Plays Buddy Holly
The Head Cat
Plays Buddy Holly is an archival release by HeadCat (also known as The Head Cat), the rockabilly supergroup formed by the late Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, and guitarist/pianist Danny B. Harvey of The Rockats and Lonesome Spurs. Released on May 15, 2026 through Cleopatra Records on CD and red/yellow split color vinyl, the 13-track album draws from sessions originally recorded in the summer of 1999 at a studio session that began almost accidentally — after finishing recordings for a Swing Cats Elvis Presley tribute album, Lemmy picked up an acoustic guitar and began playing Buddy Holly songs, the other two knew them all, and the trio recorded an entire album's worth of material in short order. That session was originally released in 2000 as Lemmy, Slim Jim & Danny B. and reissued in 2006 under the title Fool's Paradise. For Plays Buddy Holly, Danny B. Harvey returned to his original 1999 master recordings rather than working from the released versions, remixing and remastering them from scratch to produce what he described as "a fuller, more solid sound than ever before," then isolated the ten Buddy Holly-specific songs and added three previously unreleased alternate mixes — stripped-down versions without background vocals — to complete the collection.
The result is a warmly faithful, greased-back tribute to one of rock and roll's foundational figures, a man Lemmy revered above almost all others: as he wrote in his autobiography White Line Fever, "Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song, as far as I can tell." As Cover Me noted, the approach is "an actually quite faithful rockabilly take on the Buddy Holly songbook, a style not so far from his own slightly more polished oeuvre." The tracklist draws from across Holly's catalogue — the Cricket-era standards "Fool's Paradise," "Tell Me How," and "Not Fade Away"; the posthumously released ballads "Learning the Game," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," and "True Love Ways"; and the lesser-known gem "Love's Made a Fool of You" — with the three alternate mixes appended as bonus tracks. Harvey explained the album's personal significance simply: "I'm thrilled that this album is coming out to show how important Buddy Holly was to Lemmy, Slim Jim and me. We all loved Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Little Richard — but as Lemmy writes, Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song."
Plays Buddy Holly is an archival release by HeadCat (also known as The Head Cat), the rockabilly supergroup formed by the late Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, and guitarist/pianist Danny B. Harvey of The Rockats and Lonesome Spurs. Released on May 15, 2026 through Cleopatra Records on CD and red/yellow split color vinyl, the 13-track album draws from sessions originally recorded in the summer of 1999 at a studio session that began almost accidentally — after finishing recordings for a Swing Cats Elvis Presley tribute album, Lemmy picked up an acoustic guitar and began playing Buddy Holly songs, the other two knew them all, and the trio recorded an entire album's worth of material in short order. That session was originally released in 2000 as Lemmy, Slim Jim & Danny B. and reissued in 2006 under the title Fool's Paradise. For Plays Buddy Holly, Danny B. Harvey returned to his original 1999 master recordings rather than working from the released versions, remixing and remastering them from scratch to produce what he described as "a fuller, more solid sound than ever before," then isolated the ten Buddy Holly-specific songs and added three previously unreleased alternate mixes — stripped-down versions without background vocals — to complete the collection.
The result is a warmly faithful, greased-back tribute to one of rock and roll's foundational figures, a man Lemmy revered above almost all others: as he wrote in his autobiography White Line Fever, "Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song, as far as I can tell." As Cover Me noted, the approach is "an actually quite faithful rockabilly take on the Buddy Holly songbook, a style not so far from his own slightly more polished oeuvre." The tracklist draws from across Holly's catalogue — the Cricket-era standards "Fool's Paradise," "Tell Me How," and "Not Fade Away"; the posthumously released ballads "Learning the Game," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," and "True Love Ways"; and the lesser-known gem "Love's Made a Fool of You" — with the three alternate mixes appended as bonus tracks. Harvey explained the album's personal significance simply: "I'm thrilled that this album is coming out to show how important Buddy Holly was to Lemmy, Slim Jim and me. We all loved Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Little Richard — but as Lemmy writes, Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song."
