TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: BUDDY HOLLY, BILLIE HOLIDAY

Tomorrow morning on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick on SiriusXM OutQ, I'll be talking about two incredible artists, Buddy Holly and Billie Holiday. They both were hugely influential, and are the subjects of new tribute albums.  I just wrote about Buddy Holly's, called Rave On Buddy Holly.  I hope this turns on new fans to his music.  I think he is timeless.  To me, he's an outsider  -- he's not a stud, jock or obvious cool guy like an Elvis, but he's not angst ridden over it. Not over-artsy, not over-angry.  He just doesn't fit in, doesn't care, and wants to have a great time.

By the way, if you're looking to get some music by Buddy himself, you should check out the 2 CD set Gold that Universal Music put out a few years ago, it has lots of the great songs.  You can also find the new digital album, Raving On, which includes Buddy's versions of all the songs on the tribute album. More tribute albums should be accompanied by collections of original versions of songs included on the tribute.

I wrote about the new Billie Holiday tribute a few days ago. It has some cool artists covering her songs, as well as the lovely Angela Bassett reading excerpts from Lady Sings The Blues, Billie's autobiography.  I've really been enjoying Shelby Lynne and Esperanza Spalding's contributions to that album.  I wish there were some bigger names - Billie Holiday should be celebrated by the hugest singers in the world, in my opinion.

Will anyone ever do Buddy songs better than Buddy or Billie songs better than Billie?  It's not likely. But I think it is cool that big name artists give credit to their influences, and keep their songbooks alive. I may be a bit of an optimist, but I do believe that these kind of tribute albums can turn on younger ears, minds and hearts to great artists, and if that happens, then tribute albums are worth doing.

RAVE ON BUDDY HOLLY

I know that a lot of people hate the idea of tribute albums.  I don't.  In the pre-downloading age, I bought tons of them, even if there was just one artist I liked on the album. I really like the idea of artists paying tribute to other artists, I always have. It's hard to overstate Buddy Holly's importance.  He was there at the beginning of rock and roll.  He influenced The Beatles. The Rolling Stones covered him on their first album. I remember watching Bob Dylan talk about a Buddy Holly concert when he was accepting his Grammys in 1997.

I think it's important to our culture to keep reintroducing this kind of classic music to younger generations (or "demographics").  Rave On Buddy Holly does a good job at putting together a great list of diverse artists.   Do any of them improve on the original songs?  No, of course not. But there are lots of great versions of these classics, and if Rave On turns some new people on to Buddy Holly's music, then mission accomplished.

I think my favorite songs on the album are Paul McCartney's "It's So Easy," Karen Elson's "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and Cee-Lo Green's "You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care)." Sir Paul sounds like he  is harnessing the excitement that he felt when first hearing Buddy's music as a kid. It's actually kind of shocking hearing him rock out so hard!  No Expiration readers know that I really like Karen Elson, and I love her take on "Crying, Waiting, Hoping."  It's hard not to imagine that she was thinking about her soon-to-be-ex-husband (who produced the track and plays drums on it) when she was singing this.  Even still, it's a bit more upbeat than her most of the stuff on her excellent debut album The Ghost Who Walks. Cee-Lo Green? He just sells it so well.

There's a lot of other great moments: The Detroit Cobras (props to the producers for including them) on "Heartbeat," The Black Keys' "Dearest," Justin Townes Earle's "Maybe Baby," My Morning Jacket's "True Love Ways," She & Him's "Oh Boy!" and even Kid Rock's "Well All Right." It's not all good.  The singer from The Strokes and Modest Mouse both do pretty boring takes on Buddy classics.

But even the songs I don't like may serve a purpose.  If popular artists like the singer from The Strokes or Modest Mouse can attract some new people to the amazing and timeless music of Buddy Holly, then well done.

RUSH "NOT FADE AWAY"

A couple of years ago, Rush released Feedback, an EP of covers, which was notable as Rush has never released a cover in their entire three decade career.  Or so I thought!  (And probably most other fans thought so too). It turns out that their first single ever was a cover of the Buddy Holly classic "Not Fade Away" (also covered by The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead and many more). Hopefully they'll release it at some point, but now you can check it out yourself.

"THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED"

This week is the 50th anniversary of the fateful day often referred to as "The Day The Music Died" (a reference to the lyric in Don McLean's "American Pie").

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a small plane crash (along with the pilot, Roger Peterson).

I became a fan of Buddy Holly when my mom took me to see The Buddy Holly Story on Broadway, I think I was in college at the time. I don't remember if the show itself was great, but I was struck by how many of Buddy Holly's songs I already knew, and also by just how incredible his songs were. You can sort of take someone like him for granted: his songs are part of the culture, it may not be apparent that you need to have some of his records in your collection. "That'll Be The Day," "Rave On," "Everyday," "Words Of Love," "Maybe Baby," "Not Fade Away," the guy just had so many incredible songs, he was only 22 when he died! Do yourself a favor if you haven't already: pick up The Buddy Holly Collection, or just Buddy Holly.

I'm not as familiar with Richie Valens, but "La Bamba" is obviously a classic and so is "Donna" and "Come On, Let's Go." I think he was 17 when he died! So he didn't have a vast catalog, but anyone who was there at the beginning of rock and roll... it's not about the amount of classic songs, it's about the impact of the songs that they had, and Valens' had a big impact.

I think that The Big Bopper was more of a novelty act, but that's cool: "Chantilly Lace" was a classic.