Eddie Cochran

Edward Ray Cochran (October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. He is known for songs such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody", and "Somethin' Else", which reflected teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Cochran experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing, even on his earliest singles. He played guitar, piano, bass, and drums, and his image as a sharply dressed and attractive young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the 1950s rocker. After his death, Cochran became an iconic figure in rock and roll.

Cochran became involved in music at an early age, playing in the school band and teaching himself blues guitar. In 1955, he formed a duo with guitarist Hank Cochran (no relation), known as the Cochran Brothers. After the duo split in 1956, Eddie began a songwriting partnership with Jerry Capehart. His first notable success came with the performance of "Twenty Flight Rock" in the film "The Girl Can't Help It", starring Jayne Mansfield. He subsequently signed with Liberty Records, and his first record for the label, "Sittin' in the Balcony", reached number 18 on the Billboard charts.

Cochran died in April 1960 at St Martin's Hospital in Bath, Somerset, following a car accident in Chippenham, Wiltshire, at the end of a British tour with Gene Vincent. On April 16, after a performance at the Bristol Hippodrome, Cochran, Vincent, their tour manager Patrick Tompkins, and songwriter Sharon Sheeley were involved in a high-speed taxi accident on the way to Heathrow Airport. Vincent, Tompkins, and Sheeley survived with injuries, but Cochran, who had been thrown from the vehicle, sustained severe brain injuries and died the following day.

While many of Cochran's best-known songs were released during his lifetime, additional tracks were released posthumously. In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His songs have been covered by numerous artists. Notably, Paul McCartney performed Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" as his audition piece for John Lennon, impressing Lennon and joining his skiffle group the Quarrymen, which later evolved into the Beatles.

Studio album
Singin' to My Baby (1957)