THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED February 3, 1959

[SHANIANUTS!]

The Day The Music Died

On a cold winter's night a small private plane took off from Clear Lake, Iowa bound for Fargo, N.D. It never made its destination.

When that plane crashed, it claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson and the pilot, Roger Peterson. Three of Rock and Roll's most promising performers were gone. As Don McLean wrote in his classic music parable, American Pie, it was "the day the music died."

Jiles P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper to his fans, was a Texas D.J. who found recording success and fame in 1958 with the song "Chantilly Lace".

Richie Valenzuela was only 16 years old when Del-Fi record producer, Bob Keane, discovered the Pacoima, California singer. Keane rearranged his name to Ritchie Valens, and in 1958 they recorded "Come On, Let's Go".

Far more successful was the song Valens wrote for his girlfriend, Donna, and its flip side, "La Bamba", a Rock and Roll version of an old Mexican standard. This earned the teenager an appearance on American Bandstand and the prospect of continued popularity.

Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley (changed to Holly due to a misspelling on a contract) and his band, The Crickets, had a number one hit in 1957 with the tune "That'll Be The Day". This success was follwed by "Peggy Sue" and an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. By 1959, Holly had decided to move in a new direction. He and the Crickets parted company. Holly married Maria Elena Santiago and moved to New York with the hope of concentrating on song writing and producing.

Performing in concert was very profitable, and Buddy Holly needed the money it provided. "The Winter Dance Party Tour" was planned to cover 24 cities in a short 3 week time frame (January 23 - February 15) and Holly would be the biggest headliner. Waylon Jennings, a friend from Lubbock, Texas and Tommy Allsup would go as backup musicians.

Ritchie Valens, probably the hottest of the artists at the time, The Big Bopper, and Dion and the Belmonts would round out the list of performers. The tour bus developed heating problems. It was so cold onboard that reportedly one of the drummers developed frostbite riding in it. When they arrived at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, they were cold, tired and disgusted.

Buddy Holly had had enough of the unheated bus and decided to charter a plane for himself and his guys. At least he could get some laundry done before the next performance!

That night at the Surf Ballroom was magical as the fans went wild over the performers.

Dwyer Flying Service got the charter. $36 per person for a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza.

No, the plane wasn't named American Pie. It only had serial numbers, N3794N.

Waylon Jennings gave his seat up to Richardson, who was running a fever and had trouble fitting his stocky frame comfortably into the bus seats. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your plane crashes." This friendly banter of friends would haunt Jennings for years.

Allsup told Valens, I'll flip you for the remaining seat. On the toss of a coin, Valens won the seat and Allsup the rest of his life.

The plane took off a little after 1 A.M. from Clear Lake and never got far from the airport before it crashed, killing all onboard.

A cold N.E wind immediately gave way to a snow which drastically reduced visibility. The ground was already blanketed in white. The pilot may have been inexperienced witht he instrumentation.

One wing hit the ground and the small plane corkscrewed over and over. The three young stars were thrown clear of the plane, leaving only pilot Roger Peterson inside.

Over the years there has been much speculation as to whether a shot was fired inside the plane which disabled or killed the pilot. Logic suggests that encased in a sea of white snow, with only white below, Peterson just flew the plane into the ground.

Deciding that the show must go on at the next stop, Moorhead, MN, they looked for local talent to fill in. Just across the state line from Moorhead, in Fargo ND, they found a 15 year old talent named Bobby Vee.

The crash that ended the lives of Holly, Valens and Richardson was the break that began the career of Vee.

Tommy Allsup would one day open a club named "The Head's Up Saloon," a tribute to the coin toss that saved his life. Waylon Jennings would become a hugely popular Country singer. Dion di Mucci would enjoy a long lived solo career. Inscribed on Ritchie Valens' grave are the words, "Come On, Let's Go."

http://www.angelfire.com/music2/courtneyslinks2/stories/musicdied.html

[Curti]

it looks like you posted a similar thread a year ago today :p
http://shaniaforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7224

[razorbac]

Buddy was a good artist :) and that's a sad ending to his life and carrer
I also think August 16.1977 was a horrible day for music
the day Elvis Presley died

[beddoe79]

I can't believe its the anniversary, even though it happened 20 years before i was born i still find it really sad.

I also believe December 8 1980 when John Lennon was murdered and the day George Harrison lost his fight to cancer were very sad days in music.

[SHANIANUTS!]

Originally posted by Curti
it looks like you posted a similar thread a year ago today :p
http://shaniaforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7224 A similar thread will go up each year on this date to honor their memories and their contributions to music.

[SHANIANUTS!]

SHANIANUTS!
Shania Fanatic

Online
Registered: Jan 2002
Location: United States of America
Local time: 07:00 AM
Posts: 20836
The Day The Music Died (post #1) | quote:

Buddy Holly died 43 years ago, almost at this precise moment in the night. Along with him on that fateful plane ride that night was Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper - this event changed the history of Rock 'n Roll forever. I was a fan of all 3 singers at the time of the crash in an Iowa corn field that night in 1959 - but I had just turned 15 and did not understand the significance of the event at the time nor did I realize it would be carried with me for the rest of my life.

Buddy is and was my favorite singer from that music era and I probably listen to him as much as I do Shania.

I was just wondering who among you out there feel so deeply and profoundly about certain singers in your lives? I know you will answer Shania for the most part but in addition is there a certain singer whose life was snuffed out early also who affected you dramatically and whose memory and music you still carry with you in your heart and soul?


__________________
SHANIANUTS! since 1993




02-03-2002 at 02:37 AM


(Here is last year's thread post starter - thanks Curti.)

[Troll]

Sad day indeed.:sad:

[SHANIANUTS!]

The following is a comment on this tragedy from a very good friend of mine:

Words are what we mortals resort to when tears have dried and hugs no longer suffice. They all fall miserably short. Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens died 44 years ago. The wound has not healed. Nor can it ever. And that gnawing ache they left in our souls is precisely the size of the music and themselves that they will never share with us.

[SHANIANUTS!]

........in fond remembrance of this wonderful music and these great singers...

[Kristian]

I had never seen this thread :uhh: But I agree, it's sad :sad:

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/3/newsid_2802000/2802541.stm




.............this tragedy happened because the tour promoters were cheap and did not provide proper safe transportation for the performers at this cavalcade of stars........this needless event affected me and many others of my generation as deeply as the Kennedy assassination.............

[Marine]

RIP, guys. You were great, and still are.

[mama twain]

Here's to you

[GorToma]

Rip

[Troll]

Rip

[SHANIANUTS!]

...another anniversary goes by without Buddy, Ritchie and the Big Bopper...

...here is a great site with testimonials from some well known musicians about what Buddy did for them and the world of music:

http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/legacy/testimonials.html?nav=navvb

http://www.buddyholly.com/images/site_logo.gif (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/index.html?nav=hml)


ARTISTS INFLUENCED BY BUDDY HOLLY





http://www.buddyholly.com/images/spacer.gif
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/artists_anim.gif http://www.buddyholly.com/images/spacer.gif
Despite his too-short career, Buddy Holly influenced some of today's greatest musical icons. Buddy Holly's music, songwriting and style inspired these artists to become legends in their own right. Click on each artist's image below to learn more about them and to read how Buddy Holly inspired them!


http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/beatles.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/beatles.html) THE BEATLES (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/beatles.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/paulmc.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/paulmccartney.html) PAUL MCCARTNEY (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/paulmccartney.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/johnlennon.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/johnlennon.html) JOHN LENNON (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/johnlennon.html)

http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/rollingstones.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/rollingstones.html) ROLLING STONES (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/rollingstones.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/clapton.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/ericclapton.html) ERIC CLAPTON (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/ericclapton.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/dylan.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/bobdylan.html) BOB DYLAN (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/bobdylan.html)

http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/costello.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/elviscostello.html) ELVIS COSTELLO (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/elviscostello.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/wjennings.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/waylonjennings.html) WAYLON JENNINGS (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/waylonjennings.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/hendrix.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/jimihendrix.html) JIMI HENDRIX (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/jimihendrix.html)

http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/elton.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/eltonjohn.html) ELTON JOHN (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/eltonjohn.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/springsteen.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/brucespringsteen.html) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/brucespringsteen.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/nittygritty.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/nittygritty.html) NITTY GRITTY
DIRT BAND (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/nittygritty.html)

http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/mellencamp.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/johnmellencamp.html) JOHN MELLENCAMP (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/johnmellencamp.html)
http://www.buddyholly.com/images/influenced/petergordon.jpg (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/petergordon.html) PETER & GORDON (http://www.buddyholly.com/bh/people/influenced/petergordon.html)

(http://www.buddyholly.com/_styles/editoff.css)

[Troll]

I was wondering if you were going to mention this.

[JustAPrettyFace]

Listening to Buddy Holly as we speak. Love it. Sad, sad day.

[Shaniabomber99]

Thanks again for bringing this up... RIP

Carley

[SHANIANUTS!]

Friday, February 3, 2006
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED


(http://www.fiftiesweb.com/crash.htm) February 3, 1959 was a sad day in
rock ’n’ roll history: 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. Richardson
(The Big Bopper) and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens died in an airplane crash
near Mason City, Iowa. February 3rd has been remembered as “The Day the Music
Died” since Don McLean made the line popular in his 1972 hit, _American Pie_
(http://www.fiftiesweb.com/amerpie.htm) .
Buddy Holly, born Charles Hardin Holly in _Lubbock, Texas_
(http://interoz.com/lubbock/bhmuseum.htm) , recorded That’ll Be the Day, Peggy Sue, Oh, Boy,
Maybe Baby, and others, including It Doesn’t Matter Anymore (recorded just
before his death, a smash in the U.K., non top-10 in the U.S.). Buddy was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. A convincing portrait of the
singer was portrayed by Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story, a made for TV
movie.
J.P. (Jiles Perry) Richardson was from Sabine Pass, TX. He held the record
for longest, continuous broadcasting as a DJ at KTRM Radio in Beaumont, TX in
1956. He was on the air for 122 hours and eight minutes. In addition to his
smash hit, Chantilly Lace, Richardson also penned Running Bear (a hit for
Johnny Preston) plus White Lightning (a hit for country star, George Jones).
Richard Valenzuela lived in Pacoima, CA (near LA) and had a role in the 1959
film, Go Johnny Go. Ritchie Valens’ two big hits were Donna and La Bamba ...
the last, the title of a 1987 film depiction of his life. La Bamba also
represented the first fusion of Latin music and American rock.
Of the three young stars who died in that plane crash, the loss of _Buddy
Holly_ (http://www.cmgww.com/music/holly/holly.html) reverberated the loudest
over the years. But, fans of 1950s rock ’n’ roll will agree, all three have
been sorely missed.

[canoilers]

Thank you for this thread. I often wonder what popular music would be like today if people like Buddy Holly had lived. I wonder what would be considered in these days.

[SHANIANUTS!]

...that is one of the mysteries of the universe...

[canoilers]

Yes it is, but then again at the same time. Maybe if they had lived they would've been washed up junkies. Anything could happen in this world eh.

[SHANIANUTS!]

...I don't believe there is any way that could of happened knowing what I do of these individuals...

[canoilers]

I don't know them all too well, but I'm sure something between then and now would've made that look rather inviting specially during the 60's. I'm not trying to say anything bad about them, it just that you never know what would've happened.

[SHANIANUTS!]

...usually if it is gonna happen it begins to happen early in your life from what I have seen...these 3 individuals had a lot going for them early in their lives of a positive nature and were either at the peak of their careers or close to it and I doubt they were candidates for becoming washed up junkies...

[canoilers]

Your probably right...... actually I don't think I've met any junkie's that started out mid-life. I think everybody I know thats a junkie pretty much started it out as a teen.

[SHANIANUTS!]

I am positive I would be right about Buddy...his career was going into the stratosphere and he was newly married and his wife was pregnant when he died (she miscarried after the crash or we might have had a little Buddy with us now carrying on the name). I do not know much about the Big Bopper but he was 28 when he died..Valens was 17 when he died but he was from a close knit family that had its share of problems and Ritchie was their salvation.

[Troll]

Autopsy Plotted for Big Bopper Remains

By ELIZABETH A. DAVIS


KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The son of "The Big Bopper" has hired a forensic anthropologist to try to answer questions about how his father died in the 1959 plane crash that also took the lives of famous early rock `n' rollers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.

Jay Richardson, who performs tribute shows as "The Big Bopper Jr.," hopes an examination of his father's remains will settle rumors about a gun that might have been on the plane, and tell whether the Big Bopper might have survived the crash impact and died trying to go for help.

"I'm not looking for any great bombshell, but then again you never know," Richardson said in a recent phone interview from his home outside Houston.

J.P "The Big Bopper" Richardson is buried in Beaumont, Texas. After his remains are studied they will be reburied and a life-sized statue put up aside the grave.

Jay Richardson never knew his father, who soared to rock fame with his late `50s hit, "Chantilly Lace." His mother was pregnant with him when his father died.

The rock 'n' roll stars died on Feb. 3, 1959, when their four-passenger plane crashed after taking off from the Mason City, Iowa, airport _ a tragedy memorialized as "the day the music died" in Don McLean's song "American Pie."

The group had been traveling by bus on their "The Winter Dance Party" tour in the Midwest, but Holly chartered the plane because the bus was cold and prone to breaking down.

Following a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, Waylon Jennings, a member of Holly's band, gave up his seat on the plane to Richardson, who was feeling ill and seeking a shorter trip to the next stop.

An autopsy was performed on the pilot's body, but not on the others.

Dr. Bill Bass, founder of the research facility at the University of Tennessee nicknamed the Body Farm, plans to study the remains in March. He's an expert in determining identities and causes of death.

One of the most famous cases Bass worked on was confirming the identity of the Lindbergh baby who was kidnapped in 1932 and murdered.

In this case, Bass said, his goal is to "document all the fractures and get an idea of how many broken bones and which ones are critical and give them as much information as I can about the crash and how it affected his father."

The initial report said pilot error was the cause of the crash, but there's no mention of a gun belonging to Holly that was found by a farmer two months after the crash.

X-rays of the bones should be able to show if the Bopper was hit by a bullet because the lead in the bullet would leave debris.

"I don't expect to find that," Richardson said. "If these rumors persist, I can tell you Dad wasn't (shot). That's what I hope it comes to."

Another curious finding at the crash was that Richardson's body was discovered nearly 40 feet away from the wreckage, while the others were found in or near the plane.

"I don't know how I would feel to know that my father died some other way than what I believed most of my life," Richardson said.

On the Net:

Big Bopper: http://www.officialbigbopper.com

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/01/17/ap/entertainment/d8mn9bb81.txt

[SHANIANUTS!]

My only question is why did he wait 48 years to do this?

