Joseph "Sonny" West (born July 30, 1937 near Lubbock, Texas) is an American songwriter and musician, best known as the co-writer of two of Buddy Holly's biggest hits: "Oh, Boy!" and "Rave On".
In 1956 West formed a band with Jimmy Metz (string bass), Doc McKay (drums) and Buddy Smith (guitar). They recorded "Rock-Ola Ruby" and "Sweet Rockin' Baby" at the local radio station KLVT in Levelland. Bob Kaliff, a disc jockey at KLVT, then arranged for West to re-record the two songs at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. Only 700 copies of the songs were released on Petty's Nor-Va-Jak label.
In February 1957 West recorded a song, "All My Love", with McKay (drums), Metz (trumpet), and Glen Dee Hardin (piano). Only a few copies of this recording were made, which were sent to record companies to attract their interest in releasing the record commercially. One of the copies was heard by Buddy Holly, who with The Crickets recorded a version of the song at Petty's studios in Lubbock, as "Oh, Boy!" in July 1957. It was subsequently released in October and went on to reach number 10 on the US charts and number 3 on the UK charts in early 1958. The song was attributed to West, Petty, and Bill Tilghman, although according to West it was written by him alone, with Petty requiring his name to be added as part of the commercial contract with Holly. It was not until 2002 that West's version of "All My Love" was commercially released, when it was included on this debut solo album, Sweet Rockin' Rock-Ola Ruby.
At the end of 1957 Petty took over as West's manager and arranged a two-year recording contract with Atlantic Records, with a minimum of four releases. In December that year West recorded "Rave On", which was released on February 17, 1958, with the B-side, "Call on Cupid", on Atlantic Records, but achieved little commercial success. The song was inspired by a line from Carl Perkins' 1956 song "Dixie Fried".
On January 25, 1958 Holly recorded a version of "Rave On" at Bell Sound Studios in New York as a track for his debut solo album, Buddy Holly, with Coral Records releasing it as a solo single in April 1958. Although it barely made the top 40, peaking at No. 37 in the United States, it reached No. 5 in England.
In the spring of 1958 West recorded "Baby Bessie Lee", "Doll Britches" and "Linda Loves a Hula Hoop", backed by Sonny Curtis (guitar), Vi Petty (piano), George Atwood (bass) and McKay/Bo Clarke (drums) at Petty's Clovis Studios. In early 1959 Sonny flew to Phoenix, Arizona, where he recorded two songs, "Love Denied" and "Pretty Little Girl", with Al Casey on guitar. While neither song was released, "Love Denied" was later covered by Waylon Jennings, who also covered "Rave On". In 1961 West and Casey also recorded a version of Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights".
1 Sweet Rockin' Baby
2 Rock-Ola Ruby
3 All My love
4 Rave On
5 Call On Cupid
6 Dreamboat
7 Baby Bessie Lee
8 Doll Britches
9 Linda Loves A Hula Hoop
10 Love Denied
11 Pretty Little Girl
12 Wasted Days And Wasted Nights
13 Maybe You're The One
14 Evening Star
15 Sugar Hill
16 Ride
17 Oh Boy
18 Dire Need
19 The Rave Is Gone
20 Cast Iron Arm
21 A Bad Case
22 Big City Woman
23 Sweet Dreams
24 I've Had It
