Chirping Crickets

It's pop, it's rock and roll Buddy Holly was a great artist Oh! Boy! Is one of my favorite songs of all time

Charming

Got to give it 3 but christ. 25 songs all 2 minutes long bro thinks he's bladee

Never heard the whole album before. Great

mega gutes album mir gefällt die stimmung die melodien und den inhalt

It’s well done rockabilly and all that, little flat and clean in the production but otherwise fun. Suffers a bit in the energy and pace all feeling kind of the same so it feels longer than it probably should, but I bet Buddy Holly and the lads would have got somewhere cool with more experience.

Sorry but all the songs have the same vibe. the album doesn't feel like a masterpiece

Rivers Cuomo does look just like Buddy Holly

oo wee oo

Short and sweet. Had no idea Not Fade Away was Buddy Holly! Worth listening to this historical record.

Good old rock n roll. Some great songs on here covered by many great people. They're getting 5 for what might have been.

The OG

Always liked Buddy Holly

Yeah this was enjoyable, breezed along and didn't outstay its welcome. Decent slice of musical history

Incredible stuff - some of the best popular music ever written. One can only imagine how mind blowing this must have been to hear in 1957. 4 stars!!!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Tom.

3.6/5 romp

This album is so much fun. A few songs are meh, but there are quite a few songs on here that still sound amazingly fresh and vibrant almost 70 years later. I’m impressed they tore through 12 songs in 26 minutes.

Well all of these songs are pretty perfect.

What a legend.

I know some Buddy Holly music, with 7 total songs liked by him with 4 of them on this album. 4 liked songs on this one before listening today are: "Oh Boy!", "Not Fade Away", "Maybe Baby", "That'll Be The Day". This was kinda fun listening to this all the way through. The songs are all pretty short so it goes by quickly. Definitely hear some things that remind me of Elvis and Roy Orbinson and early Beatles too. For some reason, I had thought Buddy Holly wrote most of his songs so I was a little surprised that he only co-wrote 5 out of these 12 songs. I ended up liking 5 more songs on this - basically liking the first 9 songs. Songs added today: "You've Got Love", "It's Too Late", "Tell Me How", "I'm Looking for Someone To Love", and "An Empty Cup (and a Broken Date)". It does have that "old timey" feel to it. I'm not sure how often I'd just listen to all of this in 1 sitting but will definitely enjoy these popping up on my automated playlists. Liked songs on Spotify: 9/12 Rating: 4/5

A 26 minute rollercoaster. A group of lads with perfect harmonies and a chirpy outlook on life (most of the time!) Easy to listen to catchy tunes. Nothing wrong with the album as such apart from the obvious that it’s of its time. Best track- ‘it’s too late’ for those harmonies! Worst track- ‘an empty cup’ wrist slitting sounds of the 50’s 8/10

Buddy Holly and The Crickets - The Chirping Crickets What a delight. These guys were capturing lightning on a bottle on this album. Still got irresistible energy and punk attitude, and the brilliance is in the perfect simplicity of the songs. So many comments on the site about 'boring song structure', 'dated sound', 'flat production' and so on. What the hell are people expecting? It was four lads in a room with a microphone and a tape recorder! Mind blowing for its time. Best Track - Maybe Baby. But could have been almost any from side one. Worst Track - Send Me Some Lovin'. Sadly the album peters out later on. First 8 tracks are where it is at 😎 8/10

I grew up listening to 60s and 70s compilations with your Nonna. They always make me smile and think of her singing at us, and road trips across Australia, so this album had a lot of great memories on it. The test of a true great album is how it carries through time, and this has carried itself well. Play it, build your own memories and connections with it, both your mum and I will sing along loud at you.

Fav

This is the music my parents used to listen to. It makes me feel nostalgic for a pristine America during its golden age of new beginnings. I like America—its optimism and, at times, its boastful, unfounded arrogance. Buddy Holly’s music embodies that, too. Reality was a bit different in some ways, but the feeling remains. It was nice to hear the music again. But I won’t be doing that regularly. I’m not that nostalgic for the past. 3/5

Bring back 25 minute albums.

Day 56 Considering I gave With the Beatles a 4, I was extremely hesitant to reward this with a 5. But at the end of the day, Buddy Holly really was that guy. I loved nearly every track. I truly wish we got to see how he would've adapted to the 60s and beyond Fav track: Tell Me How

Long live buddy holy! Probably the first rockstar/popstar ever and your favourite rockstar’s favourite rockstar! Great piece of music history!