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/buddy_bio.html

http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/images/headline.jpg (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/index.html) http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/images/shadow_l.png Buddy Holly Center Info (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Info/info.html) Fine Arts Gallery (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Fine%20Arts%20Gallery/fine_arts.html) Buddy Holly Gallery (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/buddy_holly.html) Texas Musicians Hall of Fame (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/TXMoF/texas_musicians.html) Education & Outreach (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Education%20&%20Outreach/education.html) Special Events (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Special%20Events/special_events.html) Gift Shop (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Gift%20Shop/shop.html) Timeline (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/buddy_timeline.html) Biography (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/buddy_bio.html) Collection (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/buddy_collection.html) Exhibition (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/buddy_exhibition.html) Patron Comments (http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/patrons.html) http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/images/Buddy%20Holly%20Gallery/buddy_gallery1.jpg
Biography

Lubbock and The Holleys
Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley was born in Lubbock on September 7, 1936, the fourth child and third son of Lawrence Odell "L.O." Holley and his wife, the former Ella Pauline Drake. He was nicknamed "Buddy" because, as his mother once confided, "Charles Hardin was just too long a name for such a little boy."
The Holley's were originally from Vernon, Texas, migrating to Lubbock in 1925 in search of better jobs which the cotton economy and the newly opened Texas Technological College could provide. Mr. Holley worked as a tailor, short-order cook and a carpenter to support his young family, which included Larry (born in 1925), Travis (1927) and Patricia (1929).
Growing Up Musical
Buddy Holly was raised in a musical household. His mother Ella was an excellent vocalist, having sung duets with her sister from an early age. Oldest brother Larry studied classical violin, Travis played accordion, and Pat played piano and sang. Buddy's father, "L.O.," was the designated listener. "He couldn't carry a tune in a bag," Travis recalls.
Buddy, however, was quite another story. As a child, he showed a quick aptitude for music, taking violin and piano lessons, and later steel guitar lessons, before losing interest. It wasn't until brother Travis returned from the Marine Corps with a $15 pawnshop Harmony that Buddy took up guitar. "I taught him a few basic chords - - G,C,D,A,E," recalls Travis, "and before long he was telling me, 'No, Travis, you're playing it wrong, it should go like this.'" "Buddy was very quick to learn. Mother used to say it was a shame that he wasn't so quick in applying himself to arithmetic and spelling."
Early School Days & Musical Friendships
When Buddy entered J.T. Hutchinson Junior High School in 1949, he was already an accomplished guitarist, banjo player and mandolinist. He and fellow 7th grader Bob Montgomery listened to the radio religiously, learning the repertoires of Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Jim & Jesse and the entire casts of the Louisiana Hayride and Grand Ol' Opry. A local group, The Mayfield Brothers, were also an early influence.
Buddy and Bob would form several country groups during their junior high and high school years that included Larry Welborn, Don Guess, Jack Neal, Sonny Curtis, Jerry Allison and other young Lubbock area "pickers." The boys would play at school functions, talent shows, car dealerships, grand opening promotions, parties -any venue that would give them experience in front of an audience and exposure for their music. "We'd play for the opening of a pack of cigarettes," says one former bandmate.
Elvis --And Rock 'N Roll!
If there was a single influence that indelibly shaped Buddy Holly's life and music, it was Elvis Presley. By the time Elvis first barnstormed through Lubbock in early 1955, Buddy and Bob (along with Larry Welborn) were starring on their own Buddy & Bob Show on Lubbock's KDAV radio Sunday Party. They were also opening shows for the big country acts at the Fair Park Coliseum and local clubs.
The boys were familiar with Presley's early Sun Records That's Alright Mama and Good Rockin' Tonight, as well as black rhythm and blues picked up from powerful late night radio stations in Memphis and Shreveport. But seeing "The Hillbilly Cat" in person at Fair Park Coliseum and the Cotton Club was something else. "Presley just blew Buddy away," recalls Sonny Curtis. "None of us had ever seen anything like Elvis, the way he could get the girls jumping up and down, and that definitely impressed Holly. But it was the music that really turned Buddy around. He loved Presley's rhythm --it wasn't country and it wasn't blues --it was somewhere in the middle and it suited just fine. After seeing Elvis, Buddy had only one way to go." Buddy himself would later tell Billboard columnist Ren Grevatt that "without Elvis Presley none of us would have made it." Rock 'n roll had taken hold of Buddy Holly -- and vice versa.
Nashville -- Blue Days Black Nights
Buddy Holly was no overnight sensation. His first recording contract, with Decca Records in Nashville, was the result of being in the right place at the right time. In October of 1955, Buddy & Bob performed as the opening act for a country package show at the Fair Park Coliseum that included Bill Haley & The Comets. Also in attendance was Eddie Crandall, a Nashville talent agent and Marty Robbins' manager, who liked what he saw and heard in Holly's spirited performance. Crandall quickly helped broker a Decca recording contract for Buddy (Bob was not included) through music publisher Jim Denny.
Buddy would record only a dozen tracks for the label, primarily using veteran session players under the direction of producer Owen Bradley. While Sonny Curtis, Don Guess and Jerry Allison would also be used on various tracks, Bradley pushed for a formula country sound with predictable arrangements -- and, sadly, received predictably disappointing results. Holly's two single releases, Blue Days Black Nights/Love Me and Modern Don Juan/You Are My One Desire went nowhere and his Decca contract was not renewed. Years later, Owen Bradley would reflect, "We had been very successful with a country format; we were all into country, and it's hard to change patterns. Buddy couldn't fit into our formula any more than we could fit into his -- he was unique, and he wasn't in a pattern. We didn't understand, and he didn't know how to tell us."
That'll Be The Day
John Wayne's famous line from The Searchers was more than just the inspiration for Buddy Holly & The Crickets' first big hit. That'll Be The Day really sums up the spirit of determination -- the refusal to quit -- that sustained Buddy Holly after the Decca debacle. Returning from Nashville, Buddy began an intensive period of practicing, performing and songwriting with drummer and best friend, Jerry Allison. The two were well known at various independent studios around the West Texas area where they would cut demos. One such studio was owned by Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, a hundred miles northwest of Lubbock. Built in 1955 to record his own group, the Norman Petty Trio, the studio was considered state-of-the-art by 1956 standards. Petty was a gifted engineer as well as musician, and would record numerous hopeful singers and local bands, including Buddy Holly and his friends. And it was there in the early morning hours of February 25, 1957 that Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Larry Welborn, Niki Sullivan and Gary and Ramona Tollett met to record That'll Be The Day. The rest really is rock 'n roll history.
The Crickets
No mention of Buddy Holly or his music is complete without The Crickets. The original lineup included Buddy Holly, vocal & lead guitar; Jerry "J.I." Allison, drums; Joe B. Mauldin, bass; and Niki Sullivan, rhythm guitar. Sullivan would leave the group after their first national tour in the fall of 1957, and the band continued as a threesome.
The Crickets were not simply back-up musicians. The Buddy Holly "sound" is built around the close interplay of Holly's voice, open-chord guitar strumming and Jerry Allison's syncopated drumming. There is a tightness, a oneness to Buddy and J.I.'s playing that has rarely been equaled. "We listened to the same music, played the same licks, and had the same job of filling up the holes in our sound that we just knew what the other was going to play," says J.I. Although some records would be issued under Buddy Holly's name alone, it was The Crickets who played on most of them. The sound of the Crickets inspired legions of young rockers worldwide, including two lads from Liverpool who named their group, The Beatles, after the boys from Lubbock.
The British Tour

On March 1, 1958, Buddy Holly and The Crickets began a 25-day tour of England.

Many rock historians point to this tour as a major turning point in popular music. The British loved American rock ‘n roll, and the personal appearance of one of their favorite groups gave young English rockers a first hand look at how the music was actually made.

Paul McCartney would later recall watching Buddy Holly perform on Sunday Night at The London Palladium television program just to see which chords Holly used and where he placed his guitar capo.

Drummer Bob Henrit, who played with Adam Faith, would also add: "Jerry Allison was a schooled drummer and we weren’t. Every drummer played Peggy Sue hand to hand, but he played as a paradiddle. We didn’t even know what a paradiddle was! And the way he played Oh Boy was subtle. He was putting something into rock we weren’t seeing. We were emulating him without realizing what he was doing."

Even Holly’s physical appearance –– black horn-rimmed glasses and 3-button Ivy League jackets –– would influence early English rock fashions.

When the "British Invasion" began in the early ‘60s, it was led by musicians such as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Keith Richards and others who were forever moved by Buddy Holly and The Crickets’ visit to England a few years earlier.

It is entirely fitting that the Rolling Stones’ first big hit was Buddy Holly & The Crickets’ Not Fade Away.
Learning the Game

During the last year of his life, Buddy toured constantly and continued the same relentless pursuit of hit records.

His private life, however, changed drastically. In June of 1958, he met and fell in love with Maria Elena Santiago, a receptionist at Peer Southern Music in New York. The two were married on August 15, 1958.

As Holly became more sophisticated in the business of music, he was no longer content to have his affairs managed by Norman Petty, and the two ended their business relationship in October.

The Crickets and Buddy would also part ways. Pressures of the road, business dealings, and Holly’s recent marriage had caused dissension between Buddy, Jerry and Joe B., and the three severed their relationship after a final tour in the fall of 1958.

Discouraged, but still very determined, Buddy and Maria moved to an apartment in New York City’s Greenwich Village where Buddy concentrated on songwriting, developing his solo career, and producing young, upcoming artists.
The Winter Dance Party

While Buddy’s financial affairs were being resolved, General Artists Corporation, his booking agency, offered a temporary source of cash –– a 3-week tour through the frozen Midwest beginning January 27, 1959.

Because of his split from The Crickets, Holly recruited guitarist Tommy Allsup (who had played on several of Buddy’s recordings and tours), drummer Carl Bunch, and KLLL disc jockey turned bass player, Waylon Jennings. Dubbed the "Winter Dance Party," the tour also included Ritchie Valens (a 17-year old Californian whose record Donna was at the top of the charts), J.P. Richardson, a 28-year old disc jockey from Beaumont, Texas better known as "The Big Bopper," and Dion and The Belmonts, a popular teenage vocal group from New York City. A young unknown singer named Frankie Sardo and several horn players rounded out the entourage.

Almost immediately, the tour was plagued with problems. The busses were poorly heated and prone to frequent breakdowns. Below-zero weather dogged the group as it criss-crossed Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Holly’s drummer would eventually suffer frostbite, and colds and flu quickly spread among the performers.

By the time the tour limped into Clear Lake, Iowa on the evening of Monday, February 2, Holly had decided to charter a small plane for himself, Allsup and Jennings to fly to the next venue in Fargo, North Dakota following two shows at Clear Lake’s Surf Ballroom. At the last minute, Jennings gave up his seat to The Big Bopper (who had the flu); Tommy Allsup lost his seat to Ritchie Valens with a flip of a coin.
At approximately 1:00 a.m., the Beechcraft Bonanza plane took off from the nearby Mason City airport. It crashed less than five minutes later, literally flown into the ground by a pilot blinded by bad weather.
One of the greatest rock ‘n roll artists of all time lay undiscovered in a frozen Iowa wheat stubble field until well after dawn.
The Influence

Buddy Holly’s influence on popular music is enormous. The recordings he made in Clovis are extraordinary for their ingenuity and high level of engineering. Long before overdubbing became a common practice, Holly was "layering" his records with multiple vocal and instrumental lines (as he did on Words Of Love and Listen To Me).

He was an experimenter as well. Anything was fair game –– J.I.’s drumming on a cardboard box, playing electric guitar through an organ speaker, adding a delicate celeste –– if it fit the musical textures Holly was painting.

That Buddy Holly and The Crickets could make it all sound so easy that any high-school garage band could play right along is a testament to their genius. Holly’s trademark "chord lead" style of rhythmic guitar playing can be heard in every rock ‘n roll band since, from the Beatles to the kids next door.

For musicians, his spirit and creativity remain basic lessons on how rock ‘n roll music should be played. The enormous joy that his music still brings is an inspiration for why it is worthwhile to do so. His friend Sonny Curtis expressed it best when he said that Buddy Holly lives whenever rock ‘n roll is played.
http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/images/shadow_r.png http://www.buddyhollycenter.org/images/shadow_b.png The Buddy Holly Center’s exhibitions and programs have been made possible in part by the generous support of:
City of Lubbock, Supporters of the Fine Arts (SOFA), CH Foundation, Helen Jones Foundation, Target, Texas Commission on the Arts, Civic Lubbock, Inc
Click here for questions or comments.

[Alex]

Thanks for the biography. Interesting points.

[SHANIANUTS!]

Is Buddy played in your country?

[SHANIANUTS!]

Or Ritchie Valens?

[Alex]

Not really. Music here is rot:funny: But I have downloaded some tracks and they're cool to listen.

[Roger]

There are certain events that are so momentous we always remember where we were when we heard about them. The Kennedy assassination and 9/11 are two examples. For me, hearing about this plane crash was another one. We were in Grade 10 Latin class. (Boy! That dates me! No one today studies Latin) Someone had come to class late and had heard the news. It was whispered from person to person around the room. No one paid any attention to the rest of the class after that!

[Eleanor]

I am positive I would be right about Buddy...his career was going into the stratosphere and he was newly married and his wife was pregnant when he died (she miscarried after the crash or we might have had a little Buddy with us now carrying on the name). I do not know much about the Big Bopper but he was 28 when he died..Valens was 17 when he died but he was from a close knit family that had its share of problems and Ritchie was their salvation.Now what was Elvis's daughter called? I love listening to Buddy, he was so quote.

[SHANIANUTS!]

THREE STARS
(Tommy Dee)
EDDIE COCHRAN (Recorded 1959)

Look up in the sky, up towards the north
There are three new stars, brightly shining forth
They're shining oh-so bright from heaven above
Gee, we're gonna miss you, everybody sends their love

Ritchie, you were just starting to realise your dreams
Everyone calls me a kid, but you were only seventeen
Now Almighty God has called you, from oh-so far away
Maybe it's to save some boy or girl
Who might have gone astray
And with your star shining through the dark and lonely night
To light the path and show the way, the way that's right
Gee, we're gonna miss you, everybody sends their love

Buddy, I can still see you, with that shy grin on your face
Seems like your hair was always a little messed up
and kinda outa place
Now, not many people actually knew you or
understood how you felt
But just a song, just a song from you
could make the coldest heart melt
Well you're singing for God now, in his chorus in the sky
Buddy Holly, I'll always remember you with tears in my eyes
Gee, we're gonna miss you, everybody sends their love

I see a stout man, the Big Bopper's your name
God called you to heaven, maybe for new fortune and fame
Keep wearing that big Stetson hat and ramble up to the mike
And don't forget those wonderful words, you know what I like

Look up in the sky, up towards the north
There are three new stars, brightly shining forth
They' re shining oh—so bright from heaven above
Gee, we're gonna miss you, everybody sends their love

[Shania_62]

It was definitely a sad day and you can play American Pie song as Don McLean wrote it as he was a big Buddy Holly fan and the song is about him.


Let's not forget Karen Carpenter as I love her music as well as remembering all the famous singers who passed away.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.buddyholly.com/forums/1/7328/ShowThread.aspx

Winter Dance Party 1959 - Revisited

A great read to understand what happened and why....

[goinUP]

Oh, Don McLean. I love him. Am I the only one who knows his songs other than "American Pie"? Like "Vincent", "Winterwood", "Till Tomorrow" and "Sister Fatima"? :D

[Shaniabomber99]

Thanks again....

Carley

[Troll]

Thanks Bob.

[Troll]

Today in 1959, Rock & roll pioneer Buddy Holly's funeral is held in Lubbock, Texas.

[Troll]

48 years later, Big Bopper rumors buried

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson suffered massive fractures and likely died immediately in the 1959 plane crash that also killed early rock 'n' rollers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, a forensic anthropologist said Tuesday after exhuming the body.

The performer's son, Jay Richardson, hired Dr. Bill Bass, a well-known forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, to look at the remains in Beaumont, Texas.

There have been rumors a gun might have been fired on board the plane and that the Big Bopper might have survived the crash and died trying to get help.

Bass took X-rays of the body and found nothing Tuesday to support those theories.

"There was no indication of foul play," Bass said in a telephone interview from Beaumont. "There are fractures from head to toe. Massive fractures. ... (He) died immediately. He didn't crawl away. He didn't walk away from the plane."

The rock 'n' roll stars' plane crashed after taking off from Mason City, Iowa, on Feb. 3, 1959 — a tragedy memorialized as "the day the music died" in Don McLean's song "American Pie."

Jay Richardson, who performs in tribute shows as "The Big Bopper Jr.," didn't know his father, who gained fame with the hit "Chantilly Lace." His mother was pregnant with him when his father died.

The Civil Aeronautics Board determined pilot error was the cause of the crash. A gun that belonged to Holly was found at the crash site, fueling rumors that the pilot was shot, but no one has ever proved a gun was fired during the flight.

Richardson watched Bass open the coffin on Tuesday and observed his examination. He said he was pleased with the findings because it proved the investigators "knew what they were talking about 48 years ago."

"I was hoping to put the rumors to rest," he said.

Bass and Richardson were surprised to find the body preserved enough to be recognizable.

"Dad still amazes me 48 years after his death, that he was in remarkable shape," Richardson said. "I surprised myself. I handled it better than I thought I would."

The body was reburied in the cemetery but in a different plot where there will be room for a graveside statue to be installed later.

Bass, 78, is a pioneer in his field and has worked on such famous cases as confirming the identity of the Lindbergh baby that was kidnapped in 1932 and murdered.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070307/ap_en_ot/big_bopper_autopsy

[dreamer]

horrible:sad: I only hope people can get out of there narrowmindedness about what music is or isn't and learn how to honor it and the people who truely make it without tricks and tabloids

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090128/ap_en_mu/music_buddy_holly/print


http://www.fiftiesweb.com/trio.jpg

Rock fans head to Iowa to recall day music died
By MARCO SANTANA, Associated Press Writer Marco Santana, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 28, 6:22 am ET

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa – It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.

The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes.

"It was really like the first rock 'n' roll landmark; the first death," said rock historian Jim Dawson, who has written several books about music of that era. "They say these things come in threes. Well, all three happened at the same time."

Starting Wednesday, thousands of people are expected to gather in the small northern Iowa town where the rock pioneers gave their last performance. They'll come to the Surf Ballroom for symposiums with the three musicians' relatives, sold-out concerts and a ceremony as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame designates the building as its ninth national landmark.

And they'll discuss why after so many years, so many people still care about what songwriter Don McLean so famously called "the day the music died."

"It was the locus point for that last performance by these great artists," said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. "It warrants being fixed in time."

Clear Lake is an unlikely spot for a rock 'n' roll pilgrimage — especially in winter. The resort town of about 8,000 borders its namesake lake, and on winter days the cold and wind make the community 100 miles north of Des Moines anything but a tourist destination.

The crash site is on private property, a five-mile drive from Clear Lake and half-mile walk off the road. Corn grows high in adjacent fields during the summer, but in winter the fields are covered with snow and a path to the small memorial is often thick with ice. The memorial features a small cross and thin metal guitar and records, all of which are draped in flowers during the summer.

"It's a much nicer trip in the summer," said Jeff Nicholas, a longtime Clear Lake resident who heads the Surf Ballroom's board of directors. "But in the winter, you get more of a feel of what it was like."

No one tracks the number of visitors, but fans stop by throughout the year and on some summer days visitors to the crash site can create the oddity of a corn field traffic jam.

Stewart said the deaths still resonate because they occurred at a time when rock 'n' roll was going through a transition, of sorts. The sound of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Holly was making way for the British Invasion of the mid-1960s.

"The music was shifting and changing at that point," he said. "The crash put a punctuation point on the change."

