Eddie Cochran

Eddie Cochran

Ray Edward 'Eddie' Cochran (October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an early American rockabilly musician and an important influence on popular music during the late 1950's and early 1960's. His best known song is "Summertime Blues".

Early life and career

Cochran was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota as Ray Edward Cochran. 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. During a show featuring many performers at an American Legion hall, he met Hank Cochran (later a country music songwriter). Although they were not related, family acts were popular at the time and they began performing together. The duo recorded as The Cochran Brothers. Eddie Cochran also worked as a session musician, and began writing songs, making a "demo" with Jerry Capehart, his future manager.

Guitars

When playing with Hank Cochran, Eddie Cochran played a Gibson electric acoustic guitar with a single florentine cutaway. This guitar featured a pair of Gibson P90 pickups sometimes called 'Dog Ear' pickups due to their shape.

Later, Cochran moved to a 1956 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Western model, which Eddie had modified. He replaced the front one of the pair of De Armond Dynasonic pickups with a black covered Gibson P-90 pickup. He also used acoustic guitars.

Solo success

In 1956, Boris Petroff asked Cochran if he would appear in the musical comedy film The Girl Can't Help It. He agreed and sang a song called "Twenty Flight Rock" in the movie, delivered with an attitude and stance that can be regarded as one of the earliest germs of punk rock seen decades later (see proto-punk). In 1957, Cochran had his first hit, "Sittin' in the Balcony," one of the few songs he recorded that was written by another songwriter (John D. Loudermilk). However, 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," and his posthumous UK number one hit "Three Steps to Heaven." Cochran is also known for his favorite instrument, the Gretsch 6120 electric guitar.

Death

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 (a Ford Consul, [reg. no. RBO 869], not as widely quoted a London Hackney carriage) traveling through Chippenham, Wiltshire, on the A4. 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. the following day. Songwriter Sharon Sheeley (Cochran's fiancée) and singer Gene Vincent survived the crash.

The taxi driver, George Martin was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50, disqualified from driving for fifteen years and sent to prison for six months.

The car and other items from the crash were impounded at the local police station until a coroners' inquest could be held. At that time, David Harman, later known as Dave Dee of the band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, was a police cadet at the station, and taught himself to play guitar on Eddie's impounded Gretsch.

Strangely enough, an unknown rock 'n' roll fan called Mark Feld had carried the same guitar to the limo from a London gig the night before. Feld later changed his name to Marc Bolan and became one of the stars of the British Glam Rock scene of the 1970s. Marc Bolan also died in a car crash 1977.

Eddie Cochran is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California. A posthumous album, My Way, was released in 1964.

Posthumous releases and honors

Cochran was a prolific performer, and the British Label Rockstar Records has released more of his music posthumously than had been released during his life. The company is still looking for unpublished songs.

One of his posthumous releases was "Three Stars", a tribute to Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper, and Eddie's friend Buddy Holly, who had all died together in a plane crash just one year earlier. Cochran's voice breaks during the lyrics about Holly.

In 1987, Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and his pioneering contribution to the genre has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Discography

Albums

• Singin' To My Baby (August 1958)
• The Eddie Cochran Memorial Album (September 1960)
• Cherished Memories (December 1962)

References

• Eddie Cochran's birth certificate (1)
• Eddie Cochran's death certificate

External links

• (http://www.rhis.co.uk/cochran/passingthru.html
• http://members.cox.net/gpugh1/Documentary.htm
• Remember Eddie Cochran at www.eddiecochran.info
• Eddie Cochran's discography (Music City
• Find-A-Grave profile for Eddie Cochran
• Eddie Cochran-Fan Site
• http://www.rockabillyhall.com/EddieCochran1.html
• http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/eddiecochran.txt
• http://www.history-of-rock.com/cochran.htm
• http://www.eddie-cochran.info Eddie Cochran photo gallery

Quasimodobell.com - Official UK singles