Commemorating the 50th anniversary of 22-year-old Buddy Holly's death in a plane crash, this 60-track anthology offers monster hits and raw early versions from rock's hiccup-voiced auteur. Holly's "That'll Be the Day" offers DIY Elvis swagger, and his soothing single "Words of Love" features not only one of rock's earliest overdubbed harmony vocals but also the softly chiming guitars that would ignite both the Byrds' folk rock and the jangling indie pop of the Eighties and beyond. Holly paved the way for other seemingly ordinary kids to write their own songs — and become extraordinary.

“He Will Break Your Heart”

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."