Eddie "fightin' and trouble" Cochran

Eddie Cochran was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota. His real name was Raymond Edward Cochrane. He learned music at school and decided that he was going to be a drummer. He was an avid listener to the radio and loved to emulate his idols. Still listening to the radio, he be...gan to play the guitar, emulating the styles he heard on radio shows like "The Grand Ole Opry". In 1955, his family moved to Bell Gardens, California where he formed a band with two friends from his junior high school. His life took a major turn when he met Hank Cochran at an American Legion concert. Although they were not related, they began performing together and recorded as The Cochrane Brothers, while Eddie worked as a session musician. His first recording was a demo recorded with Jerry Capehart, who would later become his manager. Eddie's first guitar was a Gibson electric acoustic guitar with a single Florentine cutaway. This guitar featured a pair of Gibson P90 pickups, sometimes called 'dog ear' pickups due to their shape. He later moved to a 1956 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Western model, which he had modified by replacing the neck position and added a De Armond Dynasonic pickup with a black covered Gibson P-90 pickup. In 1956, he got his big break when appeared in the Jayne Mansfield film "The Girl Can't Help It." with Little Richard and Freddie Bell & The Bell Boys. In the movie he is seen playing "Twenty Flight Rock" . His second film was called "Untamed Youth," in which he played a much bigger role. He had his first hit, "Sittin' in the Balcony," a song written by John D. Loudermilk. He followed that success up with "Summertime Blues" which he co-wrote with his manager, Jerry Capehart. It was a huge success as it struck a major chord with the teenage record-buying public. On the back of this success, he was booked to tour Britain with fellow Rocker, Gene Vincent. While in the U.K. he appeared both on stage and on popular TV shows aimed at teenagers. He was introduced and interviewed by British teen idol, Marty Wilde. Sadly his tour would end in tragedy when on Saturday, April 16, 1960, at about 11:50 p.m., he died in a traffic accident, aged only 21. The taxi crashed into a lamp post on Rowden Hill, Chippenham. A plaque now commemorates the event at the spot. He was taken to St. Martin's Hospital, Bath, but died at 4:10 p.m. the following day. Songwriter Sharon Sheeley (Cochran's fiancée) and singer Gene Vincent survived the crash. The taxi driver, George Martin, was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50, disqualified from driving for 15 years, and sent to prison for six months. Eddie Cochran is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California. A posthumous album, My Way, was released in 1964.