Eddie Cochran

Though his life was tragically cut short at 21, Eddie Cochran was nonetheless one of the greatest and most inventive exponents of rock ’n’ roll during the genre’s late-’50s halcyon days. He was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, in 1938; his family moved to California in 1952, where he dropped out of high school to play music professionally. His first break came after meeting country singer and songwriter Hank Cochran. Despite being unrelated, they began performing locally as the Cochran Brothers. During this period he began writing songs, cutting his first solo record in 1956 and performing “Twenty Flight Rock” in the musical comedy film The Girl Can’t Help It. In 1958, Cochran found his voice, raspy as it was, scoring hits with tunes that now rate as rock ’n’ roll classics. “Summertime Blues,” “C’mon Everybody,” and “Somethin’ Else” have been covered by the likes of The Who, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, Sid Vicious, T. Rex, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, and Jimi Hendrix. He worked as a session musician for friends like Gene Vincent and Skeets McDonald, deploying then-novel techniques like guitar distortion and overdubbing, before his untimely death in a car crash in Chippenham following a 1960 tour of the UK.