Plays Buddy Holly
The Head Cat
Plays Buddy Holly is an archival release by HeadCat (also known as The Head Cat), the rockabilly supergroup formed by the late Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, and guitarist/pianist Danny B. Harvey of The Rockats and Lonesome Spurs. Released on May 15, 2026 through Cleopatra Records on CD and red/yellow split color vinyl, the 13-track album draws from sessions originally recorded in the summer of 1999 at a studio session that began almost accidentally — after finishing recordings for a Swing Cats Elvis Presley tribute album, Lemmy picked up an acoustic guitar and began playing Buddy Holly songs, the other two knew them all, and the trio recorded an entire album's worth of material in short order. That session was originally released in 2000 as Lemmy, Slim Jim & Danny B. and reissued in 2006 under the title Fool's Paradise. For Plays Buddy Holly, Danny B. Harvey returned to his original 1999 master recordings rather than working from the released versions, remixing and remastering them from scratch to produce what he described as "a fuller, more solid sound than ever before," then isolated the ten Buddy Holly-specific songs and added three previously unreleased alternate mixes — stripped-down versions without background vocals — to complete the collection.
The result is a warmly faithful, greased-back tribute to one of rock and roll's foundational figures, a man Lemmy revered above almost all others: as he wrote in his autobiography White Line Fever, "Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song, as far as I can tell." As Cover Me noted, the approach is "an actually quite faithful rockabilly take on the Buddy Holly songbook, a style not so far from his own slightly more polished oeuvre." The tracklist draws from across Holly's catalogue — the Cricket-era standards "Fool's Paradise," "Tell Me How," and "Not Fade Away"; the posthumously released ballads "Learning the Game," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," and "True Love Ways"; and the lesser-known gem "Love's Made a Fool of You" — with the three alternate mixes appended as bonus tracks. Harvey explained the album's personal significance simply: "I'm thrilled that this album is coming out to show how important Buddy Holly was to Lemmy, Slim Jim and me. We all loved Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Little Richard — but as Lemmy writes, Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song."
Plays Buddy Holly is an archival release by HeadCat (also known as The Head Cat), the rockabilly supergroup formed by the late Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom, and guitarist/pianist Danny B. Harvey of The Rockats and Lonesome Spurs. Released on May 15, 2026 through Cleopatra Records on CD and red/yellow split color vinyl, the 13-track album draws from sessions originally recorded in the summer of 1999 at a studio session that began almost accidentally — after finishing recordings for a Swing Cats Elvis Presley tribute album, Lemmy picked up an acoustic guitar and began playing Buddy Holly songs, the other two knew them all, and the trio recorded an entire album's worth of material in short order. That session was originally released in 2000 as Lemmy, Slim Jim & Danny B. and reissued in 2006 under the title Fool's Paradise. For Plays Buddy Holly, Danny B. Harvey returned to his original 1999 master recordings rather than working from the released versions, remixing and remastering them from scratch to produce what he described as "a fuller, more solid sound than ever before," then isolated the ten Buddy Holly-specific songs and added three previously unreleased alternate mixes — stripped-down versions without background vocals — to complete the collection.
The result is a warmly faithful, greased-back tribute to one of rock and roll's foundational figures, a man Lemmy revered above almost all others: as he wrote in his autobiography White Line Fever, "Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song, as far as I can tell." As Cover Me noted, the approach is "an actually quite faithful rockabilly take on the Buddy Holly songbook, a style not so far from his own slightly more polished oeuvre." The tracklist draws from across Holly's catalogue — the Cricket-era standards "Fool's Paradise," "Tell Me How," and "Not Fade Away"; the posthumously released ballads "Learning the Game," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," and "True Love Ways"; and the lesser-known gem "Love's Made a Fool of You" — with the three alternate mixes appended as bonus tracks. Harvey explained the album's personal significance simply: "I'm thrilled that this album is coming out to show how important Buddy Holly was to Lemmy, Slim Jim and me. We all loved Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and Little Richard — but as Lemmy writes, Buddy Holly never recorded a bad song."