I got this as a present from a friend in Valparaiso, Indiana U.S.A. and it's quite an original idea. Before Buddy Holly's tragic death on February 3rd 1959, he had been recording on a tape recorder that he had given to him by his manager, Norman Petty. These tracks known as "The Apartment Tapes" were used along with others that Buddy had made in other locations, over the 10 year period after his death. This CD is not complete as there were some other recordings found on the Ampex tape recorder, the most notable absentee is "Dearest" (aka:"Umm Oh Yeah").
The tracks are presented in 3 sets of six, all 3 carry the same playing order, the first set comprising of the master undubbed recordings.
The second set consists of the initial released overdubs made by Coral A & R man Jack Hansen. Many consider these to be of inferior quality and just not what Buddy would have wanted. As these were the tracks of my teenage years and what I can remember listening to at that time, I prefer these to the later overdubs. Of particular interest is Donald Arnone's guitar playing which I feel is sympathetic to Buddy's work.
After Buddy's death Coral were concerned to keep his image in the public eye and set about gaining access to personal recordings from various sources, much to Norman Petty's annoyance. Petty considered himself as the natural choice to convert these private tapes into a presentable format and set about getting control of all the remaining tapes. After threats of legal action Petty finally won control and with the help of the "Fireballs", another group he also managed, he re-released the apartment tapes once again, this time with new backing.