All three musicians influenced rock and roll in their own way.

Holly's career was short, but his hiccup-vocal style, guitar play and songwriting talents had tremendous influence on later performers. The Beatles, who formed about the time of the crash, were among his early fans and fashioned their name after Holly's band, The Crickets. Holly's hit songs include "That'll Be The Day," "Peggy Sue" and "Maybe Baby."

Richardson, "The Big Bopper," is often credited with creating the first music video with his recorded performance of "Chantilly Lace" in 1958, decades before MTV.

And Valens was one of the first musicians to apply a Mexican influence to rock 'n' roll. He recorded his huge hit "La Bamba" only months before the accident.

The plane left the airport in nearby Mason City about 1 a.m., headed for Moorhead, Minn., with the musicians looking for a break from a tiring, cold bus trip through the Upper Midwest.

It wasn't until hours later that the demolished plane was found, crumpled against a wire fence. Investigators believe the pilot, who also died, became confused amid the dark, snowy conditions and rammed the plane into the ground.

The crash set off a wave of mourning among their passionate, mostly young fans across the country. Then 12 years later the crash was immortalized as "the day the music died" in McLean's 1971 song, "American Pie."

Vonnie Amosson, who manages the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Clear Lake, said that ever since the plane crash, the community has embraced the tragedy. It's a continues stream of tourism dollars, and the town's chamber of commerce estimates that this year's events, dubbed "50s in February," will generate more than $4 million for Clear Lake's economy.

"It's kind of sad that that is what we are known for," Amosson said. "But on the other part of it, I think the whole '50's in February' weekend is a huge memorial and it's an honor to them."

In part because of its role in rock history, the Surf Ballroom has retained its vintage look, with a 6,000-square-foot dance floor, ceiling painted to resemble a sky, and original cloud machines on either side of the room. Ten Buddy Holly banners line the wall opposite the stage. The 2,100-capacity ballroom still hosts many national and regional performers, most of whom add their names to a backstage wall that is now crowded with drawings and signatures.

"It's quite a special place," said Nicholas, the Surf board member. "This place looks just like it did in 1959."

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/38282249.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD 3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsr


http://stmedia.startribune.com/designimages/thinFlagLabel.gif Buddy Holly: The tour from hell

By PAMELA HUEY, Star Tribune
January 26, 2009
The rickety old bus pulled out of the Duluth Armory late on Saturday, Jan. 31, 1959, and headed across St. Louis Bay into the frigid Wisconsin night.
On board were some exhausted, stinky rock 'n' rollers and their harried manager. The Winter Dance Party tour had just finished its ninth gig in as many days and was headed east for Appleton and Green Bay, for shows 10 and 11 on Sunday.
But as the temperature plunged to around 30 below and the wind howled, fate intervened. The southbound bus creaked to a stop as it struggled up an incline on Hwy. 51 about 10 miles south of Hurley.
Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, Waylon Jennings, Dion and the others were stranded on a remote highway in the northern Wisconsin forest. They huddled under blankets and burned newspapers to try to stay warm. Buddy's drummer was nursing painful frostbitten feet.
It was the night the music almost died.
As Holly fans from around the world converge on Iowa's Surf Ballroom to remember his death in a plane crash 50 years ago and celebrate his music, the little-known story of the Wisconsin bus breakdown and the rest of the grueling tour is worth telling to understand why Holly chartered the airplane at Mason City.
One of the nation's most famous rock stars, Holly had reluctantly signed onto the midwinter Midwest tour because he needed the money. But after 11 days of touring, he was tired -- tired of the endless miles on frozen buses, tired of performing in dirty clothes, tired of bickering with his manager in Clovis, N.M., and tired of sleeping sitting up on hard seats.
By all accounts, the rockers gave a rousing performance in Clear Lake on Feb. 2, 1959. But rather than get on that cold bus again to travel 365 miles to Moorhead, Holly, J.P. Richardson (the Big Bopper) and Valens got on a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza that crashed into a cornfield just after takeoff. All three and pilot Roger Peterson were killed.

The story of "The Day the Music Died" is legend -- made more famous by Don McLean's '70s song "American Pie." Not so well known is what some call the "Tour from Hell."
Brutally cold
The midwinter tour was particularly difficult for Texans Holly and his reconstituted Crickets, and for Valens, a Southern California boy who hadn't packed a winter coat.
"It was so cold on the bus that we'd have to wear all our clothes, coats and everything. ... I couldn't believe how cold it was," wrote Waylon Jennings, who played bass for Holly on the tour. The original Crickets were back in Texas.
General Artists Corp. had organized the tour with no thought to geographic sanity.
"They didn't care," says Holly historian Bill Griggs. "It was like they threw darts at a map. . ... The tour from hell -- that's what they named it -- and it's not a bad name."
Griggs, who long ago moved to Holly's home town of Lubbock, Texas, from Connecticut, estimates they had used five different buses before driving into Clear Lake -- "reconditioned school buses, not good enough for school kids."
The tour started in Milwaukee on Friday, Jan. 23, 1959. It then zig-zagged during the next 11 days from Wisconsin to Minnesota to Wisconsin to Minnesota to Iowa to Minnesota to Wisconsin to Iowa to Minnesota.
There were no roadies to help set up and pack up, and only icy two-lane highways to get from town to town.
Montevideo magic
At the Tuesday night, Jan. 27 dance at the Fiesta Ballroom in Montevideo in western Minnesota, young fans excitedly crowded the stage. All the shows were drawing large, enthusiastic crowds.
Bob Bunn, who played with a local band called the "Rockin' Rebels," wanted Holly to sign his guitar. So after the show, Bunn drove to Montevideo's Highway Cafe, where the singers had gone to grab something to eat. Bunn greeted Holly, who seemed in a hurry as he left the cafe.
"Is it always this damn cold in Minnesota?" Holly asked.
"No," Bunn replied. "It gets a lot colder." The next day, the tour headed to the Prom Ballroom in St. Paul.

In the 50 years since that magical night at the Fiesta, Bunn, now 71 and a retired farmer, has had a chance to ponder what his idol went through on the geographically challenged tour. "It wasn't planned worth a darn, and it killed a lot of good people."
Bob's big moment
On Saturday, Jan. 31, the tour made its second-longest haul -- 368 miles from Fort Dodge, Iowa, to Duluth.
Bob Dylan, then a young high schooler from Hibbing named Robert Zimmerman, has told the story of making eye contact with Holly.
"He was great. He was incredible. I mean, I'll never forget the image of seeing Buddy Holly up on the bandstand," Dylan told the Rolling Stone in 1984.
The Duluth show ran until about 11 p.m. The balky bus had been kept in the Armory basement to stay warm. Tour members packed up and headed into the brutally cold Wisconsin night.
Tommy Allsup, the Crickets' lead guitarist who will be in Clear Lake at the big 50th anniversary bash on Feb. 2, has vivid memories of that next unscheduled stop on Hwy. 51.
"We had started up this incline, it was snowing real bad, and the bus just started going slower and slower, and the lights got dimmer and dimmer, and all of a sudden the bus stopped," Allsup recalls.
"The driver said, 'The bus is frozen,' ... It was so cold, and we were just sitting there right in the middle of the road. Everybody started thinking we were about to freeze to death."
Dion's Belmonts started lighting newspapers to generate warmth. Holly's drummer Carl Bunch was in pain and having difficulty moving his legs. Allsup looked at his feet; they had turned brown.
At that moment, they saw headlights in the distance. "It seemed like it took forever to get to us."
A sheriff's deputy, who had been alerted by a passing trucker, sized up the dire situation and got four cars to take the musicians to Hurley. He also got Bunch to the hospital in nearby Ironwood, Mich., where the drummer would learn two days later about the plane crash.

The Iron County Miner carried a short item on the rescue -- published three days after the crash -- calling the stranded entourage an orchestra. "The men were lightly dressed and suffered from extreme cold of 35 below zero that morning with no heat in the bus while they waited for someone to come along."
There are few people in Hurley still alive who remember that night. One is Gene Calvetti, now 85, who towed the bus to his dad's garage. He recalls arriving at the scene to find the guys "complaining about the cold and scared of bears." He also remembers that the bus engine "was shot."
The singers ended up at the Club Carnival in Hurley to get something to eat. Some went to a hotel in Ironwood to get a short night's rest. The next day, they headed to Green Bay by train and Greyhound bus; the Appleton show was canceled.
Monday, Feb. 2 was supposed to be an off-day. But at the last minute, tour organizers booked Clear Lake. So it was back on the bus for the 355-mile trip.
Life on the bus: Cold not only discomfort
"We tried to hang our wrinkled suits in the aisle, and after a while, it got kind of ripe in there. We smelled like goats," Jennings wrote.
Allsup puts it another way: "We were running out of white shirts and underwear."
But the awful conditions also sparked camaraderie, story telling and lots of jamming.
Dion described in his autobiography how he and Holly huddled under blankets.
"Through the dark hours while we waited for something to happen, we would tell each other stories. Him, about Lubbock. Me, about the Bronx. I could always get a laugh out of him -- soft and low like his drawl ..."
John Mueller, who plays Buddy Holly in a traveling road show called "Winter Dance Party," has rare insight into what the '50s performers endured. In 1999, Mueller and the other musicians tried to replicate '59 tour. It was the 40th anniversary of the plane crash, and he wanted to honor the '59 tour by going back to the original cities and original venues.

"By the time we got to Clear Lake, I had lost my voice, I had lost about 10 to 15 pounds, I was just physically exhausted, as was everybody in the group. The grueling nature of the tour, following the exact geographic routing, it really hit me in the head why they chartered the plane," said Mueller, whose group traveled in warm, comfortable minivans.
Griggs, who has dedicated his life to Holly's music and story, thinks the Wisconsin bus breakdown was the last straw.
"Buddy had his mind made up then. He thought, 'I don't want to go another 400 miles on this bus.' "
Indeed, even the Civil Aeronautics Board mentioned the tour conditions in its report on the investigation and cause of the crash. "Because of bus trouble, which had plagued the group, these three decided to go to Moorhead ahead of the others." The coin toss
As many a Holly aficionado knows, Allsup and Jennings were supposed to be on the plane. But they gave up their seats to Valens and the Bopper, who was sick. Allsup lost out to Valens in a last-minute coin toss.
When Buddy learned that Waylon's seat had gone to the Bopper, he told his bass player with a grin, "Well, I hope your damned bus freezes up again."
"Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes," responded Jennings, who was haunted for years by that exchange.
Holly headed for the plane, and the bus headed for Moorhead.
Holly buffs also know that 15-year-old Robert Velline of Fargo, and his band -- named at the last minute the Shadows -- filled in at the Moorhead Armory show the next night.
Velline became Bobby Vee, who now lives near St. Cloud. At 65, he is still touring the country and once again is part of this year's Clear Lake show.
"I shamelessly do a tribute to Holly in just about every show that I do. He was my Elvis, as much as I loved Elvis, Buddy was the guy who spoke to me."
Pamela Huey • 612-673-4470

[Troll]

Thanks Bob

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sacultura/38540394.html


http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif [/URL]
http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif
Web Posted: 01/29/2009 12:00 CST

From Valens' humble beginning with The Silhouettes to "The Day the Music Died"


[URL="http://www.mysanantonio.com/email_us?contentID=38540394"]by Melissa Rentería (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%28open%28%27http://www.savethis.clickability.com/st/saveThis?partnerID=399989&urlID=33906463&origin=11%27,%27click%27,%27height=450,width=510,t itle=no,location=no,scrollbars=yes,menubars=no,too lbars=no,resizable=yes%27%29%29;)- Conexión
It’s become known as “The Day the Music Died.” The fateful day when the lives of three musicians were cut tragically short by a plane crash outside Clear Lake, Iowa.
Pioneering Chicano rocker Ritchie Valens, a boy from the barrio who rose from poverty to stardom in less than eight months, was among those killed Feb. 3, 1959. Buddy Holly and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson, also perished.
Although he was just 17 years old and his career was brief, Valens left a lasting impact on rock ’n’ roll.
As the 50th anniversary of his death approaches, Conexión takes a look at the musical legacy of Valens and the artists he influenced.

Here's a look at the short life and career of Ritchie Valens:
May 13, 1941: Valens is born Richard Steven Valenzuela in Pacoima, Calif., to parents Joseph Steven Valenzuela and Concepcion Reyes.
Oct. 19, 1957: Valens makes his debut with the local band The Silhouettes, playing guitar. He later became the band's lead vocalist, earning the nickname “The Little Richard of the Valley.”
May 27, 1958: Valens signs with Del-Fi Records, a small Hollywood label, after its president Bob Keane sees him perform at a local function. It was at this time that he adopts the name Valens and adds a “t” to his first name.
July 1958: Valens records his first single, “Come on, Let's Go.” The song's summer release made Valens a name beyond his San Fernando Valley neighborhood. The single sells a half-million copies.
September 1958: Valens records “Donna,” a song he wrote for his girlfriend. The single's flip side has “La Bamba,” a reworking of a Mexican folk song. Both songs became top-selling hits.
October 6, 1958: Valens makes his first appearance on “American Bandstand,” performing “Come On, Let's Go.” The appearance airs on his mother's birthday.
Dec. 10, 1958: Valens performs at Pacoima Junior High School, where he had graduated from a few years earlier. The performance would be released as a live album a year later.
Mid-December 1958: Valens performs with “Alan Freed's Christmas Jubilee Show” in New York, sharing the bill with Eddie Cochran, The Everly Brothers and Bo Diddley.
Dec. 27, 1958: Valens makes his second appearance on “American Bandstand,” performing “Donna.”
January 1959: Valens films a scene in Alan Freed's “Go Johnny Go!” singing his song “Ooh! My Head.” Later that month, Valens joins a slate of other musicians for the Winter Dance Party tour.
Feb. 3, 1959: Valens, along with Buddy Holly and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, perishes in a plane crash just outside Clear Lake, Iowa. The tragedy would be immortalized in song and become known as “The Day the Music Died.”
Source: ritchievalens.com


http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif



http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20251085&BRD=1304&PAG=461&dept_id=180485&rfi=6

On 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly crash, young Alta pilot is not forgotten
The Day The Music Died

By: Dana Larsen, Pilot Tribune Editor January 29, 2009

http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/bannerad.asp?ADLOCATION=4000&PAG=461&BRD=1304&LOCALPCT=50&AREA=410&VERT=7353&NAREA=410&barnd=7830A small red-and-white Beech-Craft Bonanza took off from Clear Lake into a light snow falling on the frigid, pitch black night of February 3, its taillight glowing red as it began to climb in the direction of Fargo, N.D., and then disappeared into rock 'n' roll history.
When that plane crashed, it claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson, pioneers of the young musical sound, in a tragedy that Don McLain memorialized in his classic musical parable as "the Day the Music Died."
Fifty years have passed, and on the anniversary of the incident, Holly's music is still known and the loss of the stars still lamented in the national consciousness.
Much less know, however, is the loss of another young life, that of Alta native Roger Peterson, the 21-year-old pilot who was asked to fly the Winter Dance Party performers from the Surf Ballroom in uncertain conditions to the destination for their next show.
"He was a young man who built his life around flying," the Civil Aeronautics Board reflected in its official report following the crash. He had begun flying at age 16, had his license just after graduating high school, and by 21, had over 700 hours of flight experience, and a year as a charter flight pilot and flight instructor under his belt.
The eldest of four children, Peterson had married his high school sweetheart, Deanne Lenz, the September before. They had just established a home in Clear Lake. A passionate and respected young pilot, his career seemed assured.
The airport received no radio transmission after the plane took off. It was found in a remote field the next day, after the young pilot's boss took out another plane to trace the route. Peterson was found still in the cockpit of the ruined plane, with the bodies of the three singers strewn in the 500-foot long path of debris. Experts theorized that high winds and bad visability, along with a set of instruments that were somewhat unfamiliar, may have caused the pilot to believe he was banking up into the snowy sky, when he was actually banking down at high speed. He was not given the bad weather alerts that he should have had, and which should have prevented the flight from taking off, officials said.
For the rest of their lives, Roger Arthur Peterson's parents, Arthur and Pearl, who continued to live in Alta, hoped that their son would be remembered in the same breath with the more famous personalities lost in the crash. They received letters of condolence from the families of Holly and Valens. While long lines of adoring fans attended Holly's memorial, a quiet Iowa funeral was held for the pilot, and a small marker in a Storm Lake cemetary denotes his grave site, etched with a tiny plane.
Peterson indeed has been remembered - an international group of Holly fans in the 1990s started to present a music scholarship to local students in the pilot's name, as they had in the home areas of the rock 'n' roll pioneers. A six-foot monument was erected at the Surf Ballroom in 1988 - remembering all four men lost. Peterson's parents and widow there met the survivors of all three of the lost performers, gathered for the first time. A memorial tree to Peterson was planted at the crash site. His role in the tragedy is also recalled in movies and biographies of each of the performers. A 50th anniversary concert will be held in the men's memory at Lamar State College near Holly's home in Texas. And one online memorial site to Peterson has over 300 comments from people all over the world, which are still coming in at a steady pace.
"May you now have your wings in heaven," one person wrote recently.
On what would have been his 71st birthday, last May, another wrote, "Happy Birthday! May you always be soaring above the clouds!"
"You are most likely the one person's name that day that no one remembers, but you did your best," another wrote.
"When people think of 'the day the music died', they forget that you were flying the plane. Know that you are truly remembered, and I hope that you are flying with the angels!" added another in 2008.
The stars - their real names were Charles Hardin Holley, Jiles Perry Richardson, and Richard Valenzuela - had appeared at the ballroom in Clear Lake that night. Bus trouble had plagued the group, with one band member already suffering frostbite, leaving Holly and Valens to take turns trying to fill in on the drums. Holly decided to travel ahead by plane to the nearest airport to their Moorhead show, instead of shivering through another night on the bus. The manager of the Surf Ballroom called Dwyer Flying Service, Mason City, which often employed Peterson as a pilot.
Although some accounts say Peterson had second thoughts about the flight in deteriorating weather conditions, the plane took off at 1 a.m., operating normally. An autopilot device had just been installed, but was not hooked up in time for the unanticipated flight.
The incident resulted in legend and controversy. A gun was found at the crash site, and rumor long persisted that a shot had been fired by Holly inside the cabin that may have killed or disabled Peterson, and that Richardson had survived the crash and died while crawling to try to find help. No evidence was ever found proving anything other than a piloting accident, and in 2007, Richardson's body was exumed and studied to confirm that there was no sign of foul play and that he had died on impact. Another rumor had it that the plane was named "American Pie," explaining McClain's iconic song. It wasn't; and was only known by its call letters.
One legendary truth is that a young Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on the flight. The future country music hall of famer had decided to go with Holly, but gave his seat up to Richardson, who was running a fever and had trouble fitting his stocky frame into the bus seats. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your plane crashes." This friendly banter of friends would haunt Jennings for years. Valens, who hadn't flown before, pleaded for a chance and won a seat in a coin flip with a band member. A final seat remained unfilled - Dion DiMucci, who later found fame with Dion & The Belmonts, decided at the last moment to that he couldn't afford the $36 flight. He said that he had heard his parents as a child arguing about $36 needed for the monthly rent for their home, and felt guilty spending it on a convenience.
After the crash, it was decided that the show must go on in Moorhead. A 15-year-old local kid from across the state line in Fargo volunteered to sing. That was the launch of the career of Bobby Vee, who will be among the performers for the anniversary show at the Surf Ballroom in memory of the four men who were lost.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/oh-boy-why-buddy-holly-still-matters-today-1501271.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00116/holly_getty_116782t.jpg (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/oh-boy-why-buddy-holly-still-matters-today-1501271.html?action=Popup)
http://209.20.89.178/www/delivery/lg.php?bannerid=28&campaignid=10&zoneid=42&channel_ids=,&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Farts-entertainment%2Fmusic%2Ffeatures%2Foh-boy-why-buddy-holly-still-matters-today-1501271.html&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fsa% 3DN%26tab%3Dnw%26q%3Dbuddy%2520holly%2520&cb=47b84e8e3cBuddy Holly pictured in 1955, four years before his death

