Documentary Review: ‘Don’t Forget Me: Eddie Cochran’

by | Sep 9, 2026 | Featured Post, Movie Reviews, Movies | 0 comments


Greetings again from the darkness. With new music being created every day, it’s important to keep alive the history of those early musicians who, decades later, are still influencing contemporary songwriters and musicians. This is exactly what Kirsty Bell accomplishes with her informative profile of Eddie Cochran, a young man whose stardom and artistic pursuits were cut short by a fatal car crash at age 21.

Most are familiar with “the day the music died”. On February 3, 1959, a plane crash in Iowa killed Buddy Holly (age 22), Richie Valens (17), and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson (28), each a talented and rising star. Not as many are familiar with the car crash that killed Cochran barely one year later, on April 17, 1960. Cochran wrote and performed the classic “Summertime Blues”, which charted for him, and has since been recorded and performed by many artists, including The Beach Boys, Blue Cheer, The Who (yes, at Woodstock) and Alan Jackson.

Filmmaker Bell serves up a true profile of Eddie Cochran, going back to his childhood and his formative years in music (studio sessions). Jack Harris appears periodically as Eddie in reenactments and as narrator, as does Frances Barber as his beloved mother. Eddie’s older sister is interviewed, reminding us that not only is his story musical history, it’s also a personal tragedy. We learn Cochran’s guitar playing was influenced by Chet Atkins and that he was enamored with the music of Ray Charles. He not only befriended Gene Vincent (of “Be-Bop-A-Lula” fame, and another too-soon passing), but also the aforementioned Buddy Holly, with whom he had a friendly competition that found the two passing musical notes and ideas to each other.

The list of icons interviewed here includes Keith Richards, Albert Lee, Ronnie Wood, Peter Frampton, Alice Cooper, Cliff Richard, John Waters, Suzi Quatro, Garry Tallent, Yungblud, Rod Stewart, Roger Daltrey, Sting, and Kiefer Sutherland (among others). It’s a partial lineup that demonstrates just how influential and respected Eddie Cochran was, despite his unfortunately short career. Of course, I’ve only mentioned “Summertime Blues”, but Cochran left other memorable tunes, including “C’mon Everybody”, and “Twenty Flight Rock”. Because of his age, we will never know what directions he might have gone – music production, film acting, and/or continued songwriting and performing.

The film travels back to Cochran’s hometown of Albert Lea, Minnesota and also goes into detail about his 1960 European Tour with Gene Vincent. We are fortunate to have the 1956 movie, THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT, which features a performance from Eddie (and others). In a remarkable twist of fate, it was Police Officer Dave Dee who found Cochran’s guitar after the fatal crash. This police officer went on to be part of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, an English rock band from the 1960’s (and mentioned in Quentin Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF). The message delivered by Kirsty Bell’s film and Eddie Cochran’s story is that good music connects the generations … even if tragedy strikes far too often.

The film opens in UK cinemas on September 11, 2026

David Ferguson
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