| Coordinates | 23°33′″N46°38′″N |
|---|
| name | Buddy Holly |
|---|
| background | solo_singer |
|---|
| birth name | Charles Hardin Holley |
|---|
| born | September 07, 1936Lubbock, Texas, U.S. |
|---|
| died | February 03, 1959Grant Township, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, U.S. |
|---|
| instrument | Vocals, guitar, piano, fiddle, violin |
|---|
| genre | Rock and roll, pop rock, rockabilly |
|---|
| occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician |
|---|
| years active | 1956–1959 |
|---|
| label | Decca, Brunswick, Coral |
|---|
| associated acts | The CricketsThe Picks |
|---|
| notable instruments | Fender Stratocaster }} |
|---|
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959) known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." His works and innovations inspired and influenced contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton, and exerted a profound influence on popular music.
Holly was among the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked Holly #13 among "The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time".
Biography
Early life
Charles Hardin Holley was born on September 7, 1936, in
Lubbock, Texas, U.S.A. to Lawrence Odell and Ella Pauline (Drake) Holley. Holly was always called "Buddy" by his family. Older brothers Travis and Larry taught their sibling to play a variety of instruments, including the guitar, four-string banjo and lap steel guitar. At the age of five, his young voice and exuberance won him a talent contest singing a then-popular song, "Have You Ever Gone Sailing (Down the River of Memories)." In 1949, still retaining his soprano, he recorded a bluesy solo rendering of Hank Snow's "My Two Timin' Woman" on a
wire recorder borrowed by a friend who worked in a music shop.
In 1952, he met Bob Montgomery at Hutchinson Junior High School. They shared an interest in music, and teamed up as "Buddy and Bob". Initially influenced by bluegrass, they sang harmony duets at local clubs and high school talent shows. The duo performed on a local radio station KDAV Sunday broadcast that made them a top local act. Hutchinson Junior High School now has a mural honoring Holly, and Lubbock High School, where he sang in the school choir, also honors the late musician.
The Crickets
Holly saw
Elvis Presley sing in Lubbock in 1955, and began to incorporate a
rockabilly style, similar to that of
Chuck Berry, which had a strong rhythm acoustic and slap bass. On October 15, 1955, Holly, along with Bob Montgomery and Larry Welborn, opened the bill for Presley in Lubbock, catching the eye of a
Nashville talent scout. Holly's transition to rock continued when he opened for
Bill Haley & His Comets at a local show organized by Eddie Crandall, the manager for
Marty Robbins.
Following this performance, Decca Records signed him to a contract in February 1956, misspelling his name as "Holly". He thereafter adopted the misspelled name for his professional career. Holly formed his own band, later to be called The Crickets, consisting of Holly (lead guitar and vocals), Niki Sullivan (guitar), Joe B. Mauldin (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums). They went to Nashville for three recording sessions with producer Owen Bradley. However, he chafed under a restrictive atmosphere that allowed him little input. Among the tracks he recorded was an early version of "That'll Be The Day", which took its title from a line that John Wayne's character says repeatedly in the 1956 film ''The Searchers''. (This initial version of the song played more slowly and about half an octave higher than the later hit version.) Decca released two singles, "Blue Days, Black Nights" and "Modern Don Juan", that failed to make an impression. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly his contract would not be renewed, insisting, however, that he could not record the same songs for anyone else for five years.
Holly then hired Norman Petty as manager, and the band began recording at Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty contacted music publishers and labels, and Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca, signed the Crickets on March 19, 1957. Holly signed as a solo artist with another Decca subsidiary, Coral Records. This put him in the unusual position of having two recording contracts at the same time.
On May 27, 1957, "That'll Be The Day" was released as a single, credited to the Crickets to try to bypass Decca's claimed legal rights. When the song became a hit, Decca decided not to press its claim. "That'll Be the Day" topped the US "Best Sellers in Stores" chart on September 23, and was the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in November. The Crickets performed "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue" on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' on December 1. They also sang "Peggy Sue" on ''The Arthur Murray Party'' on December 29 and were given a polite introduction by Kathryn Murray. The kinescopes of these programs are the only record of their 1957 television appearances.
Holly helped win over an all-black audience to rock and roll/rockabilly when the Crickets were booked at New York's Apollo Theater for August 16–22, 1957. Unlike the immediate acceptance shown in the 1978 movie ''The Buddy Holly Story'', it actually took several performances for the audience to warm up to him. In August 1957, the Crickets were the only white performers on a national tour including black neighborhood theaters.