Firmly in the era when music was a very rigid form of might entertainment. All the songs about chatting someone up (usually feeling like they are putting a bit too much pressure on), start with the title and work backwards, no songs over 3 minutes. Sort of worth a listen for historical interest but does nothing for me.

That'll Be The Day and Send Some Lovin' are good fun, but it is pretty standard stuff. Nice early rock 'n' roll.

Wasn't expecting to enjoy this, but I was fairly on board during the first track. Didn't last long though and I got very tired of it quickly..... Every song is basically thematically the same with the same template The rock n roll sound is ok in parts, but the crooning is so dated and boring.

Molto bello

6/10 Buen album, cortito. Divertido sin ser excesivo

I expected this to not have aged well, perhaps driven by the album cover, but it was still pretty strong.

De eerste plaat van Zijne Brildragendheid, hier nog vergezeld van drie andere stropdasdragende ideale schoonzonen. Als je er over nadenkt, is dit überhaupt een van de eerste pop-albums, samen met de net iets eerdere Elvis en Little Richard. Daar waar genoemde heren het van het rock & roll-spektakel en de swingende heupen moesten hebben, is Buddy Holly de verliefde troubadour. En toch vind ik dit een stuk frisser dan het jankerige repertoire waar veel van zijn collega's toen nog mee kwamen. Zijn muziek is minimaal, maar verrekte effectief (in de latere nummers was het achtergrondkoortje van die Crickets ook weg, wat het nog strakker maakte). Het swingt, het heeft ritme, en ik zou er naar kunnen blijven luisteren. En dat kan ook, want ik heb hier nog acht singletjes van de man liggen, die mijn ooms destijds grijsgedraaid hebben, op hun zolderkamertje op de boerderij. Zoals bekend stierf de man in een vliegtuigongeluk, op 22-jarige leeftijd. We zullen nooit weten wat hij de popmuziek nog meer had kunnen brengen, na zijn stormachtige debuutjaren. Zeer terecht dat deze plaat erin staat en ik ben in een gulle bui vandaag.

In een overzicht van albums kan het rock & roll geluid van de jaren '50 niet ontbreken. En net als met moderne amerikaanse muziek gericht op de jeugd hoeft dat niet perse gepaard te gaan met morele bedreiging. (Interessant verwoord, google AI.) Deze brave muziek kon er blijkbaar voor de ouders van die tijd nog wel mee door. Maar goed, als het toen al braaf was, is het nu helemaal saai natuurlijk.

Het is echt verschrikkelijk gedateerd, van die rock n roll door ideale schoonzonen. Je ziet daar toch meer rebelse gasten als Elvis voor je of Indonesiërs met lange haren die als Jimi Hendrix hun gitaar bespelen achter hun rug om enzo. Dit is meer nerdrock n roll en dan is het ook niet gek dat Weezers grootste hit "Buddy Holly" heette. Daarover gesproken, Weezer haalt met hun debuutplaat (snobs, anyone???) the blue album overduidelijk inspiratie uit dit album van Buddy Holly. Ik mis op die hoes alleen twee gitaren. Ik snap dat Buddy Holly door zijn legacy, mede gegroeid door zijn tragische vliegtuigongeluk, een plekje in de snoblijst verdient. Maar Weezers blue album zou daar wat mij betreft ook prima tussen kunnen staan. Terug naar the chirping crickets. Het is zogezegd ontiegelijk gedateerd en de zoete liefdesliedjes missen wat tempo. Gelukkig wisselen die af met snellere rock n roll. That'll be the day is een klassiekertje. Ik heb me toch een klein halfuurtje redelijk vermaakt. Prima 3 sterren.

Amazing how a pioneering sound is now quaint and pleasant. Still great, though.

#458 Hard not to like this but by the same token, almost feels simplistic today. One also has to appreciate their influence and I didn’t really appreciate they wrote Not Fade Away, covered by the Rolling Stones. Heard before? ❌ Would I revisit? ❌ Listen before you die? ✅ Fave track(s): Not Fade Away Rating: 5/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

5/10

Ok

Probably not an album that was meant to be enjoyed front to back, but not a bad listen.

It's ok I guess

Listened partially, not bad but no my cup of thea

This guy’s wiki is muy interesante. RIP.

Buddy Holly. So good!

Not bad. He’s an old rocker

Here's the thing: Rivers Cuomo doesn't actually look just like Buddy Holly. They both have glasses, but otherwise it's a stretch. Third day in a row of getting an iconic blues album from the 50s/60s, and the only complaint I have for this one is it's too short

🎤👓🎸🎶🥁

Its okay, not bad considering its ancient

undeniably it was hugely influential, but in the big 2026, it doesn't seem like much. still, it's a decently fun and catchy listen.

