Biography:

Ray Edward Cochran October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. Cochran’s 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.^[1] He experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing even on his earliest singles.^[2] He played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums.^[1] His image as a sharply dressed and attractive young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death he achieved iconic status.^[3]

Cochran was involved with music from an early age, playing in the school band and teaching himself to play blues guitar.^[2] In 1954, he formed a duet with the guitarist Hank Cochran (no relation). When they split the following year, Eddie began a songwriting career with Jerry Capehart. His first success came when he performed the song “Twenty Flight Rock” in the film The Girl Can’t Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield. Soon afterward, he signed a recording contract with Liberty Records and his first record for the label, “Sittin’ in the Balcony“, rose to number 18 on the Billboard charts.

Cochran died at the age of 21 in St Martin’s Hospital, Bath, Somerset, after a road accident in Chippenham, Wiltshire, at the end of his British tour in April 1960. He had just performed at the Bristol Hippodrome. Though his best-known songs were released during his lifetime, more of his songs were released posthumously. In 1987, Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His songs have been recorded by a wide variety of recording artists.

Early life

Cochran was born on October 3, 1938, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, to Alice and Frank R. Cochran. He was of Scottish descent.^[2] His parents were from Oklahoma, and he always said in interviews that his parents had some roots in Oklahoma. He took music lessons in school but quit the band to play drums. Also, rather than taking piano lessons, he began learning guitar, playing country and other music he heard on the radio.

Career

Cochran’s family moved to Bell Gardens, California, in 1952. As his guitar playing improved, he formed a band with two friends from his junior high school. He dropped out of Bell Gardens High School in his first year to become a professional musician.^[4] During a show featuring many performers at an American Legion hall, he met Hank Cochran, a songwriter. Although they were not related, they recorded as the Cochran Brothers and began performing together.^[5] They recorded a few singles for Ekko Records that were fairly successful and helped to establish them as a performing act. Eddie Cochran also worked as a session musician and began writing songs, making a demo with Jerry Capehart, his future manager.

In July 1956, Eddie Cochran’s first “solo artist” single was released by Crest Records.^[6] It featured “Skinny Jim”, now regarded as a rock-and-roll and rockabilly classic. In the spring of 1956, Boris Petroff asked Cochran if he would appear in the musical comedy film The Girl Can’t Help It. Cochran agreed and performed the song “Twenty Flight Rock” in the movie. In 1957 Cochran starred in his second film, Untamed Youth, and he had yet another hit, “Sittin’ in the Balcony“, one of the few songs he recorded that was written by other songwriters (in this case John D. Loudermilk). “Twenty Flight Rock” was written by AMI staff writer Ned Fairchild (a pen name—her real name is Nelda Fairchild). Fairchild, who was not a rock and roll performer, merely provided the initial form of the song; the co-writing credit reflects Cochran’s major changes and contributions to the final product.

In the Summer of 1957 Liberty Records issued Cochran’s only studio album released during his lifetime, Singin’ to My Baby. The album included “Sittin’ in the Balcony”. There were only a few rockers on this album, and Liberty seemed to want to move Cochran away from Rock and Roll.

In 1958, Cochran seemed to find his stride in the famous teenage anthem “Summertime Blues” (co-written with Jerry Capehart). With this song, Cochran was established as one of the most important influences on rock and roll in the 1950s, both lyrically and musically. The song, released by Liberty recording no. 55144, charted at number 8 in 1958. Cochran’s brief career included a few more hits, such as “C’mon, Everybody“, “Somethin’ Else“, “Teenage Heaven“, “Three Steps to Heaven“, which posthumously topped the charts in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1960. He remained popular in the United States and the United Kingdom through the late 1950s and early 1960s, and more of his records were posthumous hits, such as “My Way”, “Weekend“, and “Nervous Breakdown”.

Another aspect of Cochran’s short but brilliant career is his work as backup musician and producer.^[6] In 1959 he played lead for Skeets McDonald at Columbia’s studios for “You Oughta See Grandma Rock” and “Heart Breaking Mama”. In a session for Gene Vincent in March 1958, he contributed his trademark bass voice, as heard on “Summertime Blues“. The recordings were issued on the album A Gene Vincent Record Date.^[7]

In early 1959, two of Cochran’s friends, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, along with the Big Bopper, were killed in a plane crash while on tour. Cochran’s friends and family later said that he was badly shaken by their deaths, and he developed a morbid premonition that he also would die young. Shortly after their deaths, he recorded a song (written by disc jockey Tommy Dee) in tribute to them, “Three Stars“. He was anxious to give up life on the road and spend his time in the studio making music, thereby reducing the chance of suffering a similar fatal accident while touring. Financial responsibilities, however, required that he continue to perform live, and that led to his acceptance of an offer to tour the United Kingdom in 1960.

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