http://ads.mediageeks.com/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=57&n=a97425b5 (http://ads.mediageeks.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a97425b5&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE)
Oh boy: Why Buddy Holly still matters today



How is it that a bespectacled yout (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/oh-boy-why-buddy-holly-still-matters-today-1501271.html?action=Popup)h from Texas, who died aged 22 in a plane crash, is still revered 50 years on? Just listen to the outpouring of perfect rock'n'roll Buddy Holly produced in a career that lasted only 18 months, says Spencer Leigh

Friday, 23 January 2009

On Valentine's Day in 1959, just 11 days after the air crash that killed her son, Ella Holley wrote to the families of the other performers who had died, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. They are beautifully composed letters, expressing her bewilderment and grief, and they reveal her conviction that they will be reunited in Heaven.
However, what makes the correspondence extraordinary is that she wrote a similar letter to the widow of the pilot, Roger Peterson. She did not cast any blame, although the accident occurred largely owing to his inexperience, and she said: "We are crushed by this terrible tragedy and the loss of our son, and we know you are suffering the same. We have never known before the grief and suffering from the death of a loved one but we do know now, and our hearts go out to you because we know what you are going through. We will keep you in our prayers."
Fifty years on, this letter indicates how Buddy Holly had been raised and how his parents had shaped his personality. It is often said that rock'n'roll was the music of rebellion, a response to the dull, conventional lifestyle of the previous generation. There is none of that in the Buddy Holly story: his parents supported him all the way and he, in turn, loved them.
In the 1930s, Lawrence and Ella Holley had settled in Lubbock, Texas. When their fourth and final child, Charles Hardin, arrived on 7 September 1936, Lawrence was earning $12 a week as a tailor. Their house was a couple of rooms with no electricity or telephone. Ella considered Charles Hardin Holley a big name for a little boy and nicknamed him Buddy, the perfect, friendly name for him.
Lubbock, on the buckle of the Bible Belt, is in the Texas Panhandle, a huge and isolated region with vast, featureless plains. It is in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to see once you get there, and so flat that you wonder what driving instructors do for a hill start. At the time, it was dry, although there were drinking clubs outside the city limits. Joe Ely, who established himself as a singer/songwriter in the late 1970s, recalls: "Lubbock's a big city in the middle of a cotton field. There are a lot of people living there but it's like a small town because it's so spread out. The main things are just cotton and boredom. I spent most of my time in high school thinking how to get out. Lubbock is a musically creative area, and maybe that's because there's nothing else to do."
When Buddy and his first girlfriend, Echo McGuire, were at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, the preacher said: "What would you do if you had $10?" and Buddy muttered: "If I had $10, I wouldn't be here."
If Buddy had stayed, he would have been in the family tiling business with his brothers, Larry and Travis. They showed him the rudiments of the guitar, and a home recording of "My Two-Timin' Woman", from 1949, shows that he was already proficient, although his voice had yet to break.
Buddy performed bluegrass on the radio station KDAV, usually with his friend Bob Montgomery. Several recordings have survived and they resemble an adolescent Flatt and Scruggs. They played the roller rink and on station promotions, opening for Elvis Presley in 1955. Sonny Curtis comments: "It was Buddy and Bob's group, and I played fiddle. We played country music, but when Elvis came along, Buddy fell in love with Elvis and we began to change. The next day we became Elvis clones." Larry lent Buddy the money for a Fender Stratocaster.
Buddy's repertoire expanded as he listened to black R&B played on the Stan's Record Rack radio show from Shreveport, Louisiana, and he was badgering musicians and their managers for an opportunity to record. He was signed to Decca's Nashville division and recorded three sessions, produced by Owen Bradley, during 1956. He wasn't happy with the results, probably because he had little input and wasn't generally allowed to play guitar, and Decca did little promotion, but the results are appealing. "Blue Days – Black Nights" was an engaging single; Sonny Curtis's "Rock Around With Ollie Vee" benefits from an inspired rockabilly performance; and "Midnight Shift" (a song about a prostitute!) is the first of several eccentric vocals. Listen to how Holly drawls "car" and "far"; you can hear Bob Dylan doing the same thing 10 years later.
On 17 June 1956, Lubbock's newspaper, the Avalanche-Journal, started a series on the evils of rock'n'roll. They showed the dancers at the Bamboo Club when Holly was performing, and blacked out their eyes. The youngsters were dancing the "dirty bop". The newspaper said: "The guitarist hoarsely shouted the unintelligible words 'Hound Dog'." It said of the audience: "They are white teenagers from throughout the city, rich and poor, from good homes and bad." Mrs Holley wrote to the newspaper defend the teenagers, but her letter was not printed.
Also in June 1956, The Searchers, a western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, opened in Lubbock. Holly's new drummer, Jerry Allison, was there. "Buddy and I went to see The Searchers and for a couple of days afterwards, we were mocking the way John Wayne said, 'That'll be the day.' Then we wrote the song. The first time we recorded it was in Nashville for Decca Records. It was the summer of 1956 and I had just gotten out of school. The producer said, 'That's the worst song I've ever heard in my life.' That hurt my feelings 'cause it was the first song I'd written!"
The country star Webb Pierce had advised Buddy to "sing high if you want a hit". That was terrible advice, but it does explain why Buddy sang "That'll Be the Day" as high as he could. He sounded uncomfortable and he was to record it much better later on. Still, Owen Bradley should have recognised the song's potential.
By 1957, Holly wanted to escape from his Decca contract. He knew about Norman Petty's studio 90 miles away in Clovis, New Mexico, as the 40-year-old Petty had produced a current million-seller, "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox. With the confidence of youth, Holly told Petty: "If you can get Buddy Knox a hit, you can get me one."
As their manager and producer, Petty is often portrayed as a villain, adding his name, for example, to the songwriting credits for "That'll Be the Day". But he appreciated Holly's talent and was no worse than other managers of the day.
Sonny West is philosophical about sharing his credit for "Oh Boy!" and "Rave On" with Norman Petty: "Norman gave me no choice. It was take that or get out. After I'd heard Buddy's version of 'Oh Boy!', there was no way I could turn it down. Norman had the power and he did that to so many guys. He took a half or a third of almost every song he could, plus the publishing rights. I wish things had been different but they're not and I can't change it." Unlike the Nashville producers, Petty didn't record by the clock, allowing each track to take as long as it took, a perfect environment for an experimental musician like Holly.
In a curious move, Petty signed Holly and his group, The Crickets, to a Decca subsidiary, Brunswick Records. "That'll Be the Day" topped both the British and American charts, incidentally topping the US chart when Holly only had 500 days left to live.
Frank Allen of the 1960s band The Searchers loved the record: "To be a star, you obviously need a desirable amount of talent, but the most important factor is individuality – and Buddy was distinctive and unmistakeable, both visually and aurally. While we were skiffling away, trying to find a fourth chord, Buddy was giving us the opening bars of 'That'll Be the Day' with unbelievable expertise and on an instrument that was the equivalent of a bullet-finned '59 Cadillac. He looked gangly and geekish with those glasses but that guitar made him unbelievably cool, and he knew how to play it. It was the revenge of the nerd. His records are almost without exception terrific. He got everything right."
Most top acts released four singles and an album a year, but Petty realised that Holly was productive and arranged for solo records, still backed by The Crickets, on Coral, another Decca subsidiary. Holly's hit-making career only lasted 18 months, but his output was double that of comparable musicians. It's unfortunate that Holly lost Sonny Curtis (who had joined Slim Whitman's band) and Bob Montgomery (who was studying), but The Crickets consisted of Allison, the double-bass player Joe B Mauldin and, for most of 1957, the guitarist Niki Sullivan, who wasn't up V C to the job. When Sullivan couldn't match his guitar on "Words of Love", Holly double-tracked his part.
Buddy Holly's first hit under his own name would have been "Cindy Lou", a nod to his young niece, but Allison persuaded him to rewrite it to impress the girl he wanted to marry, Peggy Sue Gerron. The "pretty, pretty, pretty Peggy Sue" section retains its nursery-rhyme origin, as does the way Holly keeps singing her name differently.
I asked two leading songwriters why Holly's song doesn't tell me much about "Peggy Sue". Sir Tim Rice says: "Well, in 1957, few pop songs dug deep into emotional psychology and anyway, records were only two minutes long! However, the other aspects of the record, notably the different vocal timbres and gimmicks that Buddy adopted, that are almost comic at one point, were considered more important features to convey her character. Peggy Sue comes over as quirky and slightly unattainable, plus we discover that she is pretty. The singer is overwhelmed and reduced to showing off."
Gary Osborne, lyricist for The War of the Worlds, agrees: "'Peggy Sue' is the most basic and simple of love songs and when 'basic and simple' works, it really works. The treatment is also beautifully stripped down. It sounds like three guys driving along the highway in a big old American car with the driver singing and his mate in the passenger seat playing guitar, while the drummer is sitting behind them, keeping time on the back of the driver's seat. A classic!"
Bruce Welch of The Shadows is taken with Holly's guitar playing: "Buddy plays the bass pickup for most of the song and then it's switched to the treble and back again for verse. If you listen to the record on cans, you can hear Niki Sullivan turn the switch for him. It wouldn't have been any problem for Buddy to do it himself, and he must have done it himself in concert. There would be that fraction of a second delay but you wouldn't notice it."
Equally important is Jerry Allison's drumming. It had been so loud that it leaked into other microphones, so Petty had placed his drums in the reception area. From there, he ran the mic wires through the echo chamber and got the in-and-out echo effect by manually raising and lowering the volume and amount of echo in time with the music. This gave "Peggy Sue" a unique sound, and Allison's drumming propels the song along in the same way that Al Jackson pushed Otis Redding to a remarkable performance with "Respect".
Bobby Vee, who has recorded with The Crickets, appreciates Allison's talent: "Anyone who has ever played rock'n'roll drums has been influenced by Jerry Allison. He is an incredible stylist and very innovative, and he still plays great. There were no rules then so he could do what he liked, slapping his knees on 'Everyday' or playing a cardboard box on 'Not Fade Away'. He has great wrists – he plays lead drums."
It is wrong to assume that Holly's simple songs imply simplicity. Dominic Pedler, the author of The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles, analyses the simplest of all, the B-side of "Peggy Sue", the whimsical "Everyday": "Among Buddy Holly's finest musical moments is the bridge to 'Everyday', which showcases his understanding of a classically derived, five-chord cycle which unfolds so irresistibly towards the song's musical and lyrical climax ('Do you ever long for true love from me?'). I don't know whether Holly had ever heard Marlene Dietrich's 'Falling In Love Again' but he manages a brilliant take on that concept in that bridge, descending in inevitable fifths but creating a clever effect that ends on that hanging imperfect cadence rather than a settled resolution on the tonic note as in the vast majority of cycles of fifths: for example, in 'Falling In Love Again', 'Can't help it' takes us to a feeling of closure."
As well as recording with The Crickets, Holly undertook session work, assisting small-time musicians who were recording at Petty's studio. He worked with the young folk singer Carolyn Hester. On their tour of Australia, he and Jerry Allison were taken with "Real Wild Child", performed by the local star Johnny O'Keefe. Allison recorded the song with a cool, laconic vocal, but Holly's enthusiastic background vocals stand out.
Through an agency mistake, The Crickets were teamed with R&B acts at black venues, including the Apollo in Harlem, but Holly's engaging personality won through. In March 1958, Holly had to adapt to playing a UK variety tour and was taught jokes by the compère, Des O'Connor. "I got £100 a week for being the compère and comic on the tour, which was big money," O'Connor says. "We were touring with the Ronnie Keene Orchestra, which had a lot of brass, and then out came The Crickets, just three of them, and I couldn't work out how they were making 10 times as much noise. It was so exciting and vibrant and I knew that something exciting was happening."
Many young British musicians were blinded by the light and came away wanting Fender Stratocasters, which had no marketing outlet in the UK. Brian Poole of The Tremeloes says: "Buddy Holly and The Crickets were the loudest thing we'd ever heard. It was a small band but they made such a crack when they came on and it was very, very exciting. We were doing Buddy Holly songs for the next five years. At one stage there was nothing in our act that wasn't a Buddy Holly song. We hadn't seen a Fender Strat before – this was like a flat plank, and now every guitar is like that. We were so much into Buddy Holly that I had hair and glasses exactly like him."
Alvin Stardust, who had a hit with "I Feel Like Buddy Holly" in 1984, met Holly on that tour. "I was 13 or 14 and I had gone on the bus to see Buddy Holly and The Crickets in Doncaster and I took my guitar on which I was trying to learn chords. I had never been to a music concert before and I managed to get backstage. The Crickets were all so polite and quiet. They asked me how many chords I knew and I said, 'I know three,' and Buddy said, 'You can play all my songs then.' They made me get it out and we were singing 'Peggy Sue' together, then Buddy signed it for me."
Back in Clovis, Holly befriended the guitarist Tommy Allsup, who played on his recordings of "Heartbeat" (the only Holly record to justify a "Tex-Mex" tag), "It's So Easy", "Love's Made a Fool of You" and "Wishing", the last two compositions being intended for The Everly Brothers. Their manager, the thorny Wesley Rose, wouldn't permit this as he couldn't have the publishing. Tommy Allsup: "Buddy was a good guitarist but he couldn't play the solo he wanted on 'It's So Easy', so that's called job security. He asked me to tour with him."
In New York, Buddy befriended Maria Elena Santiago, who lived with her aunt and worked for Southern Music, the company that administered Petty's catalogue in New York. She was five years older and he proposed on their first date. They were married in Lubbock on 15 August 1958, and shared a joint honeymoon in Acapulco with Jerry and Peggy Sue.
Buddy's final recording session in Clovis featured "Reminiscing", a sad song, but as so often with Holly, he doesn't sound cut up about it: his vocal acrobatics include a great "bayee-ayee-bee" and semi-yodelling. He was supported by the saxophonist King Curtis, who also recorded "When Sin Stops" with Waylon Jennings. This was intended as the first release on a label formed by Holly and Phil Everly. Holly was also keen to set up his own recording and publishing companies in Lubbock with the intention of working with Allsup and Montgomery.
Considering the quality of "Heartbeat" and "It's So Easy", it is surprising that his singles were not making the charts, but Decca had confidence in him and organised an orchestral session in New York in October 1958. It produced "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", "Raining In My Heart" (written by The Everly Brothers' writers, the Bryants), "Moondreams" (a delightful middle-of-the-road song from Norman Petty) and Holly's own tribute to Maria Elena, "True Love Ways".
Paul Anka's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" had been submitted on the day of the session, and Dick Jacobs only had time to score it for pizzicato strings, which was an innovation for popular music, although Tchaikovsky had been there first.
The singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith comments: "My mum had a great collection of 45s and I used to put them on when I was about five. I loved 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' as I liked the way he'd go from a low voice to that hiccup. The music is at odds with the theme of the song as the guy is trying to get over his broken heart by saying that the person doesn't matter anymore, but maybe he's really saying that it matters a lot. I like that contradiction although I didn't understand the depth of the song when I was young."
Maria Elena, who had been privy to Petty's dealings, encouraged Buddy to break away. As The Crickets stayed with Petty, he had to work with new musicians. Maria Elena Holly says: "Buddy didn't have any money because his manager didn't want to let the money go. That's why he went on the Winter Dance Party."
It was a bad winter in New York and Buddy worked on new songs, now known as the Apartment Tapes. His father had suggested a follow-up to "Peggy Sue", so he recorded an answer song, "Peggy Sue Got Married". The secrecy in the lyric was Holly's comment on the fact that pop stars weren't supposed to get married. Isn't it odd, though, that Buddy Holly, recently married and setting up home, should write about love going wrong ("Learning the Game", "Crying, Waiting, Hoping") and the marriage of his best friend?
Gary Osborne says: "I love the way he confides in you in 'Peggy Sue Got Married'; it's as though he's buttonholed you in a pub for a bit of gossip. If this was the direction his songwriting was heading, then his death was an even bigger loss than most people think. It's a marvellous tune, too."
