As they were now a bona fide Fifties revivalist band, it seems fitting that Mud should revive a bona fide Fifties classic. 'Oh Boy', of course, was originally a 1957 hit for Buddy Holly and The Crickets, a seminal rock and roll recording that provides one of the cornerstones upon which popular music came to rest. Holly's vocal has long since been a favourite of mine, a young man's can't wait headrush that veers between innocent wonder at this thing called love to a lust crazed sneer on the second round of "All of my life I’ve been a-waitin’, tonight there’ll be no hesitatin’" where he sounds like he's just dying to shag her brains out. Oh boy indeed.By saddling it with a clumping half speed backbeat, Mud remove all of the teenage urgency and reduce the song to words and tune alone until it becomes a karaoke dirge that dispenses with the third dimension of excited anticipation that Holly provided. The song is strong enough not be completely derailed by this treatment, but the hormonal gloss becomes a middle aged matt finish that dulls and bores where it should shine. Telling then that Holly's 'Oh Boy!' came with an exclamation mark while Mud's comes with a full stop. Oh Boy? Oh Dear more like.
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