There are two things worth noting right off the bat with this record: 1) while released in 1978, the songs were recorded twenty years earlier, and 2) a number of these songs were already familiar to me, despite never making a conscious effort to listen to Buddy Holly. But that’s to be expected. As the liner notes state, in eighteen months, Buddy Holly recorded nine number one singles. As a songwriter and recording musician, that’s astounding. Granted, the music industry (a pre-Beatles industry, notably) was a tad different in those days, but over fifty years on, those songs still endure, and thanks to the occasional rockabilly revival, they remain ageless. Even besides the mega-hits like Rave On, Oh, Boy! and the eternal Everyday, the material here never shows its age. In their sixth decade, they still bleed youth.

The most telling thing is how clear Holly’s influence is on the Beatles’ early material. The brief, energetic, romantic-minded pop songs the Fab Four churned out in their early days are here in prototype. But amazingly, these songs sound more refined than anything from the pre-Rubber Soul Beatles. While Ringo took years to learn to dream in moderation, The Crickets play with restraint. Despite the raucous rockabilly of songs like Peggy Sue, the ballads are true ballads, and not slow rock songs.

In the end, this is much more than the historical piece it obviously is. It’s a cohesive piece of music that, even in the year 2012, is a relevant and rewarding listen, and evidence that perhaps the 1964 Beatles weren’t quite the pioneers they’re given credit for.