The Crickets - California Sun/The Crickets: A Collection

BGO's reissue of California Sun and The Crickets: A Collection, combining the two LPs on one CD -- with a slight reshuffling of two songs that were on both albums -- assembles virtually all of The Crickets' late recordings for Liberty Records. The group's sound is surprisingly similar at times to their classic sides with Buddy Holly, despite the fact that drummer/singer/songwriter Jerry Allison is the only original member along for much of the material here -- his fluid, almost melodic percussive style is well represented, and singer/guitarist Sonny Curtis, and vocalist Jerry Naylor, make decent successors to Holly, at least as performers; Allison, Curtis, and producer Bud Cason all contribute to the songwriting, giving the group a supply of originals comparable to what they had in their heyday, and several are well above average, if not classics along the lines of "That'll Be the Day" or "Peggy Sue." The Lennon-Mccartney songs covered are a mixed bag, several of them enlightening and all of them worth hearing. Read More