Billy Bragg adds: "After Chuck Berry's initial burst of songs, there had been a bit of a relapse but Buddy Holly cut through that with his vision of what songs could be. 'True Love Ways' is incredible – just a two-and-a-half-minute song, but it is the work of a visionary. I'd love to have written 'Peggy Sue Got Married' as I am very fond of that song, and I also love 'Raining In My Heart', although I know he didn't write it."
Buddy and Maria Elena went to Lubbock for Christmas. He finalised the personnel for his new band on the Winter Dance Party (Tommy Allsup, Waylon Jennings, Carl Bunch) and left Lubbock on New Year's Eve. Maria Elena says: "I wanted to go on tour with Buddy, but I was pregnant and had morning sickness. Buddy wanted to make some money as he felt bad that my aunt was taking care of us. He had been to England and he wanted to take me there. He even thought of opening a studio in London. He said, 'You'll see how much talent there is in England.' He would have established studios in London, New York and Lubbock."
The Winter Dance Party was a badly run tour of the American Midwest, in below freezing conditions. On 2 February 1959, Buddy, sick of the broken-down coaches and wanting time to do his laundry, chartered a plane to take him from Clear Lake, Iowa to the next venue. It crashed, shortly after midnight and within minutes of leaving the ground, killing the three musicians (Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper) on board as well as the pilot.
On 7 February, Buddy Holly's funeral took place at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, Lubbock with the service conducted by Ben Johnson and more than 1,000 people present. Maria Elena was too upset to attend as she had also suffered a miscarriage. Buddy's favourite gospel record, "I'll Be Alright" by the Angelic Gospel Singers, was played. Very few of the congregation would have heard "True Love Ways" and wouldn't connect the two songs, but Holly had borrowed its opening notes.
As Buddy Holly was the first rock'n'roll star to die, various questions of ethics and taste were explored for the first time: should a record company continue his legacy, and what is the merit of tribute singles? Don McLean may have called Holly's death "the day the music died", but in effect his death ensured it was the day the music lived.
A week after his death, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" was released in the UK and went to No 1. This is the first instance of a record becoming a hit after an artist's death. In addition, the compilation, The Buddy Holly Story, was a huge success in Britain and America, remaining on the US charts for more than three years. With the release of unissued material, often with overdubbed backings, Holly had a steady stream of releases throughout the 1960s. Both "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "Bo Diddley" were Top 10 singles during the British beat era.
There have been the chart-topping compilations Buddy Holly Lives (1978) and Words of Love (1993), but because of disputes between Maria Elena and the various owners of his recordings, there has not, until now, been a comprehensive CD box set. They had no choice on this: as of 1 January 2009, all recordings prior to 1959 have fallen into the public domain and reissue labels can issue packages without licence but hopefully with flair and merit.
Almost immediately after his death, there were artists who followed on from Holly – Adam Faith and Mike Berry in the UK: Bobby Vee and Tommy Roe in the US. Numerous artists have had hits with Holly's songs, including Linda Ronstadt, Leo Sayer, Mud and Cliff Richard, and he was one of Ian Dury's reasons to be cheerful. The actor Nick Berry reached No 2 with his version of the title song of the TV series Heartbeat. The Rolling Stones had their first Top 10 single with "Not Fade Away" in 1964, and the song has become a mainstay for rock jams. You can catch workouts on YouTube from Springsteen, Dylan (who saw Holly on his final tour), Status Quo and the Grateful Dead.
More significantly, Buddy Holly was a springboard for The Beatles' creativity – they chose an insect name as homage to The Crickets and Paul McCartney was to purchase his publishing rights. Philip Norman, a biographer of Holly and John Lennon, says: "John and Paul used to do a pastiche of Buddy Holly, but then everybody used to imitate Buddy; that was the whole point. Buddy's voice invited you to imitate him and if you did that, you could see how the songs were put together."
The songwriter Tony Macaulay says: "Most people in the late Fifties were into Elvis Presley, but Holly was the nerd's hero. He wasn't very sexual or particularly good-looking but he had great warmth and he invented the two guitars, bass, drums line-up as we understand it now. He got more spotty, pre-pubescent boys writing songs and playing the guitar than anybody else, and I was one of them. His death had such an impact on young boys, more so I think than if Elvis Presley had died."
We can say that Buddy Holly created a series of firsts, although most of them need qualification – the first singer/songwriter of the rock'n'roll era; the first to have the lead/rhythm/bass/drums line-up; the first to use studio trickery such as double-tracking; the first to have strings on a rock'n'roll record; the first to use the Fender Stratocaster; and the first rock'n'roll star to wear glasses. Not that retrogazing means much – by general acknowledgment, Bill Haley and his Comets made the first rock'n'roll record, certainly the first truly successful one – but what Haley did was totally surpassed by Elvis Presley a few months later.
Does it even matter that Buddy Holly was the first geek star? Bill Haley, Bo Diddley and Gene Vincent hardly traded on their looks, and in that department, it was really Elvis versus everybody else.
Although the bio-pic The Buddy Holly Story and the stage musical Buddy have their faults, they do show the joie de vivre of being Buddy Holly, and show that he was a maverick in the best sense – an independent-minded person who knew how to get others on his side.
Taking everything together, Buddy should be acknowledged as rock's first great all-rounder, the Ian Botham of rock'n'roll. He should be recognised for all his talents: singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, bandleader, arranger and producer. And he could perform ballads, country and rock'n'roll with a winning personality – he was good at everything. No other rock'n'roll star possessed all these attributes, although Eddie Cochran, who died in 1960, was coming up fast. Chuck Berry ticked most of the boxes but possessed no team spirit.
As Buddy Holly died young, we can only guess at what he would have achieved. If Brian Wilson had died when he was 22, we would not have known of his potential to make Pet Sounds. Buddy might have become a middle-of-the-road entertainer, and my guess is that he would have transformed country music along the lines of Willie Nelson, and would have collaborated with everyone he met.
As it is, his music is frozen in time. It is impossible to hear his recordings without thinking of his end, so they acquire an additional resonance. His legacy is certain to endure.
Spencer Leigh is the author of 'Everyday: Getting Closer to Buddy Holly', to be published by SAF in March. 'The Very Best of Buddy Holly and The Crickets' is released on Universal
The crash that changed music history
Buddy Holly woke up on Monday morning, 2 February 1959, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with his whole body aching. For the past fortnight, he had been sleeping either on the tour bus or in fleabag hotels as he played an appallingly organised tour of the American Midwest, travelling on treacherous roads in near-Arctic conditions. His run of hits was over – he hoped only temporarily – but he was free from his dishonest manager and he would be rebuilding his career in New York. The fans' reaction at each venue gave him encouragement, the only bright moments on this ungodly tour.
The touring party had had a succession of buses with broken heaters. It was impossible to socialise with the other musicians as their prime concern was keeping warm. The previous day, the drummer had been admitted to hospital with frostbite, and they had to work out who would replace him. Holly agreed to drum for 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, who was making his way up the charts with "La Bamba".
At around 9am, the tour bus – their sixth in 10 days – set off on a 350-mile journey from Green Lake to the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa. It was gruelling and, with breakdowns, would take nine hours. By then, 21-year-old Roger Peterson had reported for work at Dwyer's Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa. During his short career, he had flown 700 hours, but he had failed an examination for flying by instruments alone. As no flights were scheduled, he spent the day welding.
The manager of the Surf Ballroom, Carroll Anderson, was keen to quash reports that rock'n'roll was equated with juvenile delinquency and he would admit adults to the dance for only 10 cents. When the bus arrived, Holly told Anderson that he wanted to charter a plane to take himself and his guitarists, Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings, to the next venue – the Armoury, Moorhead, Minnesota, some 500 miles away. Anderson called Jerry Dwyer who told him that the flight would cost $108. Peterson was told to report back for a flight at 12.30am to Fargo airport, North Dakota.
Buddy found time to call his new wife, Maria Elena, but he wasn't totally forthcoming. "It was the tour from hell," says Maria Elena. "Everybody got sick; the buses were breaking down; it was bad weather and very cold. Buddy called me in Clear Lake but he never told me about the plane. That was Buddy, though: he was always taking over."
At around 10.30pm, another tour member, the Big Bopper, who had flu, asked Waylon Jennings for his seat and, in compensation, he offered Waylon his new sleeping-bag. Waylon said: "If it's all right with Buddy, it's all right with me."
At 11.20pm, the other performers joined Holly on stage for the final songs of the evening, "La Bamba" and "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man". Since his first hit, "That'll Be the Day", Buddy Holly had performed in 200 venues in 18 months.
After the show, the Big Bopper asked Buddy if he could take Waylon's place. "I hope your ol' bus freezes up again," joked Holly as Waylon chuckled back: "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes."
At midnight, Ritchie Valens, who was signing autographs, saw Allsup and pleaded for a seat on the plane. Reluctantly, Allsup tossed a coin. Ritchie Valens called "heads" and won, saying: "Gee, that's the first time I've won anything in my life." Allsup asked Holly to collect a registered letter from the post office in Moorhead, and gave Buddy his wallet for ID.
It was snowing, with 35mph gusts of wind, when they reached the airport. Peterson had not been told he might have to fly by instruments. Once airborne, Peterson was forced to depend on them and, in all probability, he misread the gyroscope, believing the plane was climbing when it was descending.
The crash, at about 170mph, was on to farmland. The right wing hit the ground and was ripped off. The plane bounced 50ft and skidded another 500ft before crashing into a fence. Peterson's body remained inside, while the fuselage split open and the others were thrown out. The Big Bopper's body was in an adjoining cornfield. Jerry Dwyer found the wreckage at 9am.
Back in Buddy's hometown of Lubbock, Larry Corbin read out the report from Associated Press on the 11 o'clock news, believing that the families had been notified. He subsequently went to Buddy's parents' home to apologise. The station had to fight to keep its licence after this error.
Buddy's brother, Travis, out on a tiling job, had a coffee break. The waitress said: "Shouldn't you go home as your brother's been killed?" He thought his other brother, Larry, had had an accident and dashed to his house. He then went to his parents' house. Larry had gone to tell Travis and then also went to his parents'.
At noon, the tour bus reached Moorhead – on time. Tommy Allsup went into Hotel Comstock while the others were sleeping, and the receptionist told him what had happened. He rang his mother and learnt that he had been presumed dead as his wallet had been found. The promoters talked the musicians into continuing the tour and the Armoury management reduced the fee as the main performers weren't there. "Real nice people," Waylon Jennings commented.
The next morning, a 13-year-old in New Rochelle, Don McLean, got up early to deliver newspapers before he went to school...
'Buddy was way ahead of the pack'
By Richard hawley
I can't remember being alive without hearing Buddy Holly. For me, it's not music, it's oxygen. My dad in Sheffield had all Holly's albums and I used to listen to them as a kid. "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" was one of the first songs I learnt to sing or play, at six years old, along with "Words of Love", "Everyday" and "That'll Be the Day".
For a young musician, all the Buddy Holly classics are a brilliant place to start. He played rhythmic chords in a lot of his solos, instead of over-flashy pyrotechnic guitar playing. There's no doubt that he was innovative and ahead of his time. The recording technique that he used – multitracking – had only just been invented by Les Paul. Most people in those days would just record live, using justone microphone.
My favourite track is "It Doesn't Matter Anymore". It is a very beautiful and sad song – but the chord structure is quite uplifting, and it has an amazing string section on it as well.
Right at the end of his life, Holly was moving away from simple rock'n'roll music to something far more complex, such as in the songs "Moondreams", "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and "Raining In My Heart".
There's an attitude towards things that Buddy Holly had, along with a lot of other artists who influenced me, including Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Fats Domino. This was to keep things simple, and not to over-egg the pudding. There was no messing around with them, as they went straight for the jugular.
The thing about Buddy Holly that was unique was that, because of the original name of the band, The Crickets, and the way they sounded in the song 'That'll Be the Day", everybody thought they were black. He was the first white artist to play the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and nobody could believe the band was white. There was a lot of racial and cultural cross-fertilisation happening at this time, and Buddy Holly was way ahead of the pack.
Before him, artists didn't write their own songs, and he was a complete holistic entity. He produced his own music, he performed it and he also wrote it. He was a brilliant songwriter; really simple, to the point, beautifully constructed two- or three-minute pop songs. That was a benchmark for bands such as The Beatles.
My kids enjoy the music as much as I do, and I am sure something in that music will appeal to the human race for ever, because its subject matter and delivery are so soulful. It's something we all need to help us along.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://data.desmoinesregister.com/holly/index.php

[Troll]

More great articles.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://new.edp24.co.uk/transparent.gif http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/whatson/assets/img/edp_whatson_130_reviews.gif (http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/WhatsOn/Reviews.aspx)


Celebrating Buddy Holly - 50 years on
29 January 2009

http://new.edp24.co.uk/assets/images/dynamicfeed/suttonc20090129092507.jpg

Buddy Holly: The Making of a Legend - Proud Central gallery, London

Half a century ago the world of pop music went into mourning as the shattering news of Buddy Holly's death was announced. KEIRON PIM looks back on the life and lasting appeal of a rock'n'roll icon.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It went down in history as the day the music died but in truth the music didn't die. Fifty years after its creator perished Buddy Holly's music lives on, both directly and subconsciously shaping whole swathes of rock and pop today.

On February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed into a cornfield in Iowa, killing the four young men on board: Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and pilot Roger Peterson.

As the news made the next day's papers, a generation went into shock; all three singers were stars of varying magnitudes but there was no doubt that Holly was the greatest.

His output was prolific - he recorded for only two years but “new” material continued to be released throughout the 1960s - and in the brief spell between his first hit record and his death, he revolutionised rock'n'roll.

“There is a case for calling Buddy Holly the century's most influential musician,” wrote his biographer, Philip Norman, and if that initially sounds outlandish, on closer study it is not so far-fetched.

http://new.edp24.co.uk/assets/images/dynamicfeed/suttonc20090129092558.jpg

Buddy Holly fan Wayne Beauchamp from North walsham - see story below

Born Charles Hardin Holley on September 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, he showed musical promise from an early age, playing guitar, piano and the fiddle. His mother nicknamed him Buddy as she felt “Charles Hardin was too long a name for such a little boy”.

As you might expect of a child growing up in the mid-20th century Southern USA, the soundtrack to his adolescence was rich in bluegrass and country music.

This was reflected in his first group, the Western and Bop Band, which regularly opened for other bands that came to town. A talent scout spotted him and Decca signed him in 1956; his surname was misspelled on a contract and it stuck.

Holly recorded country demos and singles in Nashville, but it was a support slot back home in Lubbock that set him on the road. Headlining that night was Elvis Presley. His brand of rock'n'roll gave Holly a taste of something thrilling and new. Later he would say: “We owe it all to Elvis.”

February 1957 saw Holly record That'll Be The Day with his new backing band, named the Crickets (Jerry Allison on drums, Joe B. Mauldin on bass, Niki Sullivan on second guitar).

This was the breakthrough: it won him an unusual contract with two record labels, Coral and Brunswick, which took turns to release his singles, with credits alternating between 'Buddy Holly' and 'The Crickets'. Seven songs made the Top 40 between August 1957 and August 1958, among them Peggy Sue, Rave On and Heartbeat.

In 1958 he toured the UK, playing a venue a day from March 1 to March 25, with two or three shows per venue. He covered the country from north to south, but the only foray into East Anglia was to Ipswich's Gaumont Theatre. October saw Holly leave the Crickets, drop his manager Norman Petty, and move to Greenwich Village, New York, where he married Maria Elena Santiago after proposing on their first date.

What is the case for naming him the 20th century's “most influential musician”, then? Elvis might have been the iconic face and voice of rock'n'roll, but he was no great musician or songwriter.

