Not Fade Away

Cover version of the month #32

The Stones cover Buddy Holly

The Rolling Stones launched in June 1963, releasing a cover version of Chuck Berry's Come On, they would follow that with a Lennon and McCartney number I Wanna Be Your Man that the duo bashed out in 20-minutes to help The Stones and their manager Andrew Loog Oldham.  In search of original material there are stories that Loog Odham eventually resorted to locking Jagger and Richards in a room until they came up with something!

Their third release, in February 1964, was a scorching cover of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. They transformed the song, stamping their identify of rock n roll blues all over it. Brian Jones playing the mouth organ sounded a million times more exciting than when Lennon played his less than 2 years previously on The Beatles Love Me Do.

The original by Buddy Holly and The Crickets was written in 1957 and released as a b-side to the single Oh Boy and on the album The Chirping Crickets in 1958. The Stones keep the structure of the song but they turn it into raw and electric rock n roll. The difference is quite staggering, the drummer for the Crickets pounds the beat on a cardboard box! Through each recording you see the move from skiffle to rock n roll. No-one would ever look back.

The urgency in Jagger's voice is striking from the off. When Jagger sings it you believe him, you believe he's a lover and you kind of fall for him; hook, line and sinker.

I wanna tell you how it's gonna be, you're gonna give your love to me,

I wanna love you night and day, well love is love and not fade away

The handclaps, beats, Brian Jones on harmonica, the acoustic rhythm and the explosion of Richards on electric guitar sound incredibly exciting - even in 2018. The Stones transform the original and in under 2-minutes display the energy that captivated audiences across the globe.

Check the magnificent interview and performance from 1964 below and then the studio recording, followed by the original by Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

Previous covers of the month

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt
14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine
16. California Soul
18. Wonder wall 
19. Dancing In The Dark
20. Always On My Mind
21. Ceremony
22. Heroes
23. Different Drum
24. Wild Horses

25. Respect
26. Mr Tambourine Man
27. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
28. Superstar
29. Twist and Shout
30. Purple Rain
31. Baker Street

Five for Friday 28/10/11

Here are 5 tunes to kick start your weekend.

We start with the slick, soulful and funky disco of 'Le Freak' by Chic

We the glide into Patti Jo's gorgeous 'Make Me Believe In You', the lyrics are just pure 'heart on sleeve' stuff.

We then storm into Martha Reeves & The Vandella's with the classic 'Nowhere To Run'. Martha will be playing Celtic Connections in Glasgow in January 2012.

Keeping up the pace we fly into Spanky Wilson with 'You', written by a certain Stevie Wonder.

This week ends in serious style courtesy of The Stones and this outrageous take on 'Sympathy For The Devil' from the memorial concert for Brian Jones in 1969.