eddie cochran was born on oct 3 1938 in albert lea, minnesota the youngest of twelve children. shortly afterward his family moved to oklahoma city. eddie began to play the guitar at a very young age and by the time he was twelve he could play what ever he heard which usually came from on old radio. in 1953 his family moved again this time to bell gardens, calif. at a music store in bell gardens, eddie made friends with songwriter jerry capehart. eddie told capehart he played guitar. capehart asked eddie to record some songs for him. capehart liked what he heard and he eddie became very good friends. in 1956 eddie came to the attention of si warnoker who owned liberty records. at that time eddie had teamed up with hank cochran and they recorded country music on jerry capehart’s “ekko” records, eddie and hank were not related to each other even though they recorded as ” the cochran bros”. hank wanted eddie to move to nashville with him to write and record country music. eddie instead signed with liberty records. liberty records got eddie a part in the movie ” the girl can’t help it” which starred jane mansfield. in the movie he sang ” twenty flight rock”. while on the movie set he met gene vincent they became close friends and he later produced some of gene’s recordings at capital playing guitar on some songs. “twenty flight rock” was suppose to be his first release on liberty to go along with the release of the movie “the girl can’t help it”. john d. loudermilk who recorded for “colonial” records in winston-salem, n.c. under the name “johnny dee” had written a song titled “sittin in the balcony” that liberty wanted eddie to record, eddie didn’t care much for the song he thought it had to much of an elvis sound to it. eddie recorded the song, but for his next release he recorded his own material. in the summer of 1958 eddie found the sound he was looking for, he and jerry capehart had written a song ” summertime blues”. in the song eddie says in a way down deep echo “i’d like to help you son but your to young to vote” in certain parts of the song as a answer. “summertime blues” became a big hit in the summer of 1958. his next release written by he and jerry capehart was “c’mon everybody”, which became another hit. “something else” written with sharon sheeley, was a hit in 1959 he and sheeley became close friends and spent a lot of time together. sharon sheeley wrote ” poor little fool” for rick nelson. while touring in england in 1960, eddie was killed in an auto accident. on sunday april 17th 1960 in the early morning hours in fog and rain eddie was riding to the london airport after a very suscessful ten week engagement at the bristol hippodrone. riding with him in the hired “limousine” were sharon sheeley and gene vincent. a tire blew out near the town of chippenham wiltshire causing a collision. eddie was thown from the limo and landed on the pavement causing severe heard injuries, he died in a hospital in bath, england. gene vincent was seriously injuried in the crash and was never the same person afterward, sharon sheeley received injuries as well. eddie was flown back to calif., and buried in hollywood. i believe had eddie lived he would gone on to become a record producer for a major record co. he was a very talented person with lots of insite into the record business. no one has ever filled the void left by “eddie cochran”. he was one of a kind and when he left us a “huge” part of rock a billy went with him. i can hear him on the radio now as if it were yesterday singing c’mon everybody” c’mon everybody”, the next time you go to an ole movie house with a balcony in it take a look up there and if you look real close you’ll see eddie cochran ” sittin in the balcony”, intop row”. we still miss you eddie, we’ll save a bag of pop corn for you.

~ Widmarc Clark