Not bad, still better than the early Elvis albums. I also like Buddy’s slight growl in his vocals

Fun to see a Buddy Holly album here. Often attributed to being the founder of Rock & Roll, which is quite a title to bear. Even more crazy to have gained such praise before his early passing at 22 years old. Sadly, it is a bit hard for me take all of this in and appreciate it all today when so much music has come since. That transition before/after Buddy Holly just doesn't hit the same as back in the day, naturally. The album itself was good. Buddy has a unique energetic voice that works well with the arrangements. No track really stood out to me as better than the other. Mid 3 for me, which feels criminal.

A lot of the early white rock ’n’ roll albums have disappointed me, as I think it’s quite clear that many of them are just weaker versions of the Black rock ’n’ roll that came before them. I think this album can actually hold its own alongside the likes of Little Richard, though. Buddy Holly’s vocals are great, and there are quite a few really good songs, such as “Not Fade Away” and “Oh, Boy!”. Like most rock ’n’ roll albums from the ’50s, the songs can start to feel a bit samey after a while, but I still think it holds up really well. I knew Buddy Holly was young when he died, but I was surprised to learn that he was only 22. Ritchie Valens was just 17. It makes you wonder what impact they could have had on music if they had lived longer. Strong 3.

#94 A pretty standard 50s rock n roll album. Good vocal harmonies, fun melodies, and a nice short runtime. Highlights: Not Fade Away, Last Night, It's Too Late

14. septembar 2026. 01.56h im kinda idgafing about rockabilly tbh mislim nije da nema pjesama u kojima uzivam ali cesto mi sve zvuci kao jedno te isto kao its sweet ali ono best: send me some lovin, last night

Bien

Just ok

Ganz schön alt, passt nicht so recht in die heutige Zeit, war damals aber bestimmt ein Meilenstein. Stört nicht im Hintergrund, ist aber auch nicht schlimm, wenn's vorbei ist.

Angenehm

I love Buddy Holly. This is 25 minutes of great rock-n-roll.

Typically, I enjoy these early albums, mainly to remind myself of how much music has evolved and to marvel at the fact that they really didn't have much to sing about apart from love/ unrequited love / falling out of love. Powerful voice and some nice bits of guitar.

Me gusta que sea de los 50s, corto y conciso y todo eso que dije en otras reseñas, pero me gustó menos que otros de la época.

