Eddie Cochran
| Eddie Cochran | |
|---|---|
| File:Eddiecochrane.jpg | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Raymond Edward Cochran |
| Born | October 3 1938 Albert Lea, Minnesota |
| Died | April 17 1960 (aged 21) Bath, Somerset, England |
| Genre(s) | rock and roll, rockabilly |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, Guitarist |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Years active | 1953 - 1960 |
| Label(s) | Liberty |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Gretsch 6120 | |
Raymond Edward "Eddie" Cochran (October 3, 1938 — April 17, 1960) was an American rock-and-roll musician and an important influence on popular music during the late 1950s, early 1960s, and beyond. Although his promising career was cut short at age 21, Cochran made left a memorable impression on rock history with compelling songs like "Summertime Blues." Oklahoma born, he lived in Minnesota until 1949, then moved with his family to Bell Gardens, California. He had taught himself to play blues guitar, later teaming up with guitarist Hank Cochran (no relation), with whom he began recording in 1955 as the Cochran Brothers.
The duet split split up the nest year, and Cochran began a song-writing career with Jerry Capeheart. Later, while they were recording music for a low-budget film, the producer, Boris Petroff, as him to perform his song “Twenty Flight Rock” in another movie he was making: The Girl Can’t Help It, with Jayne Mansfield. Soon after, Liberty Records signed Cochran to a contract.
The singer's first hit was “Sittin’ in the Balcony” (number 18, 1957). The following year, Cochran and Capehart’s good-natured anthem celebrating teenage boredom, “Summertime Blues,” made the Top 10. Since them, it has made the record charts in cover versions by the Who and Blue Cheer. Two additional hits, “C’mon Everybody” (number 35, 1958) and “Somethin’ Else” (number 58, 1959), established him as a star, particularly in England.
Cochran toured steadily, backed by the Kelly Four (bassist Connie Smith, who was later replaced by Dave Schrieber; drummer Gene Ridgio; and a series of pianists and saxophonists). He was an exceptionally talented guitarist, an energetic stage performer, and an early master of studio overdubbing; he played and sang all the parts on both “C’mon Everybody” and “Summertime Blues.”
Cochran was 21 when he died on April 17, 1960, in an auto accident en route to the London airport. His hit single at the time was “Three Steps to Heaven,” which went to #1 in the U.K. Injured in the crash were Gene Vincent and Cochran’s fiancée, Sharon Sheeley, cowriter of “Somethin’ Else” and composer of Rick Nelson’s 1958 #1 smash “Poor Little Fool.” Cochran and Nelson both entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 1987.
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. Also, rather than taking piano lessons, he began learning guitar, playing the country music he heard on the radio. In 1955, Cochran's family moved to Bell Gardens, California. As his guitar playing improved, he formed a band with two friends from his junior 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, they began performing together and recorded as The Cochran Brothers.[1] 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 neck position De Armond Dynasonic pickup 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. In 1957, Cochran starred in his second film, "Untamed Youth" and also had his first hit, "Sittin' in the Balcony," one of the few songs he recorded that was written by another songwriter (John D. Loudermilk). "Twenty Flight Rock" was written by AMI staff writer Ned (Nelda) Fairchild. AMI granted Cochran a co-writer credit, but no royalties, a common arrangement by which publishers move songs from demos to commercial recordings.
However, his most famous hit, "Summertime Blues" (co-written with Jerry Capehart), was an important influence on music in the late 1950s, both lyrically and musically. (The song, released on Liberty recording #55144, charted number eight on August 25, 1958.) 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."
Death
On Saturday, April 16, 1960, at about 11:50 p.m., while on tour in the United Kingdom, 21-year-old 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, England on the A4. The taxi crashed into a lamp post on Rowden Hill, where a plaque now commemorates the event (no other car was involved). He was taken to St. Martin's Hospital, Bath, but died at 4:10 p.m. the following day.[2] 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 15 years, and sent to prison for six months.[3]
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. He taught himself to play guitar on Cochran's impounded Gretsch[4].
Eddie Cochran is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.[5] A posthumous album, My Way, was released in 1964.
Legacy
One of the first rock-and-roll artists to write his own songs and overdub tracks, Cochran had an innovative technique of aligning the bass and guitar to the same harmonic frequency. Artists such as The Who, The Beach Boys, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, The Sex Pistols, Rush, Tiger Army, Paul McCartney, and Alan Jackson have covered his songs. Glam-rock artist Marc Bolan had his main Les Paul model refinished in an transparent orange to resemble the Gretsch 6120 guitar played by Cochran, who was his music hero.[6]. He was also a heavy influence on the nascent rockabilly guitar legend Brian Setzer from Stray Cats who plays a 6120 just like his hero.
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 J.P. Richardson, better known as The Big Bopper, and Eddie's friends Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, who had all died together in a plane crash just one year earlier. Cochran's voice breaks during the lyrics about Valens and Holly.
In 1987, Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His pioneering contribution to the genre of rockabilly has also been recognised by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Several of his songs have been re-released since his death, such as "C'Mon Everybody," which was a number-14 hit in 1988 in the UK.
Discography
http://www.hotshotdigital.com/artist/eddie_cochran/discography/
Notes
- ↑ Rockabilly HoF
- ↑ Certified copy of an entry of death: Edward Ray Cochran. County Borough of Bath (1960-07-02). Retrieved 2008-02-20.
- ↑ Remember Eddie Cochran's Dark Lonely Street on www.eddiecochran.info
- ↑ Ian Kimmet (9 Oct 2001). SEANCE WITH A GRETSCH G 6120.
- ↑ Gary Wayne. Forest Lawn Cypress: Stars' Graves. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
- ↑ Bacon, Tony. 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul. Backbeat Books, 71. ISBN 0-87930-711-0.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Cochran, Bobby, and Van Hecke, Susan. Three Steps to Heaven: The Eddie Cochran Story. Milwaukee, Wisc.: Hal Leonard, 2003. ISBN 978-0634032523
- Collis, Joan. Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran: Rock 'n' Roll Revolutionaries. London: Virgin Books, 2004. ISBN 978-1852271930
- Muir, Eddie, and Scott, Tony. Somethin' Else: A Tribute to Eddie Cochran. Prescot, Merseyside, UK: V.R.R.A.S., 1979. OCLC 20730118
- Mundy, Julie, and Higham. Don't Forget Me: The Eddie Cochran Story. New York: Billboard Books, 2001. ISBN 978-0823079315
- Padua, José. The Eddie Cochran Story. Washington, D.C.: P.O.N. Press, 1990. OCLC 45892191
- Williams, Dave. Rock and Roll Memories: Eddie Cochran. London: D. Williams, 2000. OCLC 45307997
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