As Holly was signed both as a solo artist and a member of the Crickets, two debut albums were released: ''The "Chirping" Crickets'' on November 27, 1957 and ''Buddy Holly'' on February 20, 1958. His singles "Peggy Sue" and "Oh Boy!", with backing vocals later dubbed on by The Picks, reached the top ten of United States and United Kingdom charts. Buddy Holly and the Crickets toured Australia in January 1958 and the UK in March. Their third and final album, ''That'll Be the Day'', was put together from early recordings and was released in April.
In the liner notes to ''Buddy Holly: The Definitive Collection'', Billy Altman notes that "Peggy Sue" was originally written as "Cindy Lou," but Holly later changed it prior to recording as a tip of the hat to Crickets drummer Jerry Allison's girlfriend (and future wife), Peggy Sue Gerron.
Holly wrote the song "True Love Ways" about his relationship with his wife, Maria Elena. It was recorded in her presence on October 21, 1958 at Decca's Pythian Temple, with Dick Jacob, Coral-Brunswick's new head of Artists and Repertoire, serving as both producer and conductor of the 18-piece orchestra, which included members of the New York Symphony Orchestra, NBC Television's house orchestra and Abraham "Boomie" Richman, formerly of Benny Goodman's band.
Holly in New York
The ambitious Holly became increasingly interested in the New York music/recording/publishing scene, while his band mates wanted to go back home to Lubbock. As a result, the group split up in late 1958. The Hollys settled in
Greenwich Village, New York, in the new Brevoort apartment block at Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue. Here he recorded the series of acoustic songs, including "
Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and "What to Do," known as the "Apartment Tapes," which were released after his death.
The Hollys frequented many of New York's music venues, including The Village Gate, Blue Note, Village Vanguard, and Johnny Johnson's. Maria Elena reported Buddy was keen to learn finger-style flamenco guitar, and would often visit her aunt's home to play the piano there. He wanted to develop collaborations between soul singers and rock 'n' roll, hoping to make an album with Ray Charles and gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. He also had ambitions to work in film, like Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran, and registered for acting classes with Lee Strasburg's Actors' Studio, where the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean had trained.
According to Billy Altman's liner notes to the Geffen/Universal compilation, ''Buddy Holly: The Definitive Collection'', in addition to "True Love Ways", during the October 1958 sessions at Decca's Pythian Temple, Holly also recorded two other songs, "I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and "Raining In My Heart". The songs were firsts for Holly, not only in the use of orchestral backing players, but also the tracks were his first stereo recordings. They were also to be his last formal recording studio recording sessions.
Holly was still having trouble getting his royalties from Petty, so he hired the noted lawyer Harold Orenstein at the recommendation of his friends the Everly Brothers, who had engaged Orenstein following disputes with their own manager, Wesley Rose. Yet, with the money still being withheld by Petty and with rent due, Buddy was forced to go back on the road.
Death
Holly was offered a spot in the Winter Dance Party, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, by the GAC agency, with other notable performers such as
Dion and the Belmonts,
Ritchie Valens, and
J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of
Tommy Allsup (guitar),
Waylon Jennings (bass) and
Carl Bunch (drums), and billed as The Crickets.
The tour turned out to be a miserable ordeal for the performers, who had to endure long overnight travel in a bus plagued with a faulty heating system in temperatures. The bus also broke down several times between stops.
Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. He, Valens, Richardson and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. Bandmate Waylon Jennings had given up his seat on the plane, causing Holly to jokingly tell Jennings, "I hope your ol' bus freezes up!" Jennings shot back facetiously, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes!" It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for decades.
Holly's funeral was held on February 7, 1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock. The service was officiated by Ben D. Johnson, who had presided at the Hollys' wedding just months earlier. The pallbearers were Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, Bob Montgomery, Sonny Curtis and Phil Everly. Waylon Jennings was unable to attend due to his commitment to the still-touring Winter Dance Party. The body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in the eastern part of the city. Holly's headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Holly's pregnant wife, a widow after barely six months of marriage, miscarried soon after, ending that part of the Holly family tree. The miscarriage was reportedly due to “psychological trauma”. Because of this incident, authorities found it necessary, in the months following, to implement a policy against announcing victims’ names until after families had first been informed.María Elena Holly did not attend the funeral, and has never visited the gravesite. She later told the ''Avalanche-Journal'':
In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane.
