The CD: 

1. My Two-Timin' Woman (1949, first appearance in unedited form)

2. Footprints In The Snow (1952, Direct from original Acetate)

3. Take These Shackles From My Heart (1952, Direct from original acetate.

4. I Heard The Lord Calling For Me, 5. I Saw The Moon Cry For Me Last Night (Jack Neal w/Buddy Holly on Guitar, 1952. Previously unreleased remastered tapes.)

6. You And I Are Through (1955, Direct from original acetate)

7. Down The Line (1955, halternate take without drums.)

8. I'm Changing All Those Changes (1956, Unreleased Alt. Take, Fragment)

9. Gone (1956, Raw Track without overdubs)

10. Have You Ever Been Lonely (1956, Unreleased Alternate Take)

11. Gone, 12. Go Boy, Go (1956, Gary Tollet w/Buddy Holly on Guitar, Alternate Takes, previously unreleased)

13. "The Phone Call" (Buddy Holly and Paul Cohen, President of Decca Records, February 1957. Previously Unheard.)

14. A Whole Lot Of Lovin' (1957, Jim Robinson w/Buddy Holly on Guitar, Alternate Take previously unheard.)

15., 16., & 17. Three Spoken-Word Promotional Spots and radio jingle for Bill Randall in Cleveland. Recorded June 30, 1957.

18. Broken Promises, 19. Humble Heart (July 26, 1957, Sherry Davis w/Buddy Holly on Guitar. Extremely rare single featuring Holly.)

20-23. Spoken word promotional spots for Don Passerby (Unique custom set of recordings that were done backstage at Montreal concert on Sept. 14, 1957 for Passerby of 1230 Cornwall Radio. Previously unreleased.)

24. Spoken Word Promotional Spot for Red Robinson. (Likely recorded on October 23, 1957 during interview backstage in Vancouver. Rumored to exist and thus previously unreleased...until now.)

25. One Faded Rose (1957, Charlie Phillips w/Buddy Holly on Guitar and Vocal Harmony. Country tinged Alternate Take previously unreleased.)

26. Sugartime (1957, Charlie Phillips w/Buddy Holly on Guitar. Alternate Take, previously unreleased.)

27. The Wreck Of Old Ninety-Seven, 28. Scarlet Ribbons (1957, Carolyn Hester w/Buddy Holly on Guitar. Though uncredited on the "Scarlet Ribbons" Album.)

29. The Miami Florida Tapes (Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis, February 24, 1958. Bob Chesney recording of Holly & Lee singing "Everyday" and "I Love Her So". The tape also includes a spoken-word promotional spot for WTRL Radio. Previously uncirculated and unreleased.)

30-35. When Sin Stops (Love Begins) (September 10, 1958. Waylon Jennings first recording session. This is the complete session tape in it's entirety, for the first time anywhere. Featuring Buddy Holly as Producer and Guitarist.)

36. More And More, 37. When You Are Lonely (1958, Waylon Jennings w/Buddy Holly on Guitar. Previously unreleased Acetate recordings in rough format.)

38. Ronnie King interview with Buddy Holly (Recently discovered interview, in it's complete form, from Scranton, PA on October 16, 1958. This hasn't been heard since it's original airing on WGH Radio in 1958.)

39-41. J.P "The Big Bopper" Richardson/Ritchie Valens/Buddy Holly: Spoken-Word Promotional Spots for "The Winter Dance Party" (An amazing trio of rarities taken from their original acetate source, resulting in brilliant sound. Previously unreleased in this quality.)

The DVD:

1.  That'll Be The Day (Hand-held camera footage/fragment of "The High Time Show" in Portland, Oregon on October 22, 1967)

2.  Oh, Boy! (Band performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, January 26, 1957)

3.  The Complete Ed Sullivan Show, January 26, 1957, commercials and all.

Prism Records has assembled what could be the title of 2004... and they’ve chosen a high-profile project for it’s inaugural release!  “The Music Never Died - A Rock And Roll Revelation” is a superbly crafted and thought out collection.  Buddy Holly is as important to Rock And Roll as anyone…and what has been packaged for us here is nothing short of amazing. 

It comes housed in a special DVD clamshell and slipcase cover, worthy of such a superb collection with a bonus DVD, special bonus poster...and a 36-page booklet that has to be seen to be believed.  Exhaustive information about each of the tracks on the disc(s) with black and white unpublished photos.  Breathtaking and incredible are words that come to mind.  To paraphrase from the opening paragraph in the booklet…  “the usual hum-drum biographical introductions should be forsaken”… “you are already familiar with the standard information about his career and are obviously seeking something special this time around.  What you are about to discover by way of this collection, however, transcends anything that might meet the criterion of “special”.”

Those statements set the stage and have a greater impact while looking at this material first-hand….I assure you.  To gain a perspective on what this release brings to Buddy Holly fans and rock & roll collectors, let’s again extract a couple of facts pointed out in Prism’s accompanying booklet.  The only product that assembled anything close to what “The Music Never Died” was Vigotone’s 1995 “What You’ve Been Missing”.  This was a  4-disc, 143 track compilation that essentially brought all of the previously known Buddy Holly performances, promos, interviews, etc. together in one collection.  Out of the entire 143 tracks, there was only one “new” piece for collector’s.  This was the Pat Barton interview from January 31st, 1958 and it had never been available or aired in it’s entirety.  So, in essence only a portion of 1 track in 143 was something new!  Granted, there is much value for having all known gems of any performer compiled in a nice tidy package.  But as collector’s we always want something new and special for our collections.  Here it is…

…a “convergence of almost seventy-five minutes of indisputably  new audio and video related to the man himself, the vast majority of which has positively never been available before—even to the most elite of collectors.”  And… “What makes this compilation even more compelling is the fact that several key items found herein were not even know to exist prior to the late 1990’s!”

For example, included here for the first time ever to collector’s is the infamous “Decca Records Phone Call”.  This is a superbly recorded phone call of Buddy Holly talking with the head of Decca Records about his contract not being renewed and if he could get the tapes from an unused session he had recorded recently.  It is a brutal example of how cold the industry is and we hear a very disappointed and even desperate, but polite, Buddy Holly finally thank him and hang up.

The DVD is a simple bonus to the rest of the package.  To keep the theme of the set consistent, no common material is found here.  First, there is a short hand-held camera clip of the band performing on "The High Time Show" in Portland, Oregon on October 22, 1957.  So we have bootleg video footage featured on the cream of the crop Holly bootleg!  The second featured video is from the scarcely seen 2nd Ed Sullivan appearance on January 26th, 1957 with the band playing an curious version of "Oh, Boy!".  The entire, uncut Ed Sullivan Show from the same date is also included, commercials and all!  It explains a lot to see the whole show as the isolated clip doesn't quite feel right.  The booklet with this set explains the whole scenario but in short, Sullivan had it in for he guys this evening and in watching the complete episode, you see the childish antics Ed pulled.  Unreal.

I'm not sure what is more enjoyable, watching the DVD footage or reading about the DVD footage in the booklet!  Having both for reference lets us relive another rock n' roll moment, or two.  And makes the effort of putting something like this together very much appreciated. Looking at it all, it's really beyond words. 

A final note.  Prism Records was what Buddy Holly named his record label back in 1957.  "The Music Never Died" is a fitting resurrection for such an important project...and, how cool is that?  Nice one.