Buddy Holly - The Buddy Holly Story (Coral CRL 57276)

It seems pretty cliche to call The Beatles your favorite band. Everyone loves The Beatles. Of course you love them, they are The Beatles. In the scope of early rock/rockabilly, that's Buddy Holly, too. He is the face of the genre, effectively. Much like The Beatles the popular image of Holly is completely justified. It's one of the rare times in the history of music where the quality of the artist is evenly matched by the fame of the artist. The music is brilliant. It's practically perfect. This album in particular is the first greatest hits record of Holly's and it was the first thing Coral got out after Holly's sudden death. Holly really only put out two or three albums in his short life so this compilation is considered one of his primary releases.
Oddly, this is one of THREE copies I have found of this record. The first was a very exciting find in a Pennsylvania antique store. I didn't know much about records at the time and probably overpaid for it but its $300 Goldmine book value was a big selling point. Copy numero dos was actually a rare eBay record purchase for me. I don't generally buy records on eBay but there was a lot with this record and "The Buddy Holly Story Volume 2" which is equally as good musically. I then lucked into a third copy at the Goodwill in Athens, GA. It is the only record valued over $200 that I have found multiple copies of. I obviously no longer buy into its $300 supposed value (I've simply seen it around too many times) but it's Buddy Holly, it sounds great and it looks great.
Two other Holly records are high on my wishlist "The Crickets - The Chirping Crickets" and "Buddy Holly - Buddy Holly." They are the ones I am sure came out during his lifetime. Hopefully I'll find them for reasonable prices in the future.