It is not impossible to cover Buddy Holly very well. The Stones did it with "Not Fade Away", the Beatles with "Words Of Love" and Blondie performed a killer "I'm Gonna Love You Too" on Parallel Lines. But I've listened to two albus of Holly covers this year and man have they sucked. Listen to me a touch better than Rave on but both infinitely forgetble.
First the exception that proves the rule: Brian Wilson's close harmoney arrangment does for "Listen to Me" what he did for Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue (Intro" -meaning he added to the original and made it his own at the same time.
The rest of this album doesn't come close but Natalie Merchant's "Learning The Game" deserves its only little corner of rock and roll hell for doing the impossible: making Holly the most boring bastard who ever walked the earth. Words fail to describe this chamber music drag of a cover. It is horrendous.
Between those two points, there are bits and pieces of songs, "Lyle Lovett gets out uninjured, Ringo shines, Zooey Deschanel is painless but thenso is wallpaper, Eric Idle is very funny in Peter Seller's "Hard Day's Night" mode, talking thru "Raining In My Heart". Patrick Stumpf ia OK, nothing great, Jackson Browne sleeps walks thru it and on and on. My man Peter Asher produced.
So not the atrocity Rave On, but not much.
Grade: B