The first song to commemorate the musicians was “Three Stars” by Eddie Cochran. This song was recorded just a single day after the disaster occurred. Years later, in 1971, Don McLean released his single, "American Pie”, to commemorate Buddy Holly’s death and further accentuate the loss of the United States’ innocence. Don McLean’s song began the reference to the tragedy as "The Day the Music Died".
Influence
Holly set the template for the standard rock and roll band: two guitars, bass, and drums. He was also one of the first in the genre to write, produce, and perform his own songs.
Holly managed to bridge the racial divide that marked music in America. Along with Elvis and others, Holly made rock and roll, with its roots in rockabilly country music and blues-inspired rhythm and blues music, more popular among a broad white audience. From listening to their recordings, one had difficulty determining if the Crickets, the name of Buddy's band, were white or black singers. Holly indeed sometimes played with black musicians Little Richard and Chuck Berry. The Crickets were only the second white rock group to tour Great Britain. Holly's essential eyeglasses encouraged other musicians, such as John Lennon, also to wear their glasses during performances.
In his biography of rock legend Elton John, Phillip Norman recounted that by his early teens, John (then known as Reg Dwight) was wearing glasses "not because he needed them, but in homage to Buddy Holly." After wearing glasses for a while, his eyes became adjusted to the lenses, and at that point he really did need glasses, which would years later establish John as one of the most famous "four-eyes" in rock and roll, though Holly is considered the first.
Contrary to popular belief, teenagers John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not attend a Holly concert, although they watched his television appearance on ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium''; Tony Bramwell, a school friend of McCartney and George Harrison, did. Bramwell met Holly, and freely shared his records with all three. Ian Whitcomb said "Buddy Holly and the Crickets had the most influence on the Beatles." Lennon and McCartney later cited Holly as a primary influence. (Their band's name, The Beatles, was chosen partly in homage to Holly's Crickets.) The Beatles did a cover version of "Words of Love" that was a close reproduction of Holly's version, released on late 1964's ''Beatles for Sale'' (in the U.S., in June 1965 on ''Beatles VI''). During the January 1969 sessions for the ''Let It Be'' album, the Beatles played a slow impromptu version of "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" — although not written by Holly, it was popularized by him — with Lennon mimicking Holly's vocal style; the recording was eventually released in the mid-1990s on ''Anthology 3''. In addition, John Lennon recorded a cover version of "Peggy Sue" on his 1975 album ''Rock 'n' Roll''. McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.
A 17-year-old Bob Dylan attended the January 31, 1959, show, two nights before Holly's death. Dylan referred to this in his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his ''Time out of Mind'' being named Album of the Year:
}}
Keith Richards attended one of Holly's performances, where he heard "Not Fade Away" for the first time. The Rolling Stones had an early hit covering the song.
The launch of Bobby Vee's successful musical career resulted from Holly's death, when he was selected to replace Holly on the tour that continued after the plane crash. Holly's profound influence on Vee's singing style can be heard in such songs as "Rubber Ball" and "Run to Him."
Holly influenced many other singers during and after a career that lasted barely two years. Keith Richards once said Holly had "an influence on everybody." In an August 24, 1978 ''Rolling Stone'' interview, Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh, "I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest."
The Grateful Dead performed "Not Fade Away" 530 times over the course of their career, making it their seventh most-performed song. The song also appears on eight of their official live recording releases.
Various rock and roll histories have asserted the singing group The Hollies were named in homage to Buddy Holly. According to the band's website, although the group admired Holly (and years later produced an album covering some of his songs), their name was inspired primarily by the sprigs of holly in evidence around Christmas of 1962.
Don McLean's popular 1971 ballad "American Pie" is inspired by Holly and the day of the plane crash. The ''American Pie'' album is dedicated to Holly.
Weezer's single, "Buddy Holly", released on September 7, 1994 (Holly's 58th birthday), references Holly.
The Dixie Chicks reference Holly in the song "Lubbock or Leave It" (on the Grammy-winning ''Taking the Long Way''); during the middle eight, lead singer Natalie Maines, also a Lubbock native, compares his legacy with her infamously outspoken behavior after seeing his statue: "I hear they hate me now, just like they hated you / maybe when I'm dead and gone, I'm gonna get a statue too".
Discography
Buddy Holly released only three albums in his lifetime. Nonetheless, he recorded so prolifically that Coral Records was able to release brand-new albums and singles for 10 years after his death, although the technical quality was very mixed, some being studio quality and others home recordings.
