Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts! I'm Bill Price, and in this podcast I will discuss one of the truly great pioneers of Rock and Roll. Buddy Holly was very instrumental in Rock and Roll's early history. This is the story of Buddy Holly and the Crickets on Rock and Roll Flashback.
Charles Hardin Holley was born in Lubbock, Texas during the Great Depression on
September 7, 1936. Beginning in his early childhood, he acquired the nickname “Buddy”.
Since his family was musically inclined, he took piano lessons at the age of eleven, but
gave it up after nine months, switching instead to the guitar. Initially Buddy’s parents
purchased a steel guitar, however what he really wanted was a guitar. His interest in
guitars started when he heard a school classmate singing and playing a guitar on the
school bus. Buddy received his first guitar that his parents purchased at a pawnshop.
His brother Travis then taught him how to play.
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All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John, and the basic track was recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004.
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Until next time...
Rock On!
Buddy Holly was one of the truly great pioneers of Rock and Roll who was instrumental
in its early history. This is the story of Buddy Holly and the Crickets on Rock and Roll
Flashback.
Charles Hardin Holley was born in Lubbock, Texas during the Great Depression on
September 7, 1936. Beginning in his early childhood, he acquired the nickname “Buddy”.
Since his family was musically inclined, he took piano lessons at the age of eleven, but
gave it up after nine months, switching instead to the guitar. Initially Buddy’s parents
purchased a steel guitar, however what he really wanted was a guitar. His interest in
guitars started when he heard a school classmate singing and playing a guitar on the
school bus. Buddy received his first guitar that his parents purchased at a pawnshop.
His brother Travis then taught him how to play.
His early music influences were country music artists such as Hank Williams, Jimmie
Rodgers, Bill Monroe and Hank Snow, as well as gospel and rhythm and blues
performers. His first performance was on television in 1952 with his partner Jack Neal as “Buddy and Neal”. After Neal left, Bob Montgomery became the replacement and were billed as “Buddy and Bob’. In 1953 they started performing on the Sunday Party show on radio station KDAV.
After seeing an Elvis Presley performance in Lubbock, Holly made the decision to focus
on a musical career. In 1955 he opened for Presley three times, prompting a shift in style from country and western music to Rock and Roll. By that time the band’s lineup
consisted of Larry Wellborn on stand up bass and Jerry Allison on drums. Although
Buddy’s last name is spelled H-O-L-L-E-Y, he was known as Holly spelled with out the
E.
When Holly opened for Bill Haley and the Comets, he caught the attention of Eddie
Crandall who was a Nashville scout, and helped secure a contract with Decca Records.
Owen Bradley, who was famous for his orchestrated country hits, produced Holly’s
Decca recording sessions. In April 1956 Decca released two singles “Blue Days, Black
Nights” and “Love Me” on the B-side also “Modern Don Juan” and “You Are My One
Desire” as the B side, which did not generate any significant sales. As a result Decca
decided not to renew Holly’s contract with the stipulation that he could not record the
same songs with other labels for five years. However, Buddy was not happy with
Bradley’s musical approach and his sole control of the sessions.
Holly left Decca and went to producer Norman Petty ‘s studio in Clovis, New Mexico to
record a demo of “That Will Be the Day”, a song that had been recorded at Decca. Petty
then became their manager, and sent the demo to Brunswick Records. Since it could not
be release under the name used at Decca, Allison the bass player suggested the “Crickets” as their new name. Brunswick then signed Holly, giving him artistic control over the recording sessions. “That Will Be the Day” impressed the label’s executives that they actually released the demo recording.
Later it was learned that Brunswick was a subsidiary of Decca, which essentially made
Decca’s earlier restriction not applicable. Recordings under the name of the Crickets
were released on Brunswick, and recordings under Holly’s name were released on the
subsidiary label Coral Records. “That Will Be the Day” was released on May 27,1957. Petty then booked the band for appearances in Washington, DC, Baltimore and New York. They were also booked for seven performances at New York’s Apollo Theater in August. Initially the band did not impress the black audiences, however they gained acceptance when they played “Bo Diddley." By the conclusion of the Apollo appearance, “That Will Be the Day” was climbing the charts. On August 26, Holly performed on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. In September 23rd, the record topped the US Best Sellers in Stores chart and stayed at number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in November.
Coral Records released “Peggy Sue” with “Everyday” on the B-side. By October “Peggy
Sue” climbed to number three on Billboard’s pop chart, number two on the R&B chart
and number six on the UK Singles chart. With the success of the song the group was
referred to as Buddy Holly and the Crickets. However, that name did not appear on the
record labels until 1962.
In October 1957, Brunswick released the second single “Oh Boy” with “Not Fade Away”
as the B-side. It made it to number ten on the pop chart, thirteen on the R&B chart.
On December 1st, they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show performing “That Will Be the
Day” and “Peggy Sue”. After the Sullivan show appearance, guitarist Niki Sullivan left
the band. On January eighth, Holly and the Crickets were added to the America’s
Greatest Teenage Recording Stars tour.
On January twenty fifth, 1958, “Rave On” was recorded, and on the next day Holly
made his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show performing “Oh Boy”.
Holly performed in Honolulu, Hawaii before starting a weeklong tour of Australia,
which included Paul Anka and Jerry Lee Lewis. In March they toured the UK, playing
fifty shows in twenty-five days. After returning to the US they joined Alan Freed’s Big
Beat Show tour performing in forty-one shows. In May Holly hired guitarist Tommy
Allsup for a recording session in Clovis, New Mexico. The session produced “It’s So
Easy” and “Heartbeat”. Impressed by Allsup’s performance, Holly invited him to
become a member of the Crickets. In June Holly returned to New York for a solo
recording session. He employed a Jazz and R&B band to record “Now We’re One” and
Bobby Darin’s “Early in the Morning”.