Holly, along with Chuck Berry, pioneered the guitarist-singer-songwriter template that inspired a legion of teenagers to strap on a Fender Stratocaster and knock out irresistibly simple, catchy, three-chord rock'n'roll. John Lennon was one such surly rebel teen who found his hubbub of adolescent emotions perfectly articulated in Holly's songs, while Paul McCartney was sufficiently taken with Holly's music to buy the rights to the back catalogue.

Together they would name the Beatles partly in tribute to the Crickets. The Hollies' name was a more explicit tribute. The Rolling Stones' first hit came with their cover of Holly's Not Fade Away.

The influence endures: Albert Hammond Jr, guitarist with The Strokes, included a Holly song on his debut solo album in 2006. He said: “Buddy Holly is the whole reason why I picked up a guitar and got into music in the first place. Hearing Buddy Holly for the first time really was a life changing experience. One day I hated music and the next, I just fell in love with it.”

Then there's Bob Dylan, who continues to feel the presence of an early hero. Speaking in 1998 when accepting a Grammy for his album Time Out of Mind, he commented: “And I just want to say that when I was 16 or 17 years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him… and he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was - I don't know how or why - but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.”

Dylan saw Holly two days before his death. The “Winter Dance Party” tour was an unappealing trawl across the frozen mid-west, which Holly reluctantly took on because of financial problems relating to his split from his avaricious manager, Norman Petty. The cold seeped into the draughty tour bus, making long journeys intolerable.

Holly chartered a private jet for a flight from Mason City, Iowa, to Fargo, North Dakota. The pilot lacked experience in flying at night or in inclement weather but was keen to fly a trio of famous names, despite taking off at gone midnight in a snowstorm. The Beechcraft Bonanza crashed a few minutes later. Buddy Holly was 22 years old.

RICHIE VALENS AND THE BIG BOPPER

Buddy Holly was not the only star killed on that fateful day 50 years ago. The losses of Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper were keenly felt too.


Ritchie Valens:

Los Angeles-born Richard Steven Valenzuela was only 17 when he died but he left a lasting impact on rock and roll, chiefly through his huge hit La Bamba.

His death was a close call: he flipped a coin with guitarist Tommy Allsop to win a seat on the plane. As he grew up he was surrounded by Mexican music, but was also a fan of black R&B vocal groups, such as the Crows and the Penguins. He learned to play the guitar and at 16 and made his performing debut with the local dance band, the Silhouettes.

His debut single, Come On, Let's Go just missed out on a top 40 spot. He quickly followed this up with Donna, the single that made him a star, but he is best remembered for La Bamba, a two-minute classic in which he created Latino rock. The spin he put on this old Mexican wedding song means his year long career has left him remembered as a great talent.

The Big Bopper:

Born Jiles Perry Richardson in Texas in 1930, this rock-and-roll novelty was briefly successful before his death at 28. Known as J.P. or Jape to his friends and family, he worked as a disc jockey before joining the army in 1955 where he spent two years working as a radar operator. On being discharged he resolved to become the best disc jockey in East Texas.

His work at KTRM in Beaumont saw him break the world record for the longest continuous broadcast, lasting over 122 hours: five days, two hours and 8 minutes.

He became interested in songwriting and recorded under the name Big Bopper, including 1958's hit singles Chantilly Lace and Big Bopper's Wedding. He was remembered for his big voice and big personality.

Claire Scott.

NEW PHOTO EXHIBITION

Buddy Holly was always up there in the pantheon for me, writes Keiron Pim. His premature death at the height of his fame served to fix him in time in a way that longer-lived contemporaries escaped.

Elvis mutated from the mid-50s' hip-swivelling poster boy to the obese Las Vegas showman of the 1970s; Holly didn't change during his two years of fame and so, along with James Dean, formed the archetypal tragic young star who burned brightly, seared on to our cultural consciousness, and was suddenly gone.

One's perspective on dead icons changes with age: when I was a young boy in the 1980s the Holly that gazed out from my cassette cover seemed to me impossibly old; when I was 22 I was could see him face-to-face; now, looking at these photographs at the age of 31, he seems frighteningly young.

The images on these pages are taken from a new exhibition at Proud Central in London's West End, which the gallery is calling “the greatest collection of unseen Buddy Holly images ever compiled… as seen through the lenses of a collection of photographers including Lewis Allen, Harry Hammond, Bill Francis and more”.

Here we see Holly off-guard and natural - goofing around with friends, having a moment's introversion amid the chatter of the tour bus - and in his element: on stage, wielding his guitar. Some are intriguing. The picture of Holly and his bandmates posing with a set of cricket stumps makes you wonder who was behind a rather corny visual pun. What comes across is a certain boy-next-door quality - no Presley-esque curl of the lip, no Gene Vincent-style greasy hair and leathers.

When I was at school I remember being gently teased for admitting I liked Buddy Holly. Perhaps it would have been easier had I pretended that Frankie Goes to Hollywood or Duran Duran's cold, brassy songs moved me in the same way as Everyday or Peggy Sue, with their beguiling blend of apparent innocence and occasional hints of something more primal, all delivered in that curious, much-imitated hiccupping voice.

If I felt embarrassed at the time for not fitting in, now I feel quite proud of my eight-year-old self, or at least vindicated in retrospect. Musical fashions come and go. Buddy Holly was, and through the endurance of his unforgettable songs still is, one of the greats.

<li type="square">Buddy Holly: the Making of an American Legend is at the Proud Central gallery, 32 John Adam Street,

London, from today to April 26. See www.proud.co.uk (http://www.proud.co.uk) or call 020 7839 4942 for more details. Entrance is free.

NORFOLK BUDDY HOLLY FAN

Buddy Holly's influence spread far beyond 1950s America, with his music being picked up by subsequent generations around the world. He was one of those stars who was not only brilliant but also empowering, in that people watching him and listening to his music thought: “I can do that.”

Growing up in North Walsham in the 1980s, Wayne Beauchamp was one of those who fell in love with his music and found that played a big role in shaping his life. For the past two decades Wayne has fronted Norfolk-based rockabilly band Dawg House , touring all over the country.

“I think the reason Buddy Holly became a legend to the general public is because he wasn't like a rock'n'roll star,” says Wayne.

“Other stars like Elvis looked so amazing, and no one could aspire to look like him. But Buddy was the nice guy in the glasses.”

Holly's distinctive look led to Wayne picking up a nickname at school.

“My nickname at high school was 'Buddy', on account of the black quiff, the thick old NHS glasses and singing in a rock 'n' roll band,” he laughs.

“My first music cassettes when I was a kid were a twin pack of early Buddy Holly recordings with the Crickets, which I got from Woolies in North Walsham for £1.99 for the pair - bargain! In 1983 and 1984 there was virtually nothing else but Buddy Holly on my tape machine.”

Holly was always an influence and over the years Wayne has included a number of Holly's songs in the set lists. The band started in the early 1990s and while he has slowed down the gigging since starting a family, he still plays with three bands: Dawg House, V8 Rumble, and the Ugly Dog Skiffle Combo.

Wayne, who works at Express Printing in North Walsham, identifies three chief aspects to Holly's legend. He was inspiring: “Generally he explored every way to play the three chords that everyone knew. That is one of the nice things about his songs - armed with no more than three chords you can sit with an acoustic guitar and knock out one of his songs.”

As a result he had a huge influence, on all the obvious rock'n'roll bands of the 1960s but also beyond: “I have always said that if you listen to American punk music from the late 1970s, like The Ramones, it's the same arrangements as Buddy Holly but with the distortion turned up. I think he is the granddaddy of all that.”

And Wayne adds that he was a great innovator, pioneering recording techniques that have since become standard practice, such as multi-tracking and the use of reverb to create a 'live' sound in the studio. “He had that real passionate love of music and he continually wanted to be doing new things, and push back the boundaries,” he says.

All these aspects combined to make Holly an icon of rock'n'roll. In fact, Wayne makes a grander claim still for him: “In three years you could argue that he changed the face of music. He invented what you might call pop music.” And who's going to argue with that?

Wayne Beauchamp's next gig is with his rock band, V8 Rumble, on February 28 at the Duke of Edinburgh in Bacton.

http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/WhatsOn/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=WhatsOnLondon&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=WhatsOnReviews&itemid=NOED29%20Jan%202009%2009%3A22%3A59%3A790

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5524678.ece

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/img/global/tol-logo-222x25.gif



From The Times
January 16, 2009
We lost a driving force with Buddy Holly

Fifty years ago, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. John Gribben pays tribute

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00466/buddyholly_185x185_466505a.jpg

I wasn’t quite a teenager when Buddy Holly died. On February 3, 1959, I was just six weeks short of my 13th birthday. The news of Holly’s death in a plane crash, at the age of 22, along with the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, made a relatively small impact on me at the time. It was the older boys at school who were shocked, and stood in dazed groups in the playground discussing what seemed to them like the end of the world.

I knew Buddy Holly and the Crickets from their hit singles played on the radio (Radio Luxembourg, listened to under the blankets in bed at night), but at that tender age I hadn’t purchased any of them myself. My own musical taste leaned more to Lonnie Donegan, the Everly Brothers, Lord Rockingham’s XI, and (of course) Elvis Presley. I was the proud possessor of the Kingston Trio’s version of Tom Dooley on a 78rpm record.

But in the wake of this event the first 45 record I bought was an EP by Holly containing the hits Peggy Sue and Listen to Me, with Everyday and I’m Gonna Love You Too on the B side. The first LP I bought was, curiously, The Buddy Holly Story Volume Two — so many of my friends had copies of the first Buddy Holly Story album, which was required listening at any gathering, that I never got around to acquiring my own copy until years later. By 1962, I was enough of a Holly fan to be incensed when Tommy Roe had a big hit with Sheila, a blatant rip-off of Peggy Sue. And my enthusiasm has remained at that level; nine of the top 25 most played tunes on my iPod are by Holly.

I’m in good company. The Beatles took the inspiration for their name largely from Holly’s group, the Crickets; they took the inspiration for their early efforts at songwriting from Holly, and chose the Crickets’ That’ll Be The Day for their first attempt at recording. George Harrison later said: “Buddy Holly was my first favourite and my inspiration to go into the music business.” The Hollies took their name entirely from Buddy, while the Searchers took theirs from the name of the movie in which John Wayne repeatedly utters the line “That’ll be the day”, itself the inspiration for the song. The Rolling Stones first hit the UK Top Ten with Not Fade Away, a Buddy Holly song. And Bruce Springsteen sings Buddy Holly songs in his dressing-room to warm up before going on stage.

Without Holly, the British music boom of the 1960s, and all that it influenced, would have been very different. He was so influential because he could do everything. By the end of his short life he was not only writing the songs, and performing them in a self-contained unit with the Crickets, but was producing records too. Although the Crickets also performed as a trio, Holly’s band essentially invented the now classic group line-up of two guitars, bass and drums. They sometimes dispensed with the second guitar, because Holly was also a superb and original guitarist who could produce a sound like lead and rhythm at the same time. Playing second guitar in Holly’s band was about as pointless as the proverbial fifth wheel.

Elvis was undoubtedly a greater performer — but Elvis didn’t write songs, didn’t produce records, and was no more than a competent guitar strummer. Buddy Holly did it all, and he did it all so well. Appreciated much more in Britain than in his homeland, he was the inspiration for dozens of groups who thought, if he can do it, so can we. Some were right; many were wrong. But the ones who were right included the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In the words of his biographer Philip Norman, “there is a case for calling Buddy Holly the century’s most influential musician”.

How did this phenomenon happen? How did a young man whose career lasted just 18 months from the time of his first hit record to his death, change the face of popular music? And why is he still so popular — the musical Buddy has now been running for nearly as long as Holly’s entire life! The simple answer is, because he was the best. He was a Texan country boy from Lubbock who became the best, travelling from country music to rock’n’roll and beyond. The earliest known recording of him singing and playing the guitar reveals a frighteningly competent 12-year-old musician — the same age that I was when Holly died. He was recording for at least ten of his 22 years.

More literally than of any other recording artist, music was Buddy Holly’s life.

— John Gribbin trained as an astro-physicist and is now a science writer and author of In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat. Not Fade Away: the Life and Music of Buddy Holly is his first non-science book.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5612511.ece


From The Times
January 30, 2009
Why Buddy Holly is still pop’s hero
Chas Hodges

I enjoyed John Gribben’s piece on Buddy Holly, who died 50 years ago on Tuesday, (The Times, January 16), but I don’t think his reasoning as to why Buddy is still so popular today is good enough. So how? He was the first man to mix original melody with rock’n’roll.

I’ve become a friend of Jerry Allison, who was the drummer and wrote a lot of songs with Buddy: That’ll Be the Day, Think It Over. I stayed with him in Nashville and said to him one night: “Do you realise it was you and Buddy Holly who actually put melody into rock’n’roll?” The Beatles wouldn’t have been the Beatles without Buddy Holly: he showed them the way forward.

I first heard Buddy Holly in 1957, singing That’ll Be the Day on a programme called Six Five Special on the BBC. They used to play records — they didn’t have videos in those days — and they’d get the kids to dance. I became an immediate fan. I had enough money for one record at the music stall in Edmonton Market and I had to choose between Buddy’s Listen to Me and Breathless by Jerry Lee Lewis. I chose Listen to Me. He’d overdubbed his own voice — it gave off an eerie, haunting sound that I’d never heard on record before.

When Buddy’s new records came out, unlike Lewis or Little Richard, they always sounded different. Not too different, but enough to make you think a bit. The only band since then who have give me the same feeling have been the Beatles.
Related Links

* We lost a driving force with Buddy Holly

I was in a skiffle group at the time and I learnt a lot of Buddy’s guitar chords: the quick changes in Peggy Sue were quite nifty at the time and I was really pleased with myself when I pulled them off. My playing improved enormously after listening to his records, and we used to play his songs on stage.

I was 15 when he died. I remember the kid next door but one knocking at the door and saying: “Guess what, Buddy Holly’s been killed in a plane crash!” My stupid response was: “Just as long as it isn’t Jerry Lee Lewis.” Why did I say that?

I remember the papers saying what crap music rock’n’roll was, but when he died they were saying: “What a talent, a contender for the throne of Elvis.”

I joined a band called Mike Berry and the Outlaws and we did a tribute to Buddy Holly, which was in the charts in 1961. We recorded it with the producer Joe Meek, who was obsessed by Buddy Holly. He used to have seances and say, “I spoke to Buddy Holly last night,” and he committed suicide on the anniversary of his death.

If Buddy were alive today, he would have loved the Beatles saying it was him that influenced them but I don’t think he would really have been fully aware of it. He wouldn’t realise quite how important he was.

Chas & Dave: All About Us, by Chas Hodges, is published by John Blake

[Troll]

You are finding a lot of articles Bob

[SHANIANUTS!]

It may have something to do with the fact this is the 50th anniversary of their deaths, eh?.

