Personnel includes: Buddy Holly (vocals, guitar); Niki Sullivan (guitar, background vocals); Tommy Allsup (guitar); Sam "The Man" Taylor (tenor saxophone); Norman Petty, Vi Petty (piano); Larry Welborn, Joe Mauldin, George Atwood (bass); Jerry Allison, Panama Francis (drums); June Clark, Gary & Ramona Tollet, The Helen Way Singers (background vocals).
The Picks: Bill Pickering, John Pickering, Bob Lapham (background vocals).
The Roses: Bob Linville, Ray Bush, David Bigham (background vocals).
Producers: Norman Petty, Bob Thiele, Dick Jacobs.
Compilation producer: Andy McKaie.
Recorded in Clovis, New Mexico between February 25, 1957 and August 1958; Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on September 27-28, 1957; Bell Sound Studios, New York, New York on January 26, 1958; Pythian Temple, New York, New York in October 1958. Includes liner notes by Mark Humphrey.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
MCA remastered 18 of Buddy Holly's best-known songs for 1996's Greatest Hits album. While the sound is fine, it isn't markedly better than that on From the Original Master Tapes, which also boasted a more complete track selection. Nevertheless, Greatest Hits is one of the most thorough single-disc collections ever assembled on Holly, and for audiophiles, it may be worth the extra money. For most fans, From the Original Master Tapes remains the definitive single-disc set, with the double-disc The Buddy Holly Collection or the LP-only The Complete Buddy Holly providing better, more comprehensive overviews, which provide more value for your dollar than Greatest Hits. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The best single-CD Buddy Holly retrospective, with all the hits (plus the occasional under-familiar gem, like the fiendishly catchy "Fools Paradise") in all their remastered-in-the-'90s glory. Holly was the first true rock auteur (translation: he wrote 'em, he sang 'em, he produced 'em, and he ran the band) and his brand of pure pop has influenced countless musicians over the ensuing decades. GREATEST HITS shows you why; but if you're looking for a more complete, yet still affordable, look at Holly's brief but prolific career, you can't go wrong with the two-CD BUDDY HOLLY COLLECTION. minimize