Rock and Roll Tragedy

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It was quite a tragic day when the singer of “Summertime Blues” and “C’mon Everybody” was killed on April 17, 1960. He was in Bristol, England heading for the airport after a show when his taxi crashed. He was a dynamic rocker who related to American teens in the years between the rise of Elvis and the popularity of The Beatles. What is really interesting was the future rockers were learning from American rockers like Cochran. It was at a garden party that John Lennon first met Paul McCartney and taught him to play Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock”. Later on Lennon invited McCartney to join his band The Quarrymen. It was Beatle George Harrison who saw Cochran in Liverpool on his final tour. On that tragic day in the taxi along with Cochran was rocker Gene Vincent who was known for his “Be Bop a Lula”. Vincent’s style is more rockabilly. It is amazing how fate plays a hand at the most unimaginable times. Also in the taxi was Cochran’s tour manager Patrick Thompkins and Cochran’s fiancée, songwriter Sharon Seeley. For some reason the taxi a Ford Consul was moving along at over 60 mph through a dark and winding part of the two-lane A4 in Chippenham. The vehicle went crashing into a light post. Vincent broke his leg and wound up limping through life, the others also survived. It was only Cochran who suffered a serious head injury and died at a hospital in Bath at the age of 21. However later on in 1971 Vincent joined his friend in the rock and roll band in the sky due to a ruptured stomach ulcer. He was only 36. How many of you remember this singer and the songs?