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.freep.com/article/20090130/ENT04/901300326

http://www.freep.com/graphics/mastlogo.gif

January 30, 2009

Fans recall death of Buddy Holly and 'the day the music died'

BY KYLE MUNSON
DES MOINES REGISTER
Fifty years ago, Graham Nash stood on a street corner in his hometown of Salford, England, with his best friend, Alan Clarke, and wept.
The source of their sadness was news from 4,000 miles away and across the Atlantic Ocean -- a frozen field north of Clear Lake, Iowa, where the airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. (the Big Bopper) Richardson crashed on Feb. 3, 1959, killing the three rock stars from the Winter Dance Party tour as well as their local pilot, Roger Peterson.
"It was very traumatic for me," says Nash, who was 17 years old at the time. He went on to form the Hollies with Clarke in 1962. They found themselves among a rising tide of '60s rock musicians on both sides of the pond who owed a huge musical debt to the innovations of the Winter Dance Party artists.
Today it might be tempting to sum up the musical legacies of Holly, Valens and the Bopper in terms of Don McLean's landmark 1971 tune "American Pie" (that forever dubbed the tragedy the Day the Music Died), the biopics (1978's "The Buddy Holly Story" and 1987's "La Bamba") and the annual oldies rock tribute concerts at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, site of the trio's final performance on Feb. 2, 1959.
But today's musicians still claim Holly as a primary songwriting influence. Celebrated indie singer-songwriter M. Ward, for instance, releases a new album Feb. 17 that includes a cover of Holly's "Not Fade Away." And younger music fans are discovering classic rock in greater numbers as the songs flow freely from iTunes and other online, digital sources.
Valens is revered for his guitar technique and as the prototypical Latino rocker who anticipated the careers of everybody from Santana to Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys.
The Bopper wrote country music hits for other artists and is credited with creating the first distinct music video.
"They are all different but of the same era -- pioneers, artists that really did catch the ear of the world, not just America," says Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The Bopper has yet to join Holly and Valens as an official Rock Hall inductee, but the museum is coproducing a series of events at the Surf to commemorate the enduring influence of all three artists.
Back in 1959, the Winter Dance Party served first and foremost as a teen dance that left the adult world unmoved -- much in the same way that today's Disney heartthrob chart-toppers, the Jonas Brothers, while not poised for artistic impact on a par with Holly, play to a predominantly teen fan base.
Now that the teens of 1950s rock have long since grown up and are retiring, the likes of Buddy and the Beatles have in a way become canonized as classics. And it's no great stretch to imagine that Bruce Springsteen might even cover a Holly song during his halftime performance this weekend at the Super Bowl.
Musicians young and old now trace the musical thread of rock history back to the Day the Music Died.
"Buddy Holly totally was the model for the Beatles and everything that came after," says Dion DiMucci, the Bronx-born rock troubadour with blues roots and a doo-wop streak who remains the sole surviving headliner from the 1959 tour.
The fledgling Beatles, as the Quarry Men, recorded Holly's "That'll Be the Day" as their first official tune before renaming themselves with a nod to Holly's band, the Crickets. The Rolling Stones introduced themselves to America in 1964 with a cover of Holly's "Not Fade Away."
A decade after the death of his hero, Graham Nash found wider fame and became an emblem of the Woodstock generation with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Next week, he will finally make his first pilgrimage to the Surf and Clear Lake when he headlines the capstone concert of the commemorative "50 Winters Later" events there. The star-studded musical lineup includes the Crickets, Los Lobos and a house band featuring key Rolling Stones sidemen (Chuck Leavell, Bobby Keys).
"To be invited to go and play on the 50th anniversary, I just couldn't refuse," says Nash, who also will mark his 67th birthday Monday.
The notion seems almost silly today, but 50 years ago not even the musical pioneers themselves were certain that rock 'n' roll would survive much into the 1960s, whether before or after the Day the Music Died.
George Lucas' 1973 cinematic love letter to teen car culture of the early 1960s, "American Graffiti," includes the memorable line: "Rock 'n' roll's been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died."
Today it's taken for granted that Holly, Valens, the Bopper and their peers -- Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard -- helped create a global youth movement that drove a wedge between mature adults and their restless kids. The postwar baby boom, teens' disposable income, the spread of television, mass-produced vinyl 45s and LPs -- many trends converged to enable the rise of rock in the '50s, but the insistent beat of the music itself has sustained it most of all.
Dion bristles at the thought that the innovations of the '50s were overshadowed by wilder experimentation in the '60s; to him they're both foundations of guitar rock.
"There's two eras when guitar giants walked the earth: the '50s and the '60s," he says. "It was like the Chuck Berry era, and the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix era."
To Graham Nash's ears, any songwriter today who crafts a catchy pop tune has something in common with the 1959 Winter Dance Party.
"To me, the art of songwriting is simplicity, and Buddy's songs were incredibly simple, incredibly melodic," says Nash, who hears much of Buddy in the songs of, say, modern troubadour Beck.
Rock 'n' roll's history and future will meet again in Clear Lake.
"Going back to play in that very ballroom on the 50th anniversary -- that's kind of scary to me," Nash says. "I love it."
http://gpaper204.112.2O7.net/b/ss/gpaper204,gntbcstglobal/1/H.3--NS/0

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2009/01/30/features/lifestyles/doc4982e0185db4a430191947.txt


WCFCourier.com
Friday, January 30, 2009 5:12 AM CST

Maria Elena Holly talks about life with Buddy

http://images.townnews.com/wcfcourier.com/content/articles/2009/01/30/features/lifestyles/doc4982e0185db4a430191947.jpg
Maria Elena Holly answers questions during a symposium Thursday at E.B. Stillman Auditorium in Clear Lake.

ARIAN SCHUESSLER / Courier Lee News Service
By MARY PIEPER, Courier Lee News Service

CLEAR LAKE — Maria Elena Holly told a packed house about her life with her late husband, Buddy Holly, in Clear Lake Thursday.”

“I really fell in love with him the first time I saw him and he felt the same way,” she said during a symposium at E.B. Stillman Auditorium sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the 50 Winters Later celebration.

Terry Lacona, the producer of “Austin City Limits” on PBS, conducted the interview with Holly’s widow.

When Buddy first walked into the music publisher’s office in New York City where Maria Elena was working as a secretary in 1958, she didn’t know who he was.

She said he asked her to marry him on their first date.

“I said very sarcastically, ‘Do you want to get married now or after dinner?’ ” she said.

But it wasn’t long before they got married at a ceremony at Buddy’s parents’ home in Lubbock, Texas.

Even though Buddy and his band, The Crickets, had released several hit singles, “We didn’t have much money,” Maria Elena said.

Norman Petty, who produced The Crickets’ records, received all the royalties and gave money to the band members when they needed it, she said.

Buddy decided to join the Winter Dance Party because it was the only tour available at the time and he felt he needed the money, according to Maria Elena.

She said he called her the night of the performance at the Surf Ballroom, as he did every night on the tour.

He told her the tour bus kept breaking down and he was going to see about finding better transportation.

But she said he didn’t mention anything about a plane.

“He knew I was very scared of small planes,” Maria Elena said.

The next morning she got a call from a friend of Buddy.

He told her not to turn on the TV, but she didn’t listen.

That’s how she heard about the plane crash that killed her husband.

Maria Elena said Buddy was interested in every aspect of the music business.

Buddy wanted to help younger musicians so they wouldn’t have to go through what he did, as well as open recording studios in Lubbock and the United Kingdom, write movie scores and work with Gospel singers and Ray Charles, according to Maria Elena.

She said the devotion of people who love her husband’s music has been a consolation.

“I want to thank all of Buddy’s fans for keeping his music and his memory alive," she said.

[SHANIANUTS!]

The music never died

Monterey County Herald
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted:01/30/2009 01:30:26 AM PST

By Lane Wallace

The temperature was nine below zero, but a trip last week to one of the final sites that rock 'n' roll star Ritchie Valens played was "worth every bit of it," for his brother.

"There was 40 people who had been at the original concert in 1959. They said Ritchie blew the roof off the place," in Green Bay, Wis., said Bob Morales, 71, Valens' older brother.

"I'm still high" from the experience, said Morales, who was in Green Bay on Friday for the tribute concert, one of a series of events marking the deaths of Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper on Feb. 3, 1959.

"I haven't been that cold since I worked at Green Giant," frozen food plant, said Morales.

But after a day at home in Moss Landing, Morales headed back to the Midwest for more tributes to his brother, the first Latino rock star.

With brother Mario Ramirez of Watsonville and sisters Connie Lemos of Hollister and Irma Norton of Watsonville, Morales is in Clear Lake, Iowa, for "50 Winters Later," a six-day celebration of the music of three men who died shortly after their concert there.

Morales said it's been a long-time goal "to get America to recognize Ritchie as a pioneer of rock and roll," and thinks the family has been successful.

Valens' siblings actively oversee his estate, and have seen more attention to him in the past 25 years than in the first 25 years after his death.

"La Bamba," the film about Valens' life, came out in 1987, a postage stamp was released in 1992, and Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. The family has organized tribute concerts in Watsonville, and a new box set of Valens' music is planned this spring.

Although Valens' recording career lasted eight months, with three hit records, Lemos isn't surprised that people are still interested.

"My brother was definitely not a one-hit wonder. He was an original. He was not a wannabe," said Lemos. "He wrote 22 songs" at a time when most singers didn't write their own material, Lemos said. When Valens recorded cover versions "he made them his own."

He recorded 33 songs, released on three albums, all after his death.

The "La Bamba" film has helped make fans of people who were born long after Valens died, Lemos said. She hears from people who said they learned of the movie through their parents.

On the Valens Web site, "we get e-mails from kids 18, 16, 13, 8 years old," Lemos said. The younger fans "can relate with Ritchie," who died three months short of his 18th birthday.

"They call it The Day The Music Died,' but the music didn't die," said Lemos, 58.

The box set coming out this year will include original Valens material and cover versions, Lemos said. One of the bands will be Los Lobos, which had a hit with "La Bamba," on the movie sound track. The Watsonville-based Backyard Blues Band, fronted by Valens' younger brother, Ramirez, will also be on the package.

Valens, who was living in the San Fernando area, debuted with "Come On Let's Go," in the summer of 1958. He had two more hits, "La Bamba," and "Donna," which were on the charts in early 1959.

"Donna," which Valens wrote about his girlfriend, was the bigger hit at the time, but it was "La Bamba" that later became Valens' best-known song.

"50 Winters Later," organized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is six days of sock hops, symposiums and a big concert on Monday at the Surf Ballroom, site of the 1959 show. The family was scheduled to participate in a symposium about Valens on Thursday.

The lineup for the final show on Monday night includes those influenced by Holly -- Bobby Vee, Graham Nash and Peter and Gordon -- and Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys, Latino bands that can trace their roots to Valens.

Also on the bill is Tommy Allsup, now 77, a guitarist in Holly's band who lost a coin flip with Valens to determine who would go on the plane. "I'll be excited to see him," Lemos said of Allsup, who remains active in music.

The Winter Dance Party, a tour through the upper Midwest by bus, included Valens, Holly, Dion and the Belmonts and J.P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper.

Richardson, a Texas disc jockey and songwriter, had one big hit with "Chantilly Lace." His writing credits include "Running Bear" and "White Lightning."

Holly, whose biggest hit was "Peggy Sue," has been cited as an influence by such performers as The Rolling Stones, the Beatles Paul McCartney bought the publishing rights to Holly's songs and Bob Dylan.

A new member of Holly's band was future country star Waylon Jennings, who was talked out of his seat on the plane by Richardson.

The tour bus heater had broken, and news reports at the time said the miserable conditions was one of the factors that led Holly to charter a plane. He wanted to get to the next concert venue ahead of the bus so he would have time to launder stage clothes.

The Clear Lake concert, where admission was $1.25, ended close to midnight on Feb. 2. An hour later, the plane took off from nearby Mason City and crashed in a field a few miles away.

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_11587641

[Groucho]

Bob, I have enjoyed this thread. While I was only 7 when he died I do have his greatest hits or best of album. My older brother had the '45 of Ritchie Valens "Donna/La Bamba" and it was about that time that I kissed my first girl - Madonna whom I called My Donna because I loved the song.

For those unfamilar with Buddy Holly according to Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, Buddy Holly had three top 10 hits within 100 days, "That'll be the Day" at No.1, "Peggy Sue" at No. 3 and "Oh, Boy " at 10.

You asked if anyone could recall an artist that caused such pain. The responses were good with such artists as Elvis, John Lennon, George Harrison and Karen Carpenter but for three to perish at such a young age, well let's hope something like that never happens again. Ritchie Valens recording career was less than one year yet "Donna" made no. 2 on the charts.

Other artists that are gone but not forgotten under sad conditions would be Kurt Cobain, Aaliyah (who also died in a plane crash at age 22), Brad Nowell, members of Lynard Skynard Band, Harry Chapin and Ricky Nelson. They all live on through their music.

Another group that Holly had great influence were "The Hollies" so much that they used his name. Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was a member of the Hollies.

[SHANIANUTS!]

Let us not forget:

March 16, 1991 in History
7 members of Reba McIntire's band, killed in a plane crash

[greek fanatic]

Let us not forget:

March 16, 1991 in History
7 members of Reba McIntire's band, killed in a plane crash

:eek:oh yeah,that was terrible :sad:

[greek fanatic]

and i think Patsy Cline died in March too:(
i HATE it when music artists die young:smirk:

[Groucho]

Let us not forget:

March 16, 1991 in History
7 members of Reba McIntire's band, killed in a plane crash

Yes, thanks for remembering. :sad:

[SHANIANUTS!]

Or Patsy Cline and 3 other individuals:


Patsy Cline: Age 30
(b. Virginia Patterson Hensley, 8 September 1932, Gore, near Winchester, Virginia, d. 5 March 1963).
Patsy's manager, Randy Hughes, was the son-in-law of Cowboy Copas. In 1963 Randy flew Patsy to Kansas City for a benefit for the widow of a country disc jockey who had died in a car crash. The return journey was hampered by storms and poor visibility. On 5 March 1963 Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Randy Hughes were killed when their plane crashed in swamped woodlands in Camden, Tennessee, 85 miles from Nashville. Identification was difficult as only Patsy's shoulders, the back of her head and right arm were in one recognizable piece. Another country star, Jack Anglin, of the duo Johnny And Jack, was killed on the way to her funeral. Patsy's single at the time of her death was, ironically, Leavin' On Your Mind.
Link to: Patsy Cline: Original Keys for Singers: Piano/Vocal: (Sheet Music)

Cowboy Copas: Age 49
(b. Lloyd Estel Copas, 15 July 1913, near Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA, d. 5 March 1963).
Copas was raised on a small ranch and taught himself the fiddle and guitar before he was 10 years old. His son-in-law, Randy Hughes, also managed Patsy Cline and all three were killed, along with Hawkshaw Hawkins, in a plane crash on 5 March 1963. A few weeks later, Copas had a posthumous country hit with a record ironically entitled Goodbye Kisses.

Hawkshaw Hawkins: Age 41
(b. Harold Franklin Hawkins, 22 December 1921, Huntingdon, West VA, d. 5 March 1963).
In 1942, he performed on radio in Manila when stationed in the Phillippines. After his discharge, he signed with King Records and did well with Sunny Side Of The Mountain, which became his signature tune. In 1948 he became one of the first country artists to appear on network television. He had US country hits with Pan American, I Love You A Thousand Ways, I'm Just Waiting For You and Slow Poke In 1963 Hawkins released his best-known recording, Justin Tubb's song Lonesome 7-7203. The song entered the US country charts three days before Hawkins died on 5 March 1963 in a plane crash which also claimed Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. Lonesome 7-7203 was his only number 1 record in the US country charts. His wife, country singer Jean Shepard, was pregnant at the time and their son was named Harold Franklin Hawkins II in his memory. Barnes and Noble on Hawkins

[greek fanatic]

:eek: the info about Patsy's identification is disturbing:(

[SHANIANUTS!]

Indeed it is.

A recap of musicians killed in airplane crashes may be reviewed here:

http://elvispelvis.com/airplanecrash.htm

[Troll]

Thanks for all the info

[Steve F]

Love all the great info everyone. Thanks so much!

Steve

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090130/ENTERTAINMENT01/901300314/1003/rss01


www.mycentraljersey.com

January 30, 2009

Tributes from Central Jersey to Iowa preserve Buddy Holly's legacy

By CHRIS JORDAN
Staff Writer

What if?
What if Buddy Holly had not taken that fateful plane ride that killed him, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a field in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 3, 1959 — a date that's since become known as "The Day the Music Died."

What kind of music would Holly have recorded? How would rock 'n' roll music have developed with Holly around? Would Holly have continued to be a rock 'n' roller?

"(Buddy Holly's widow) told me she and Buddy had an apartment on Broadway and 9th near Washington Square Park (in Manhattan), and Buddy would go the park and help the kids who were learning to play guitar," said Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens, who just recorded a Holly tribute record called "Pat DiNizio/Buddy Holly" on Koch Records. "He was very happy in New York and he was taking acting lessons and he was recording more pop-oriented music, like "Raining In My Heart.' "

Speculating on the creative path the Texas-born Holly would have followed had he not died at 22 has been going on for 50 years.

"He would have been a really great producer," said Rob Roth, owner of Vintage Vinyl in Fords, which is hosting an all-day tribute to Holly tomorrow. "He was lined up to produce acts in his own studio (before he died)."

The list of innovations and influences that Holly had on rock 'n' roll and popular music is endless. He and his backing band The Crickets were the first to use the now-classic guitar-led band format, and they were the first to write and record their own music. Holly was the first to introduce orchestra instruments in rock songs and he was the first white rocker to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, a practice still common today.

Rockers like The Byrds and The Rolling Stones were greatly in influence by Holly. The Beatles are The Beatles because The Crickets were The Crickets.

The crash could have been the end of of rock 'n' roll. Many of rock's first generation had moved on to other types of music or were no longer able to perform publicly. Little Richard had moved onto gospel, Chuck Berry was in jail after a Mann Act conviction, Jerry Lee Lewis was blacklisted after marrying his 13-year-old cousin, influential DJ Alan Freed was convicted in a payola scandal and the government had plans for Elvis.

"Elvis was in the Army," Roth said. "Rock music became corporatized with Frankie Avalon and Fabian and music that was Madison Avenue's idea of what a safe rock star — no it wasn't rock, they were pop stars — could be."

The teen-idol era ended when The Beatles, essentially a British version of Buddy Holly and The Crickets, came on the scene in '64.

Seemingly every generation has its Buddy Holly moment. Don McLean's "American Pie," which chronologically traces music back to the Holly plane crash, was a No. 1 hit in 1972. The movie "The Buddy Holly Story," starring Gary Busey, was a critical and popular hit in 1978 and Generation X rocked to "Buddy Holly" by Weezer in 1994.

Now, famous acts, including DiNizio, will converge on the Surf Ballroom in Iowa, the location of Holly's last concert, for a tribute show on Monday, Feb. 2. DiNizio, Joe Ely, Wanda Jackson, Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys, Delbert McClinton, Graham Nash, Peter & Gordon, Bobby Vee, Big Bopper Jr. and The Crickets will perform.

Closer to home DiNizio, Nicole Atkins, Willie Nile, The Grip Weeds, Locksley, Annie & the Midnight Shift, McCarthy Trenching and The Riff Brothers will perform Holly's music starting at noon tomorrow at Vintage Vinyl's "Buddy Holly Lives!" festival. The fest will raise money for Parkinson's research.

Holly's legacy only looks to grow.