Buddy Holly continued to be promoted and sold as an "active" artist, and his records had a loyal following, especially in Europe. The demand for unissued Holly material was so great that Norman Petty resorted to overdubbing whatever he could find: alternate takes of studio recordings, originally rejected masters, "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and the other five 1959 tracks (adding new surf-guitar arrangements), and even Holly's amateur demos from 1954 (where the low-fidelity vocals are often muffled behind the new orchestrations). The last new Buddy Holly album was ''Giant'' (featuring the single "Love Is Strange"), issued in 1969. Between the 1959–60 Jack Hansen overdubs, the 1960s Norman Petty overdubs, various alternate takes, and Holly's undubbed originals, collectors can often choose from multiple versions of the same song. There are also many different versions of Holly's "Greatest Hits" as well as covers/compilation albums of Buddy's songs performed by various artists. One such album has been announced recently at an event at P.J. Clarke's in New York. Listen to Me: Buddy Holly is being produced by Peter Asher and includes contributions from Stevie Nicks, The Fray, Cobra Starship, Jeff Lynne, Train's Pat Monahan, Patrick Stump, Jackson Browne, Chris Isaak, Natalie Merchant, Imelda May, Ringo Starr, Lyle Lovett, Zooey Deschanel, Brian Wilson and more.
Film and musical depictions
Holly's life story inspired a Hollywood
biographical film, ''
The Buddy Holly Story''. Star
Gary Busey received a nomination for
Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Holly. The movie was widely criticized by the rock community and Holly's friends and family for
its inaccuracies. This led Paul McCartney to produce and host his own documentary about Holly in 1985, titled ''The Real Buddy Holly Story''. This video includes interviews with
Keith Richards,
Phil and Don Everly,
Sonny Curtis,
Jerry Allison, Holly's family, and McCartney himself, among others.
In 1987, Marshall Crenshaw portrayed Buddy Holly in the movie ''La Bamba''. He is featured performing at the Surf Ballroom and boarding the doomed airplane with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Crenshaw's version of "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" is featured on the ''La Bamba'' original motion picture soundtrack.
''Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story'', the Jukebox Musical depicting his life, is credited as being the first of its kind, spawning a breed of jukebox shows, including the likes of 'Mamma Mia'' and 'We Will Rock You''. "Buddy", as it is abbreviated on occasion, is still running in the UK after 22 years, with a UK tour that went out in February 2011.
There are also a number of acts both in the USA (Johnny Rogers, John Mueller) and UK (Marc Robinson, Spencer J etc.) who specialise in bringing the songs of Buddy Holly to life at events across the continents. The best of these present Holly's work with great respect for the man and his life's work.
Personal life
In June 1958, he met
Maria Elena Santiago, who worked as a receptionist for Murray Deutch, an executive for New York publisher Peer-Southern Music. Holly managed to have Santiago invited to a luncheon at
Howard Johnson's, thanks to Deutch's secretary, Jo Harper. He asked her to have dinner with him that night at
P. J. Clarke's. Holly proposed marriage to her on their very first date. "While we were having dinner, he got up and came back with his hands behind his back. He brought out a red rose and said, 'This is for you. Would you marry me?'" He went to her guardian's house the next morning to get her approval. Santiago at first thought he was kidding, but they married in Lubbock on August 15, 1958, less than two months later. "I'd never had a boyfriend in my life. I'd never been on a date before. But when I saw Buddy, it was like magic. We had something special: love at first sight," she told the ''
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' on what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. The newlyweds honeymooned in Acapulco.
Maria Elena traveled on tours, doing everything from the laundry to equipment setup to ensuring the group got paid. Although Holly had already begun to become disillusioned with Norman Petty before meeting his bride, it was through Maria Elena and her aunt Provi, who was the head of Latin American music at Peer-Southern, that he began to fully realize what was going on with his manager, who was paying the band's royalties into his own company's account. Many fans became aware of his marriage only after his death.
Lubbock
Holly was based in Lubbock as his career took off between 1956 and 1958. Lubbock has a Walk of Fame with, as its centerpiece, a statue, created by sculptor Grant Speed in 1980, of Holly playing his Fender guitar. Other memorials to Buddy Holly include a street named in his honor and The Buddy Holly Center, which contains a museum of Holly memorabilia as well as a Fine Arts Gallery. In 2010, Grant Speed's statue was taken down for refurbishment, and construction began on a new Walk of Fame. On May 9, 2011, the City of Lubbock held a ribbon cutting ceremony for The Buddy and Maria Elena Holly Plaza, the new home of the statue and the Walk of Fame. The Plaza is within walking distance of the museum.
