Buddy Holly remembering: the best songs

There are many outstanding figures in 1950s rock and roll, but even among them, one shines like a supernova: Buddy Holly. He was allowed only 22 years to live and work, and Don McLean called his sudden death “The Day Music Died” in his song “American Pie”. It is impossible to overestimate Buddy’s influence on pop culture, John Lennon once said that without Elvis there would be no Beatles, but he came up with the name of the band, focusing on Holly with his The Crickets.

Lennon and McCartney also studied harmony with Buddy, regularly returning to his repertoire: before the breakup, the Beatles managed to record three of his songs, one of which, “Words Of Love”, was included in the album “Beatles For Sale”. After a while, Paul McCartney bought the rights to all Buddy Holly’s compositions, but even before that, Lennon managed to record “Peggy Sue” for his LP “Rock’n’roll”. The Rolling Stones recorded Buddy’s song “Not Fade Away” twice: in 1964 and 1995. Keith Richards has repeatedly acknowledged his influence on the songwriting approach of Buddy Holly and the Everly brothers. It was Don and Phil Everly who suggested to Buddy where to get suits in New York, and advised him to change his old-fashioned glasses to a horn frame that has become an integral element of Buddy’s style.

Born on September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas, Charles Hardin Holly formed a band with his friend Bob Montgomery at the age of seventeen, and in 1955 performed at the Louisiana Hayride, where he first saw Elvis Presley. The decision to switch from country to rockabilly came instantly. Later that year, when Charles Hardin, known in Lubbock by the nickname Buddy, was opening for Bill Haley with a new rock repertoire, he was spotted by new artist hunter Eddie Crandall.

Thanks to Crandall’s assistance, Holly secured a contract with Decca Records. In 1956, under the direction of Owen Bradley, Patsy Cline‘s arranger, four songs were recorded for two singles, as well as the potential hit “That’ll Be The Day”. However, the company’s management failed to properly dispose of the invaluable material that fell into their hands and soon released Buddy from his obligations. And Bradley, to be honest, didn’t know anything about the nascent genre. However, Holly was lucky the second time: Norman Petty turned out to be exactly the producer who fully felt the artist’s unique style and caught fire with it.

Petty found drummer Jerry Allison and double bassist Joe Mauldin, as well as an addition in the person of Nicky Sullivan, who performed backup and rhythm guitar, which was not required, Buddy mastered the playing technique masterfully, it was he who glorified the Fender Stratocaster model. Eric Clapton, who attended one of The Crickets’ performances during their tour of England, finally got used to the idea that “strat” would become his main instrument.

The name The Crickets was coined by Petty, and with this name, the performers finally released the re-recorded “That’ll Be The Day” and the success of “Peggy Sue”, both of which reached the top of the charts. In the same year, 1957, the Brunswick label released its first big LP, called The Chirping Crickets, which contained twelve songs, including two written by another great Texan, Roy Orbison. On February 20, 1958, Coral Records released a CD called “Buddy Holly”, thus dividing the spheres of influence: “Crickets” are published on Brunswick, Buddy on Coral. Meanwhile, Sullivan leaves the band, tired of being on the sidelines. Holly invites Tommy Allsup to the lead guitar, with whom she records “It’s So Easy” and “Heartbeat”.

In June, Buddy Holly takes a solo trip to New York, where he records “Now We’re One” and “Early In The Morning”, and also meets Maria Elena Santiago, whom he will soon marry. Meanwhile, a scandal is brewing with Norman Petty: the manager was making good on his fees, and unsuccessful investments made him completely insolvent. A breakup ensued, and The Crickets left with Petty. Holly is recruiting a new line-up, with Waylon Jennings, the future country music legend, taking over the bass guitar, Allsup on guitar, and Carl Bunch on drums.

Decca, having seen its mistake, released a record with all the compositions recorded at its studio in April. The album “That’ll Be The Day” was Buddy’s last album in his lifetime. On October 21, 1958, the final recording session takes place in Manhattan, where some of the most lyrical compositions are performed, accompanied by a string ensemble: “True Love Ways”, “Raining In My Heart”, “Moondreams”, “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore”. In the winter that followed, Buddy recorded demo versions of new songs, and later this material would be enough for several records. 

The tour, called “Winter dance party”, kicked off on January 23, 1959 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The promoters set the dates for the performances without bothering with logistics at all. Drummer Carl Bunch frostbitten his toes while sitting on a bus hired for the tour, he had to be hospitalized. At Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy chartered a private jet to fly to Moorhead, Minnesota, where his next performance was to take place. Tommy Allsup loses his place to Ritchie Valens in a coin game, and Jennings gives way to a seriously ill Big Bopper, who complained all the way that seats on damn buses were not for a man of his size. This scene, hilarious if you don’t know about the consequences, is well played out in the Ritchie Valens’ biopic “La Bamba”.

Around one o’clock in the morning on February 3, 1959, twenty-two-year-old Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holly, seventeen-year-old Richard Stephen “Ritchie Valens” Valenzuela and twenty-eight-year-old Giles Perry “Big Bopper” Richardson Jr., as well as the pilot Roger Peterson was wrecked. No one survived. Maria Santiago learned about her husband’s death from the news. Being in the early stages of pregnancy, she suffered a miscarriage. 

Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs, Elvis Costello and many others have acknowledged Buddy Holly’s influence on their work. Gary Busey, who starred in The Buddy Holly Story, was nominated for an Oscar.

In 1960, The Crickets, with Buddy’s old friend Sonny Curtis, who joined them, released the album “In Style With The Crickets”, which contains such timeless classics by Curtis as“I Fought The Law” and “Love You More Than I Can Say”, often mistakenly attributed to Holly. Norman Petty, with the assistance of The Fireballs, has released several albums of Buddy’s home recordings with overdubbed arrangements. It’s amazing how much a person can accomplish in just twenty-two years. It’s sad to realize how much he could have accomplished in another couple of decades. But Buddy Holly went off into Eternity as a young, wild guy, and that’s how we’ll remember him…