1. Narration by Bob Keane (21:44) - On one-third of the disc, Del-Fi Records president Bob Keane tells the biography of the young man to whom he was producer, manager, confidante, and father figure. The stories behind most of the songs that follow are also included here. At the 21-minute mark, I hear an excerpt from "We Belong Together," a song whose whole is not included here.
2. Boney Maronie (2:44) - This moderately fast song opens with a bass roll. The narrator describes his girlfriend as "skinny as a stick of macaroni." That's hyperbole, of course, but it's his way of saying she has little muscle between her skin and her bones. They enjoy "making love underneath the apple tree" and plan to marry in June. Near the end I hear another bass roll.
3. Come On Let's Go (demo) (2:11) - This version does not contain the famous line "Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go, little darlin'." Like Bob Keane said in the narration, songs such as this one were radically changed during the refinement process. "Let's go down to the park once again" is my favorite lyric in this version.
4. Come On Let's Go (2:02) - This fast song was Ritchie's first hit. I find much more of a difference in the lyrics than in the music. This time the narrator doesn't specify where he and his honey are going. Well, at least not explicitly; the line "Swing me, swing me all the way down there" would imply dancing.
5. That's My Little Suzie (2:45) - Here's another fast ditty, but you may want to turn the volume down slightly for this and the next two songs. When it comes to dancing, Suzie "knows what to do"; she rocks right and left, all the way to the narrator's room.
6. Rock Little Darlin' (1:15) - The tempo is slightly faster than moderate. A few times Ritchie's voice gets soft amid the guitar. The narrator asks his sweetheart to come with him to the hop and "just rock along."
7. Bluebirds Over The Mountain (0:59) - This fast song was previously sung by Ersel Hickey. The narrator begs the bluebirds and the seagulls to bring his girlfriend back to him.
8. La Bamba (music track) (2:28) - Volume back up a notch now, folks. From hearing the studio chatter and false starts in the first 55 seconds, I can tell that Take 8 was the master. Listen closely and you can hear Ritchie's voice unplugged. This track fades out during what would be the middle instrumental of the finished record.
9. Let's Rock And Roll (1:27) - This song, slightly faster than moderate, is a hybrid between "Come On Let's Go" and "That's My Little Suzie." Like in the latter, the narrator sings about his girlfriend in the first verse. But for the rest of this song he sings TO her, encouraging her "Let's go round and round" and telling her that he loves her and will never let her go.
10. Donna (demo) (1:51) - Since the track fades in, I believe this is not the entire demo. The lyrical differences here are not quite as radical as in "Come On Let's Go."
11. Donna (2:27) - Ritchie wrote this slow, 12/8 song for a real-life girlfriend named Donna. The narrator's life has radically changed since Donna left him; he alternates between talking ABOUT her ("I had a girl, Donna was her name") and TO her ("Where can you be?"). This song was one side of a double-sided hit.
12. Summertime Blues (live) (3:02) - This track is an excerpt from a concert at Pacoima (California) Junior High, the school Ritchie had attended when he was of junior-high age. Turn the volume up to hear Ritchie's version of Eddie Cochran's signature song. Once it's over, turn it back down.
13. In A Turkish Town (2:07) - That's where the narrator's true love waits for him. And in a moderate tempo is how Ritchie plays his guitar and sings.
14. The Paddiwack Song (2:27) - This moderately fast version of a children's nursery rhyme skips the verse about the old man playing three, but otherwise counts to eight.
15. Big Baby Blues (instrumental) (1:53) - Well, what would you expect from a blues tune? Yep, a slow, 12/8 tempo.
16. Malaguena (instrumental) (2:58) - Ritchie didn't live to record a vocal track, but this version of a Mexican folk tune consists mostly of fast, forceful plucking of guitar strings.
17. Stay Beside Me (2:20) - The narrator of this slow, 12/8 song asks his girlfriend to stay beside him whenever he feels sad, whenever he otherwise can't cope with the trials life throws at him.
18. Winter Dance Party Commercial/Plane Crash News Report (1:36) - Are we hearing "Donna" again? No, wait! After the first 13 seconds, Ritchie announces that he'll be touring at the 1959 Winter Dance Party. As the "Donna" excerpt fades out, a radio news reporter announces the deaths of Ritchie, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper, and the effect they would have on both lovers and haters of rock 'n' roll.
19. La Bamba (2:05) - This fast song is the other side of Ritchie's double-sided hit, and also the song most people identify with him. Although I don't know much Spanish, I did learn that the narrator is willing to do anything for the young woman he is courting--even do a dance called the Bamba for her--if he can win her heart and her hand in marriage. A movie about Ritchie's life, of the same title, was filmed in the '80s. I don't remember seeing it, but he wasn't portrayed very accurately according to the liner notes of the disc.