The famous Sniffin’ Glue cover gave you three chord diagrams and the instruction: now form a band. The “Chirping” Crickets delivers essentially the same message twenty years earlier. Here’s one chord. Here’s another. Here’s a third. Now go and form a band. Guitar, guitar, bass, drums, close harmony vocals. Most of the individual parts can be copied by an enthusiastic teenager. Even the little stumble in the timing towards the end of “That’ll Be the Day” can be copied. The guitar breaks can be learned. The harmonies can be worked out around somebody’s front room. Nothing essential feels beyond reach. That matters enormously in 1957. Elvis sounds as though he has arrived from another planet. Buddy Holly sounds as though he has come from across the road. The innovation is at least as sociological as musical. Holly and the Crickets offer artistic permission: you do not need to look dangerous, employ an orchestra, possess impossible instrumental technique or wait for showbusiness to manufacture an identity for you. You can be four fairly ordinary-looking young men with instruments and songs. Britain was simultaneously developing the Larry Parnes model of pop stardom: find the young man, rename him, style him and construct the act. The Crickets look much more like a little working band that existed before the entertainment industry noticed it. That distinction must have been explosive to teenagers in Liverpool. The sound is far less polite than the Buddy Holly of greatest-hits compilations. “Oh, Boy!” is a smash-and-grab little record, with Holly’s famous vocal hiccup still audibly rooted in country singing rather than established as a trademark. “Not Fade Away” sounds as though it has been recorded in a cupboard, Jerry Allison thumping away on a cardboard box while those clipped backing vocals are placed with extraordinary precision. The following tracks make it obvious that this cramped sound is a choice rather than an incapacity. Norman Petty and the band are working with relatively little — microphones, rooms and tape — but they have remarkable ears. Holly can move away from the microphone and allow the room to change the emotional distance of a line. On “You’ve Got Love”, his tremulous voice and the saturated recording combine until a long held note briefly sounds as though the singer has been put through a guitar amplifier with the tremolo switched on. Many a clever producer could spend an afternoon making a drum sound like a cardboard box. The Crickets simply play the cardboard box. The backing vocals are perhaps the easiest part of this record to misunderstand. Their surface owes plenty to country harmony, the Jordanaires and vocal-group pop, and “An Empty Cup (And a Broken Date)” shows that inheritance rather too clearly. The voices become fussy and decorative, and suddenly the record is rooted firmly in 1957. Most of the album is rooted about six months into the future. On “Maybe Baby” the backing voices effectively become the lead instrument during the break. Elsewhere they provide hooks, punctuation and rhythm. The important development is the combination: a self-contained guitar band that also behaves like a vocal ensemble. That is what the Beatles took into English rock. Not simply guitar, guitar, bass and drums, but three people capable of becoming a close-harmony vocal group whenever a song needs it. Listen to early Beatles BBC sessions and the family resemblance is almost embarrassingly obvious: small rooms, boxy sound, little guitar figures, short drum fills answering the vocal, harmonies carrying real weight, everybody doing several jobs at once. By the time “That’ll Be the Day” arrives, everything has come together. A teenage George Harrison could listen to that guitar break and make a decent attempt at reproducing it. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison could contract the sprawling Quarrymen skiffle gang towards a handful of boys with guitars and voices, sometimes working with whichever drummer happened to be available and at one point contracting almost completely to Lennon and McCartney singing together as the Nerk Twins. Skiffle had already told British teenagers that they could form groups. The Crickets showed them that such a group could make pop records. Some older forms remain visible. “Send Me Some Lovin’” is almost a prototype teenage ballad with the orchestral decoration stripped away, its emotional conventions exposed so plainly that you can already imagine Neil Innes or Vivian Stanshall parodying its descendants. “Last Night” crosses teen-idol pop with doo-wop; give it one enormous bass vocal in the middle and you are halfway back to the Ink Spots. Those moments show where the Crickets came from. The rest shows where everybody else is going. Then “Rock Me My Baby” closes the album with virtually everything we now think of as Buddy Holly: the hiccups, close vocals, guitars, yelps and barely contained excitement. It is the whole package distilled into one final rush. Punk eventually needed to print the three chords on the page because twenty years of rock music had accumulated virtuosity, professionalism and gatekeeping. In 1957 the Crickets could simply make the record. Five stars, because this is the template. The sixties were born; right here.

Aw man, ich weiß nicht. Einerseits kann ich mir classic Rock’n’Roll schon geben, andererseits…. Ein ganzes Album davon? Weiß nicht. Wenigstens ist es kurz I guess? Insgesamt ein einseitiger Sound, maybe Baby und tell me how haben mir gut gefallen tho.

A lot can be said about short, simple, fun and engaging music. I've always loved this album but hearing it now makes me realise how little in the ways of production value songs used to have and just how much they did with so little. Amazing.

Surprisingly fun.

The more rocking numbers ("Oh Boy!", "That'll Be The Day", "I'm Lookin' For Someone To Love", "Rock Me My Baby") are fine, but the rest of this is pretty mediocre doo-wop, even by the standards of the time. It was 1957 and people were still figuring this whole rock & roll thing out, and unfortunately Holly would only live another two years, but I've always felt his impact boiled down to a handful of songs, with the rest being largely forgettable.

好听，爱情相关

Some fun old songs but hard to connect with it. It just sounds old. A fun listen but not one I am likely to repeat.

Decent.

3/5

JL : 3, Last Night

Es ist ein charmantes Frühwerk, das die Blaupause für Hollys späteren Glanz liefert. Die Songs sind leichtfüßig, klar strukturiert und voller jugendlicher Direktheit – „That’ll Be the Day“ trägt das Album wie ein strahlender Mittelpunkt, während der Rest solide, aber weniger zwingend vorbeizieht. Man hört die Geburt eines Sounds, der später ganze Generationen prägen sollte, auch wenn hier noch nicht jeder Funke zündet. Grüße gehen raus an Jivebunny und TrottFoxy – dieses Album zwinkert euch beiden zu.

Songs of my youth!

It's as easy to listen to as possible. Almost irritatingly so.

1957 album. It is a really easy listen, it isn't something I'd revisit though. A 2.75

This was the only album Buddy Holly & The Crickets put out while he was still alive, so it basically plays like a greatest hits record. It’s packed with classics, and since it’s only about 25 minutes long, they don't make them like they used to. When you hear upbeat tracks like "Not Fade Away", "Oh Boy!", and "That'll Be the Day", you’re literally hearing the foundation of rock and roll being built. It’s such a fun time capsule and pretty much set the blueprint for how a self-contained rock band should work, no wonder it influenced everyone from the Beatles to the Stones. Sure, some of the simpler instruments and slower love songs might sound a bit dated now, but that straightforward, youthful energy is exactly what makes it so charming. It’s hard to listen to this stuff without feeling a bit sad about what might have been, especially knowing he was only 22 when he passed. Still, as a pure slice of 50s joy and a massive piece of music history, it’s an absolute classic that never gets old.

