My two favorites are Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen's version of "Rave On" and Blind Faith's "Well, Alright."
Four-plus pages and no one has yet posted the greatest cover of a Buddy Holly song ever. Hate to say it, but this is one instance in which the cover slays the original. I love Buddy, but his is pretty lame. I'll take a chiming 12-string over a cheesy roller rink organ any day. "Take Your Time" – The Hollies
Wanda Jackson - It Doesn't Matter Anymore Wanda has that rockabilly/country inflection similar to Buddy's. Love her early stuff and she even does a Buddy hiccup on the oopsy-dasiy line. This is a bit more country than Buddy's rendition. Haven't seen many covers of this classic!
~"Wishing"- Richard & Linda Thompson Sadly I haven't cracked the code on how to copy/paste & post youtube links with my current phone, or it would be here, now. There's a couple vids of it up on YouTube for those so inclined. It's a bonus cut on a reissue of "Hokey Pokey", is originally from a BBC session & I think it's on some box set collection as well.
Billy Fury - Well Alright Released by Buddy Holly as the B-side to "Heartbeat" in October 1958 on Coral. Billy Fury was a rock and roll singer-songwriter from Liverpool/England. His version of "Well Alright" was released as a single B-side (c/w "Paradise Alley") on Parlophone in 1970.
One of Joe Ely's excellent covers of Buddy needs to be on this thread somewhere... so here's one from Joe's leather pants period in the late 80s.
Someone pointed out on page 1 that Blondie covered "I'm Gonna Love You Too" on their third album. CBGB alum Patti Smith did a stately version of "Words of Love" on a tribute album...
A few years ago, I came across a video of Nanci Griffith singing Well...All Right on the Late Night with David Letterman show in 1996, performing with The Crickets. Couldn't find a stand alone of that video, but this studio version sounds great also. It has become my favorite cover version of this song.
I agree with you, although I haven’t heard every Holly cover ever recorded… but it is kind of amazing after all these years, most artists can’t improve on what he did the first time around. I love Humble Pie, but can’t believe their version of “Heartbeat” was included here… it’s a leaden arrangement that sounds whipped up quickly and run through once.
Greil Marcus includes this Beatles cover from 1969 in his book The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs. I agree with him on this one. Crying, Waiting, Hoping - The Beatles 1969 My apologies if it has already been mentioned. It's worth repeating anyway.
Geez, how good of a drummer was Bruce Gary?? What a snare sound he had. Lovelovelove this cover version.
I have an lp by Raw that came out in 1971 on Coral Records,also Buddy's label,called Raw Holly where they covered songs written by or associated with Buddy. It's all pretty good, but I've always been partial to " Midnight Shift".
That opening scene at the roller rink was the best part of the film. Really shows the impact Rock and Roll had. My Mum, an original teddy girl, says that scene captured exactly the impact the first time kids in England heard Rock and Roll. Made even better by the fact that the actors are actually playing live (the only thing along with Gary Bussey's performance, that this film has going for it).
