Ray Edward Cochran, known professionally as Eddie Cochran, was an American rock and roll musician. His songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured 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. Cochran played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums. His image as a sharply dressed and attractive young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death, Cochran achieved iconic status.
Vincent Eugene Craddock, known as Gene Vincent, was an American rock and roll musician who pioneered the style of rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-a-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. His chart career was brief, especially in his home country of the US, where he notched three top 40 hits in 1956 and 1957, and never charted in the top 100 again. In the UK, he was a somewhat bigger star, racking up eight top 40 hits from 1956 to 1961.
Steppenwolf was a Canadian-American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1967. The group was founded by singer/rhythm guitarist John Kay, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton, all formerly of the Canadian band the Sparrows. Guitarist Michael Monarch and bassist Rushton Moreve were recruited via notices placed in Los Angeles-area record and musical instrument stores.
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.
Brent Mydland was an American keyboardist, songwriter and singer. He was a member of the rock band The Grateful Dead from 1979 to 1990, a longer tenure than any other keyboardist in the band.
Robert Hall Weir is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company.
Sharon Kathleen Sheeley was an American songwriter who wrote songs for Glen Campbell, Ricky Nelson, Brenda Lee, and Eddie Cochran.
"Somethin' Else" is a song by the rockabilly musician Eddie Cochran, co-written by his girlfriend Sharon Sheeley and his elder brother Bob Cochran, and released in 1959. It has been covered by a wide range of artists, including Johnny Hallyday, Led Zeppelin, and the Sex Pistols.
Sonny Curtis is an American singer and songwriter. Known for his collaborations with Buddy Holly, he was a member of the Crickets and continued with the band after Holly's death. Curtis's best known compositions include "Walk Right Back", a major hit in 1961 for the Everly Brothers; "I Fought the Law", notably covered by the Bobby Fuller Four and the Clash; and "Love is All Around," the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux-MacKay is an American singer best known as a member of the rock band the Grateful Dead from 1972 to 1979. In addition to the Dead, she performed with the Jerry Garcia Band and the short-lived Heart of Gold Band, all alongside her first husband, Keith Godchaux. She formed the Donna Jean Godchaux Band in 2006.
Robert G. Lee Sowell is an American musician, pianist and composer. He spent much of his early years playing rockabilly piano in the late 1950s, playing organ in rock-and-roll bands in the 1960s and playing piano in numerous country music bands from the 1970s to the 1990s. He was a Mid-South Fair winner in 1966 and was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1994, he went out as a solo artist. As a pianist and composer, Sowell has recorded eight albums, crossing many genres of music, from jazz, pop, rock and roll, honky tonk and blues to country music, gospel and easy listening.
Bobby and the Midnites was a rock group led by Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. The band was Weir's main side project during the first half of the 1980s. They released two albums, but were better known for their live concerts than for their work in the recording studio. With a rhythm section that included jazz veterans Billy Cobham and, for a time, Alphonso Johnson, Bobby and the Midnites played rock music that was influenced by jazz-rock fusion.
David Eugene Summers was an American rockabilly singer, songwriter and guitarist. His most famous recordings include the late 50s "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", "Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That", "Twixteen", "Alabama Shake", "Fancy Dan" and his biggest-selling single "Big Blue Diamonds". Summers was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2005. He still performed worldwide and celebrated his 50th anniversary as a recording artist in 2008 with the release of Reminisce Cafe.
Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ZZ Top, the Tragically Hip, Zeno, Jay Boy Adams, Booker T. & the MG's, Shakira, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rhino Bucket, Johnny Winter, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Big Star, Johnny Taylor, Jason and the Scorchers, the Staple Singers, Molly Hatchet, George Thorogood, Al Green, Widespread Panic, Shania Twain, Joe Cocker, Joe Walsh, and Lenny Kravitz, among others.
"Keep A-Knockin' " is a popular song that has been recorded by a variety of musicians over the years. The lyrics concern a lover at the door who will not be admitted; some versions because someone else is already there, but in most others because the knocking lover has behaved badly.
Nelda "Ned" Fairchild was an American songwriter. Her best known work is the 1957 rock'n'roll hit "Twenty Flight Rock", on which a co-writing credit was given to rock and roll pioneer Eddie Cochran. Paul McCartney and John Lennon have in different contexts said that McCartney was invited to join Lennon's band, The Quarrymen, because he knew both the chords and words to "Twenty Flight Rock", a much-admired staple of the bands forming in England at that time.
The Very Best of Eddie Cochran is the fifth album posthumously released in the US after Eddie Cochran's death in 1960.
Eddie Cochran Great Hits is the sixth album posthumously released in the US after Eddie Cochran's death in 1960.
"Sweetie Pie" is a song written by Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart, and Johnny Russell and recorded by Eddie Cochran. It was recorded in 1957 and released posthumously as a single on Liberty F-55278 in August 1960. In the UK the single rose to number 38 on the charts. The U.S. release did not chart. The flip side, "Lonely", reached number 41 on the UK singles chart. Keld Heich has recorded the song in 2010.
Jesse John Sailes was a jazz drummer and session musician who performed on many hit records in the 1940s and 1950s such as Eddie Cochran's "Skinny Jim" and The Coasters' Riot in Cell Block Number 9, Framed, and Searchin'.