References
Further reading
Amburn, Ellis (1996). ''Buddy Holly: A Biography''. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312145576.
Bustard, Anne (2005). ''Buddy: The Story of Buddy Holly''. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1422393024.
Dawson, Jim; Leigh, Spencer (1996). ''Memories of Buddy Holly''. Big Nickel Publications. ISBN 978-0936433202.
Gerron, Peggy Sue (2008). ''Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?''. Togi Entertainment. ISBN 978-0980008500.
Goldrosen, John; Beecher, John (1996). ''Remembering Buddy: The Definitive Biography''. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80715-7.
Goldrosen, John (1975). ''Buddy Holly: His Life and Music''. Popular Press. ISBN 0859470180
Gribbin, John (2009). ''Not Fade Away: The Life and Music of Buddy Holly''. London: Icon Books. ISBN 978-1848310346
Dave Laing, Professor. ''Buddy Holly (Icons of Pop Music)''. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-22168-4.
Lehmer, Larry (1997). ''The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens''. Schirmer Trade Books. ISBN 0028647416 or 978-0028647418.
Mann, Alan (1996). ''The A-Z of Buddy Holly''. Aurum Press (2nd edition). ISBN 1854104330 or 978-1854104335.
McFadden, Hugh (2005). ''Elegy for Charles Hardin Holley'', in ''Elegies & Epiphanies''. Belfast: Lagan Press.
Norman, Philip (1996). ''Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly''. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684800829 or 978-0684800820.
Peer, Elizabeth and Ralph II (1972). ''Buddy Holly: A Biography in Words, Photographs and Music'' Australia: Peer International. ASIN B000W24DZO.
Peters, Richard (1990). ''The Legend That Is Buddy Holly''. Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 0285630059 or 978-0285630055.
Rabin, Stanton (2009). ''OH BOY! The Life and Music of Rock 'n' Roll Pioneer Buddy Holly''. Van Winkle Publishing (Kindle). ASIN B0010QBLLG.
Tobler, John (1979). ''The Buddy Holly Story''. Beaufort Books.
^ VH1's Behind the Music "The Day the Music Died" interview with Waylon Jennings
External links
Buddy Holly And The Crickets.com
Buddy Holly Lives.info
Listen to Me: Buddy Holly - Songmasters
peermusic presents Maria Elena: My Life with Buddy
Buddy Holly - sessions and cover songs
Telegraph article on the last songs written by Buddy Holly
'The Day the Music Died' at The Death of Rock: The Archive
''Buddy Holly is Alive and Well On Ganymede
Category:1936 births
Category:1959 deaths
Category:Accidental deaths in Iowa
Category:American rock guitarists
Category:American rock singers
Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1959
Category:Baptists from the United States
Category:American people of English descent
Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Category:Lubbock High School alumni
Category:Musicians from Texas
Category:People from Lubbock, Texas
Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees
Category:The Crickets members
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Category:Coral Records artists
Category:Decca Records artists
bs:Buddy Holly
bg:Бъди Холи
ca:Buddy Holly
cs:Buddy Holly
cy:Buddy Holly
da:Buddy Holly
de:Buddy Holly
et:Buddy Holly
es:Buddy Holly
eo:Buddy Holly
fa:بادی هالی
fr:Buddy Holly
fur:Buddy Holly
ga:Buddy Holly
gd:Buddy Holly
gl:Buddy Holly
ko:버디 홀리
hr:Buddy Holly
io:Buddy Holly
id:Buddy Holly
is:Buddy Holly
it:Buddy Holly
he:באדי הולי
hu:Buddy Holly
mr:बडी हॉली
nl:Buddy Holly
ja:バディ・ホリー
no:Buddy Holly
oc:Buddy Holly
pl:Buddy Holly
pt:Buddy Holly
ro:Buddy Holly
ru:Холли, Бадди
scn:Buddy Holly
simple:Buddy Holly
sk:Buddy Holly
sr:Бади Холи
sh:Buddy Holly
fi:Buddy Holly
sv:Buddy Holly
tl:Buddy Holly
th:บัดดี้ ฮอลลี
uk:Бадді Холлі
zh:巴迪·霍利
