work sometimes echoes Scotty Moore's trademark style. Despite all this, Holly's vibrant, hiccupping vocal style is fully present and accounted for, and there are a few flashes of the more individual attack that would emerge in Holly's later sessions with Norman Petty, especially on "Rock-A-Bye Rock," "I'm Changing All Those Changes," and the roaring second take of "Rock Around with Ollie Vee." Also, while Holly had established himself as lead guitarist and singer with his combo, Guess and Curtis were also doing their share of songwriting, and to be blunt, their contributions generally aren't as memorable as Holly's, though Curtis' "Rock Around with Ollie Vee" is classic stuff. In short, disc one finds Holly and company a few steps away from the brilliance that was right around the corner, though these performances are still compelling, joyous stuff. Rougher musically but fascinating as history are the recordings on disc two, which were cut in the garage of Holly's parents house; here Buddy and his friends rip through a set of rock & roll favorites in what sounds more like a rehearsal or jam session than a record date. The recording quality is not especially impressive, and the band isn't as tight as on the Nashville sessions, but Holly sounds like he's having a ball tearing through stuff like "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Blue Monday," "Shake, Rattle and Roll," and "Ain't Got No Home." Ohh! Annie! is a set meant for serious Buddy Holly obsessives, but it's one that they'll find fun and rewarding, while dabblers will appreciate the energy and enthusiasm despite the absence of Buddy's biggest hits.