JACKIE LEE COCHRAN
ROCKS

It took an outsized personality as well as a snarling set of pipes to stand out on the mid-1950s rockabilly circuit. Jackie Lee Cochran possessed both by the bushel. He only made a handful of singles during rockabilly’s prime era, but every one was a genuine classic. When the rockabilly revival exploded during the ‘70s and ‘80s, Jackie Lee was perfect situated to exploit the movement to the fullest, cutting far more material than he had his first time around. Bear Family’s ‘Jackie Lee Cochran Rocks’ generously surveys both important periods in Cochran’s career; other than his seminal Dallas-cut 1956 debut single for Sims Records pairing Riverside Jump and Hip Shakin’ Mama, Jackie did a lot of recording in Los Angeles, including his lone ‘57 Decca pairing of Ruby Pearl and Mama Don’t You Think I Know, his 1958 singles for Spry (Pity Me) and Viv/Avalon/ABC-Paramount (I Want You b/w Buy A Car), and a steamy ‘59 effort for Jaguar, Georgia Lee Brown b/w I Wanna See You—and they’re all here. There’s also a generous sampling of his impressive comeback output for Ronny Weiser’s Rollin’ Rock imprint, often featuring Ray Campi’s bass slapping, as well as ‘80s and ‘90s performances that decisively show Cochran still had plenty left in his tank. From his days on ‘The Big “D” Jamboree’ when his manager constructed an eight-foot-tall wooden silhouette of a black cat with illuminated red eyes for his eerie stage backdrop to when he regularly sent European audiences into an out-and-out frenzy three-plus decades later, Jackie Lee ‘Waukeen’ Cochran epitomized rockabilly snarl—and this collection proves it.