What a fantastic album. Fun, cheery and a bit sweet, too!

This is very much a time capsule to an older time, a pre- Beatles musical landscape that understandably seems alien to us today. But the songs are strong, and I love the sound of the record. This music was also played a lot growing up, and was a big favourite of my uncle so nice to hear it again and reminisce.

Rating: 4.6/5 Short Review: This thing is just ridiculously charming. The songs are short, the production is simple, and there’s this youthful bounce to almost everything. Nothing feels overworked. They show up, give you two minutes of melody, and leave. Some tracks definitely blur together for me, but then something like “Not Fade Away” comes along and suddenly I’m completely back in. It’s also funny hearing how much of the basic vocabulary of later rock is already sitting here in 1957. Favorite Track: “Not Fade Away.” That rhythm is infectious. Simple as hell, but apparently my brain doesn’t require complexity when it’s busy having a good time.

it was a simpler time

Perfect little pop songs. Foundation of all pop rock. And short! Very enjoyable.

I respect the influence this album had on the music industry more than probably any of the other albums we've gotten so far. The four piece "self owning" band template originates here, and there is no doubt about how much influenced the future biggest stars, such as The Beatles (who even wear a similar name). The music itself is slightly too old for me though. It's not that I don't like it, it's just a bit too simple and poorly recorderd. But purely for the legendary record that this is, I have to give it a proper rating. And don't get me wrong, the music isn't bad, not at all, just not really up my alley for a daily listen, the harmonies and lack of a real catchy riff or chorus prevent me from loving this. But man, this pioneered rockabilly and rock & roll to become the thing we all love.

I had American Pie a few weeks before this, and it’s just interesting to think of this album in the context of The Day The Music Died. Buddy Holly really was one of a kind and left a huge hole in pop music when he died. “Oh Boy!” is the best song on the album and a great opener, and “Maybe Baby,” “That’ll Be The Day,” and “Rock Me My Baby” were my other favorite songs. This is closer to 4.5 stars for me, but it’s Buddy Holly so I’m rounding up.

Best Track - "That'll Be The Day"

Muy ligero y divertido. Mucho ritmo cincuentero y buenas guitarras para ponerse a bailar.

No me voló la cabeza... No encontré nada destacable sonoramente, me pareció un disco para lavar los platos... Siento que de la época debe haber discos mucho más increíbles

great to zone out to on the L train

BO-RING

Short, great, massively outsized impact for how long Buddy Holly was actively making music.

It was OK.

apparently it was a travesty that this guy died young. couldn't tell you that from this album. has music just progressed to the point where he sounds bad? no clue Would I listen again: no! Deserves to be on this list: perhaps 1.6

A classic album that still feels fresh in 2026.

Really solid and iconic 50s rock. It's crazy That Buddy Holly only released 1 album in his lifetime yet is such an icon.

Classic 50s sound Very good sound but all songs sound similar 3.5/5 Favorites: maybe baby, oh boy, last night

The biggest "what if" in music history... still sounds lovely and fresh.

12 songs. 25 minutes. Wham. 2 minutes a pop and on to the next one. But then of course nobody knew anything different back then. Songs are all perfectly reasonable even if the lyrics area little basic. Buddy Holly had more talent in his little finger than Elvis Presley. Shame about the plane crash. 3½

This marks my 365th album of the project. In other words, I have been rating albums here for an entire year now. Over the past year, I've discovered many musical delights-and a few rancid turds. This album is neither, but rather it's perfectly inoffensive 50s rock and roll. This genre of music was never my favorite, despite some good songs and its influence on later genres. Buddy Holly has a nice voice, but the 50s rock sound has a tendency to feel generic to me, and this record falls into that trap. If I'm being frankly honest, I'd rather listen to Weezer's "Buddy Holly" off of their Blue Album(criminally and infamously snubbed from the list). However, that song wouldn't exist without this, so I'm grateful to this record for that. This album is ranked #6 of 9 albums for 1957. Other 1957 albums rated by me: Birth of the Cool(1/9)-4 Here's Little Richard(2/9)-4 This Is Fats Domino(4/9)-4

Ehkä stereotyyppisintä 50-luvun rokkia mitä maan päältä löytyy. Kiva albumi kin on vaan 25min pitkä.