During a visit to his music publisher Peer Southern, Buddy met Maria Elena Santiago.
After meeting her, he asked her out and on their very first date, he proposed marriage.
The wedding took place on August fifteenth 1958. Norman Petty who was Holly’s
manager, was against the marriage, believing it would upset the female fans. Petty’s
objection did not go over well with Holly, who had begun to question Petty’s
bookkeeping. The Crickets also became frustrated with Petty’s control over the band’s
earnings.
Maria began to accompany Holly on tours, posing as the Crickets secretary. She collected the concert earnings and retained the money instead of the usual transfer to Petty. Maria and her aunt, who was a Peer Southern executive in the Latin American music department managed to convince Buddy that Petty was transferring the band’s royalties from Coral- Brunswick to his company’s account. hen Holly hired a lawyer to address the royalty issues, the situation became rather murky. New York promoter Manny Greenfield and Holly became embroiled in a dispute over royalties and earnings. As result all payments were frozen until the dispute was
resolved.
Holly later returned to Clovis, New Mexico to record “Reminiscing” and “Come Back
Baby”. Buddy then produced Lubbock DJ Waylon Jennings’ single “When Sin Stops”.
Back in New York, Holly’s final recoding session, which came to known as “the string
sessions” yielded four songs with the collaboration of the Dick Jacobs eighteen piece
ensemble. The three and a half hour session recorded “True Love Ways”, written by
Holly, “Moondreams” written by Norman Petty, “Raining in My Heart” written by
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” written by Paul Anka.
Holly terminated his involvement with Petty in December 1958. However, the Crickets
decided to keep Petty as their manager. The split between Holly and the Crickets was on friendly terms. Buddy had decided to stay in New York, while the Crickets wanted to
stay in Texas. Since Petty was continuing to hold the royalties, this forced Holly to
resume touring.
In December 1958, Holly and Maria visited Waylon Jennings’ in Lubbock. Holly was
scheduled to perform on the Winter Dance Party tour, which was set to begin in January 1959 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While in Lubbock he put together a band consisting of Jennings on bass, Tommy Allsup on guitar and Carl Bunch on drums. The Winter Dance Party tour began on January 23. However, from the start there were logistical issues caused by not considering the distance between venues. Other problems that made traveling unpleasant were the unheated tour buses that twice broke down in the freezing weather. Drummer Carl Bunch had to be hospitalized after suffering from frostbite to his toes.
Before the performance in Clear Lake, Iowa on February second, Buddy charted a four
seat plane for Jennings, Allsup, and himself. Allsup agreed flip a coin with Ritchie
Valens to determine who would get the seat. Upon wining, Valens said “That’s the first
time I’ve won anything in my life”. Jennings volunteered to give up his seat to the Big
Bopper, who had influenza and found the tour bus too cold and uncomfortable.
On February third just after one AM, the plane took off on its way to the next show in
Moorhead, Minnesota . The plane crashed into a corn field five miles from Mason City,
Iowa, killing all aboard. Holly was just twenty two years old. Buddy’s funeral was held
five days later in Lubbock, officiated by Ben Johnson who had conducted Holly’s
wedding just months earlier.
Buddy Holly left several unfinished recordings, which were his six final songs. In June of
1959, Coral Records released the first posthumous Holly single “Peggy Sue Got
Married”, which included overdubs and backing vocals by the Ray Charles Singers.
In 1986, Holly was included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first induction class
and also The Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1980 a sculpted statue of Holly playing his
Fender guitar was placed in Lubbock’s Walk of Fame, which pays homage to those who
made contributions to Lubbock’s music history. A street was also named in his honor and the Buddy Holly Center was established, which houses a museum of Holly Memorabilia.
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave Holly the Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1997. Then in 2000, he was inducted into the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll
Hall of Fame. A star with his name was place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the
year he would have been seventy five years old.
Interestingly, John Lennon and Paul McCartney saw Holly perform on the Sunday Night
at the London Palladium television program. The inspiration for the name The Beatles
was Holly’s Crickets, which carried an insect connotation. They later cited Holly as on of
their primary influences. In 1958 Lennon ‘s first band The Quarrymen recorded a cover
of “That’ll Be the Day”. In 1964, The Beatles recorded a cover of “Words of Love”
which was on the Beatles for Sale album. Eric Clapton also saw Holly perform on the
Sunday Night at the London Palladium television program, inspiring Eric to embrace a
career in music.
When Holly was on tour in England, Mick Jagger attended a live performance in
Woolwich London. Jagger recalled Holly’s performance of “Not Fade Away”, which
also inspired Keith Richards guitar playing technique. In 1964 The Rolling Stones scored a hit with their cover of “Not Fade Away”. On the last night of January 1959, a
seventeen-year-old Bob Dylan attended Holly’s performance in Duluth, Minnesota, just
three nights before Buddy’s death.
The 1971 song “American Pie” by Don McLean was inspired by Holly’s death. The lyric
“The Day the Music Died”, became associated with the tragic event. A future teen idol by the name of Bobby Vee, was given the unique opportunity of performing in Duluth, Minnesota, replacing Holly following the plane crash. Buddy’s influence on Vee’s singing technique can be heard especially on Bobby’s 1961 recording of “Rubber Ball”, where the “Holly hiccup” was employed as homage to Buddy Holly.
In retrospect, Holly’s brief career left an enduring legacy, which influenced many Rock
and Roll artists and bands of the 1960's. This has been a look back at Buddy Holly, one
of the early influential artists of the 1950's.