Buddy Holly’s catalog is one of the sturdiest in early rock, and it’s also one of the most inviting for cover artists: he wrote wonderful melodies with simple lyrics and performed them energetically, but he didn’t live long enough to create a performance style as definitive as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, or Chuck Berry. Still, there are dangers in approaching a Holly standard: step too lightly, and you end up with something that sounds like a nursery rhyme, especially on songs like “Everyday” and “Oh Boy.” Luckily, few of the artists on “Rave On Buddy Holly,” a new tribute record, step wrong. The Black Keys attack “Dearest”; Patti Smith turns in a luminous version of “Words of Love”; Lou Reed loosens up on “Peggy Sue”; and Paul McCartney loosens up even more on “It’s So Easy,” which includes a growling interlude full of down-and-dirty come-ons.
