Holly In The Hills – BUDDY HOLLY***

I Wanna Play House With You/Door To My Heart/Baby Its Love/I Gambled My Heart/ Memories/Wishing/Down The Line/Soft Place In My Heart/Queen Of The Ballroom/Gotta Get You Near Me Blues/Flower Of My Heart/You & I Are Through

Holly In The Hills was the final album of newly released songs from the legendary early pop maestro Buddy Holly. Wishing was a No. 10 UK hit in 1963. Some critics accused the record company of scraping the barrel with the release of this country style material, recorded before he became influenced by rock & roll. (UK:13)

"The truth is that while Holly In The Hills hardly represents Holly's music as he would have wanted it known, or even would necessarily have recognized it, it's all good listening; the cuts veer from hard rockabilly to soft country ballads and feature lots of harmony singing shared by Holly and his then-performing partner, Bob Montgomery."

"Basically, these tracks are hard to find, vintage Buddy Holly, and showcase his early country roots. These aren't the best quality, but are essential to any serious Buddy Holly collection."

"Holly In The Hills was the last album of new material, the bottom of the barrel. This album collects early C & W duets between Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery recorded well before the That'll Be The Day/Peggy Sue days when country was still the music commonly played, and Elvis had yet to come and perform live in Lubbock, making a huge impact on Buddy and his friends that turned them to rock 'n' roll."

"The country stuff is hokey yet it is great. It shows an important facet of the early Holly before Elvis. True fans will want it to complete their collection and rightly so."

"This is definitely no 'Greatest Hits' collection. What you are getting is fairly rare tracks, most of which were very early recordings that were overdubbed by Norman Petty after Buddy was tragically killed in early 1959. If you are a fan of Buddy, these tracks gives you a deep look into his roots with some very 'true' country music."

"Holly fans will want this, either for particular songs that are otherwise unavailable or for the successes among many failures. New fans should look elsewhere first, but will probably want to own this eventually. Holly's magic shines through quite wonderfully on enough of these."