"He had this sex-on-wheels voice but he also had nerd glasses," said Atkins, a Columbia Records performer from Neptune. "He was an indie rocker before there was indie rock."
Additional Facts
BUDDY HOLLY LIVES!

Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31
Vintage Vinyl Records
51 Lafayette Road
Fords
Free
732-225-7717
www.vvinyl.com

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20090131/NEWS01/101310043/1009

http://www.sctimes.com/graphics/mastlogo.gif

January 31, 2009

Memories of the Music

By Adam Hammer
aehammer@stcloudtimes.com
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — For people who attended the final concert of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson 50 years ago, it’s still unbelievable that a night filled with so much energy could end in such tragedy.
“I couldn’t believe it. We just saw them…just touched them. How could this happen?” recalled Diana Fischer of what was going through her mind when she found out the three rock stars she had seen perform at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, 1959 had died in a plane crash early the next morning.
“We did a lot of crying,” she said.
Fischer was one of seven panelists who recalled their memories Saturday of that last concert at the Surf Ballroom. The symposium was one of a series of concerts and events taking place for “50 Winters Later.”
The series, presented by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the Surf Ballroom, started Wednesday and continues through Monday.
Fischer, like many other star-struck girls in the late 1950s, said she was at the concert to see Valens.
“All the girls in school, we wrote his name on our desks and all that, so I stood right up by the front and kept reaching my hand out and he just touched it,” she said. “I didn’t wash my hand for a week.”
Mike Grandon remembered the energy of the concert and the excitement in the crowd.
“I hung in the back – No. 1 to hear the music, No. 2 to look at girls,” he said.
Bill Wobbeking attended the show as an Elvis Presley fan, but left as a Buddy Holly fanatic.
“On the way home, I kept saying, ‘He’s better than Elvis, he’s better than Elvis.’ Since that day, Buddy’s been my idol,” he said. His favorite song is still “Rave On.”
Alan Mitchell was dating fellow panelist Madonna Brue at the time. Their song was Valens’ “Donna.”
The concert was Brue’s first.
“(Valens) said he wanted to dedicate the last song to the ‘Donna’ in the audience. I said to him, ‘Is Madonna OK?’ And he said, ‘Yeah,’ and smiled,” Brue recalled. “Of course, being a 15-year-old girl, in my mind he dedicated that last song to me.”
Mitchell hadn’t been back to the Surf until this weekend. Being back now is such a flashback, he said.
“None of us knew it was going to be a historic moment,” he said.
Radio DJ Bob Hale, the panel’s master of ceremonies, was emcee of the Clear Lake stop of the Winter Dance Party in 1959. He was working at KRIB in Mason City, Iowa.
Hale’s most vivid memory was getting news of the crash the day after the concert.
News of a plane crash came over the newswire while he was on air, but he didn’t find out Holly, Valens and the Big Bopper were on the plane and had died until Carol Anderson, manager at the Surf, called him.
As he recalled how he told listeners of their deaths, after pushing the needle off the record that was playing and making a startling screech over the airwaves, many in the audience got teary-eyed.
Hale still hasn’t visited the crash site near Clear Lake. He said he tried once, but it was too emotional.
“For some reason, I have not been able to go back there,” he said.
http://gpaper172.112.2O7.net/b/ss/gpaper172,gntbcstglobal/1/H.3--NS/0

[Troll]

Chart Watch Extra: 22 Days The Music Died

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/27287/chart-watch-extra-22-days-the-music-died/

[SHANIANUTS!]

..thanks Andrew..some of the comments are beyond absurd..

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20090131&Category=Ent&ArtNo=901300157&SectionCat=ENT10&Template=printart

Article published Jan 31, 2009
Holly left many marks on music
By HOWARD DUKES Tribune Staff Writer
SOUTH BEND — Glenn Gass has a simple way to determine Buddy Holly’s musical legacy.

“A lot of people got to know Buddy Holly through other people doing his songs,” the Indiana University Bloomington music professor says.

That’s how Gass learned about Holly, who died in a plane crash along with fellow rock ’n’ roll stars Ritchie Valens and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson on Feb. 3, 1959.

Gass was a toddler when Holly died, so his introduction to Holly’s music came through cover versions performed by such British bands as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

“(The Beatles) did ‘Words of Love’ and The Rolling Stones did ‘Not Fade Away,’” Gass says. “A lot of bands were covering Buddy Holly songs, and I’d see (the song credited to) Buddy Holly or Charles Hardin Holley (Holly’s legal name), and I’d know that The Beatles didn’t make this song.”

Gass says that his big brother hipped him to Holly.

“Then he’d play me the original version.”

In later years, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Don McLean all covered Holly songs, and McLean’s 1971 song “American Pie” was inspired by Holly’s sudden death.

“That is the mark of a great songwriter,” Gass says. “The songs hold up so well that other people do them, too.”

Doug Rice, a guitarist and leader of the band Beat 66, has memories of “the day the music died.”

“I delivered the newspaper that day,” he says. “I was about 12 years old.”

Rice says he actually liked the Big Bopper more than Holly and that he was lukewarm toward the music called rock ’n’ roll at that time.

“I didn’t particularly like Elvis, and I thought Buddy Holly was OK, but who I really liked was The Everly Brothers,” he says.

Rice says he was probably turned off by early rock ’n’ roll’s fusion with country music.

“I saw rock as low class,” he says. “I saw it as hillbilly music.”

Rice heard The Beatles five years later, and he fell in love with their music. He also learned Holly influenced The Beatles, right down to their name being an homage to Holly’s band, The Crickets.

“Buddy Holly kind of defined the model for The Beatles of using two guitars, bass and drums,” Rice says.

Local author Gary Clevenger says Holly left a cultural impact in other ways.

Clevenger is editing a book of essays about Holly, the Big Bopper, Valens and pilot Roger Peterson, who also died in the plane crash.

Clevenger says John Lennon was reluctant to perform while wearing his glasses — until he saw footage of Holly in concert while wearing his signature horn-rimmed glasses.

Howard Kramer, a curator at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, agrees with Clevenger that Holly may have been rock’s first Every Man.

“Chuck Berry was very cool with the thin mustache and he was a showman,” Kramer says. “Buddy was this tall guy and he wore those glasses. People saw him and felt that they could (make music), too.”

Billy McGuigan says the common man sensibility that Holly brought to the music can be heard in the energy of rock music.

“Anytime you put on a record by somebody who started in a garage, Buddy Holly is there,” the actor and musician says.

McGuigan, who is based in Omaha, Neb., played Holly in South Bend Civic Theatre’s September 2007 production of “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” and also performs a Holly tribute show called “Rave On.” Last Sunday, McGuigan completed a three-week run in The Beatles tribute show “Yesterday and Today” at Civic, where he set the box office record with “Buddy.”

That Every Man veneer, however, belied the fact that Holly was a brilliant songwriter. The fact that British acts such as The Rolling Stones were influenced by Holly also reveals the key role the guitarist played in spreading rock music to other parts of the world, Kramer says.

Gass says it isn’t surprising that many fans of The Beatles wound up idolizing Holly. He believes it is likely that Holly is one of the few 1950s rock ’n’ roll stars who could have had success in the 1960s and beyond.

“I think, of all of the 1950s artists, that he was the most varied,” Gass says. “He could do a sweet ballad with strings, and he could also do a hard rock song and a mid-tempo pop song.”

Holly loved to experiment with different instruments and studio techniques, Gass says, and he embraced overdubbing well before it became a common practice in the industry.

“He was working on an album of Ray Charles songs when he died,” he says. “He was very inquisitive, and for a guy who died at age 22, he would have been coming right into his prime at the time when The Beatles came to America.”

Kramer says it isn’t clear Holly would have been any more successful in the 1960s than any of his ’50s contemporaries.

Holly, however, would have had plenty of other options. Kramer says Holly could have been a successful country artist as well.

Holly’s death means Kramer and Gass can only speculate on what might have been, but his death also means he will forever be a rock ’n’ roll pioneer to his fans.

“Buddy never got the chance to make a caricature of himself,” McGuigan says. “We’ll always have him at 22. As Buddy says, ‘Death is very often referred to as a good career move.’ ”




Staff writer Howard Dukes: hdukes@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6369
http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?rnd=1233463563337&ci=us-schurz&cg=southbendtribune&cc=1&sr=1024x640&cd=24&lg=en-US&je=y&ck=y&tz=-5&si=http%3A//www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FDate%3D20090131%26Category%3DEnt%26ArtNo %3D901300157%26SectionCat%3DENT10%26Template%3Dpri ntart&rp=http%3A//www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20090131/Ent/901300157 http://www.shaniaforums.com//secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=us-schurz&cg=southbendtribune&cc=1
http://grndsinchant.112.2O7.net/b/ss/grndsinchant/1/H.2--NS/0

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090201/LIFE/902010304/1005/RSS04


www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

February 1, 2009

The day the music died

Plane crash that killed 3 performers had lasting impact on rock 'n' roll

By John W. Barry
Poughkeepsie Journal

The two things that anchor legendary musician Buddy Holly's legacy offer sad contrast - joyous, inspiring songs from a rock 'n' roll pioneer that formed the soundtrack of the innocent and benign 1950s; and a fatal plane crash in the thick of winter that will be forever remembered as "The Day the Music Died."

Holly was revered by The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead. His classic tunes - "Not Fade Away," "Everyday," "That'll Be The Day" and "Words of Love" among them - maintain their timelessness decades after they were written.

But Holly is known as much for the tragic way he died as he is for the songs he wrote and sang for millions of American teenagers discovering rock 'n' roll in the 1950s.

"The Day the Music Died," as singer, songwriter and former Hudson Valley resident Don McLean called it in his iconic song "American Pie," occurred 50 years ago Tuesday, on Feb. 3, 1959.

Holly and two other stars of the day, J.P. (the Big Bopper) Richardson and Ritchie Valens, died in a plane crash after playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

"I was an eighth-grade student at W.W. Smith School on the day the music died," Lolly LaManna in Dover Plains wrote in an e-mail response to a Journal inquiry soliciting memories of "The Day the Music Died." "We were young and just really catching on to the current music and singers. I remember walking into the schoolyard and seeing other students and friends crying and hugging. The news was such a total shock to us. We were at an age where we thought we would live forever and, of course, so would all the famous and adored music heroes."

One of the nation's most famous rock 'n' roll stars, Holly in winter 1959 reluctantly signed on to a tour of Midwest cities because he needed the money.

Holly, the Big Bopper, Valens, Dion and the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo played the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on Feb. 2, 1959. But rather than ride a cold bus 365 miles to the next show - it had already broken down once in 30-below zero temperatures - Holly, the Big Bopper and Valens climbed into a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza that crashed into a cornfield, during a snowstorm right after take-off.

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

n "Buddy Holly played rock and roll for only two short years, but the wealth of material he recorded in that time made a major and lasting impact on popular music. Holly was an innovator who wrote his own material and was among the first to exploit such advanced studio techniques as double-tracking.

n "In the course of his short life, Ritchie Valens left a lasting impact on rock and roll with the classic rocker 'La Bamba.' A high-energy reworking of an old Mexican wedding song, its driving simplicity foreshadowed garage-rock, frat-rock and punk-rock. Ironically, 'La Bamba' was the B-side of 'Donna,' a paean to Valens' girlfriend that rose to No. 2 on Billboard's singles chart. 'La Bamba' also charted, peaking at No. 22. This double-sided smash is one of the greatest rock and roll singles of the 1950s."

"I was a sixth-grader at P.S. 121 in Brooklyn," Bill Tweeddale of Hurley wrote in an e-mail to the Journal. "I well remember many of the girls coming back from lunch the following day with tears streaming down their faces. The news traveled a little slower in those days. Interestingly, their sorrow was intended for Ritchie Valens, who had his big hit 'Donna' about that time. We didn't know Buddy or the Big Bopper that well."

Beatles influenced

The Beatles - rock 'n' roll's most famous band - took inspiration from Holly's band, The Crickets, for their own name. And Paul McCartney in 1976 purchased the rights to the entire Holly song catalog.

The Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones often played Holly's "Not Fade Away." James Taylor has covered "Not Fade Away" and Holly's "Everyday," while Linda Ronstadt covered "That'll Be The Day" and "It's So Easy."

In London's West End theater district, "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" has been running for 20 years. Robert Burke Warren of Phoenicia played the title role in that production during the mid-1990s. Theatergoers would return repeatedly to see the show, Warren said.

"They would come in costume; people in their 50s and 60s; wearing poodle skirts, their hair greased back," Warren fondly recalled. "They'd get up and dance in the aisles. It was a real cross between a rock concert and a play."

Warren said Holly's long-lasting legacy is buttressed by the solid songs he composed.

"You forget how many songs he wrote that still hold up and are still covered and they don't sound dated," said Warren, who includes Holly's "Oh Boy" and "Not Fade Away" in the concerts he performs as family entertainer Uncle Rock. "If you go back and listen to them, at least to my ears, they don't sound like anything else."

Through all of this, Holly's legacy lives on.

"I was not born in 1959 (I came around in 1967) but I have been a fan of Buddy Holly since my Uncle played his 45s for me when I was about 12," Dan Del Fiorentino of Escondido, Calif., a historian with the National Association of Music Merchants, wrote in an e-mail. "The Day the Music Died was the first rock tragedy, sadly the first of many to come. The three deaths were untimely and at the high point of their careers. Some say the accident had such a blow to rock and roll that most record buyers turned to the mellower folk music of the era, leaving rock in a slump from 1959 until 1964, when the Beatles hit America.

Escondido continued, "There were songs of mourning based on the events of Feb. 3, 1959, but nothing captured the feelings like 'American Pie.' The song took on special meaning to the teens who remembered the deaths of Buddy, Ritchie and The Big Bopper, who by the time 'American Pie' came out, were being drafted and millions killed in a war that was also referred to in Don McLean's classic song. The events of Feb 3, 1959, forever changed music. One does not have to have been alive at the time to recognize that."

[Troll]

Thanks for the articles

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2009/02/day_the_music_died.html
http://blog.cleveland.com/popmusic_impact/2009/01/small_BUDDYHOLLY4851.jpg
Before his death, Buddy Holly had been contemplating all kinds of career moves, including film scores and duets with Mahalia Jackson and Ray Charles.
http://blog.cleveland.com/popmusic_impact/2009/01/small_rvalens0200.jpg
Ritchie Valens had a Top 5 hit in 1958 with "Donna.
http://blog.cleveland.com/popmusic_impact/2009/01/small_bigbopper0209.jpg
J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, whose "Chantilly Lace" cracked the Top 10 in 1958, foresaw the value of music videos.

Fifty years after 'the day the music died,' music and memories of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson live on

Posted by jsoeder February 01, 2009 00:30AM
Andrea Levy / Plain Dealer

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were en route to a gig in Minnesota when their plane crashed Feb. 3, 1959 outside Clear Lake, Iowa.

It was immortalized as "the day the music died" in Don McLean's chart-topping requiem "American Pie." Poetic, sure. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

The music still lives, 50 years after that snowy night when a single-engine plane slammed into a field outside Clear Lake, Iowa. Killed in the crash were three of rock 'n' roll's most famous pioneers: Buddy Holly and his Winter Dance Party co-headliners, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

Holly's songs "will never die," said his widow, Maria Elena Holly. "The fans say, 'He'll live forever in our hearts.'

"They've been keeping the name out there. They love his music. They just will never forget him."

Two new Holly compilations were released last week. "Memorial Collection" is a three-CD retrospective, including digitally remastered hits and a previously unreleased track, "Soft Place in My Heart." The two-disc set "Down the Line -- Rarities" features home recordings, alternate takes and rehearsal tapes of Holly and his band, the Crickets, having a go at "Blue Suede Shoes" and other jukebox favorites.

"On behalf of the fans, I'm really excited," Maria Elena said, reached by phone last month at home in Dallas.

"When they hear this, they're going to be ecstatic," she said of the new albums. "It's like Buddy being here now."
Universal Music EnterprisesBefore his death, Buddy Holly had been contemplating all kinds of career moves, including film scores and duets with Mahalia Jackson and Ray Charles.
Holly launched his career with the No. 1 smash "That'll Be the Day" in 1957, followed in short order by the Top 10 singles "Peggy Sue" and "Oh, Boy!" Valens and Richardson had been riding high on the charts with "Donna" and "Chantilly Lace," respectively.

They were en route to a gig in Minnesota when their plane went down Feb. 3, 1959, shortly after takeoff. Also killed in the crash was pilot Roger Peterson.

Holly was 22, Valens was 17 and Richardson was 28.

Their last concert was at Clear Lake's Surf Ballroom, designated as a rock landmark last week by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The Surf Ballroom and the Rock Hall have teamed up to for a "50 Winters Later" series of special events over the past few days in Clear Lake, set to culminate Monday, Feb. 2, with a sold-out tribute concert featuring the Crickets, Bobby Vee, Wanda Jackson and others.

Rock Hall President and CEO Terry Stewart was 13 when Holly, Valens and Richardson died.

Stewart was a fan of all three musicians.

"I remember having this disbelief, because at that age, you're not yet that familiar with death," he said.

For some, the triple loss came to represent "a symbolic closing" of the first chapter in rock 'n' roll history, Stewart said.

"People talk about the fact that between that point in time and the Beatles, it was all teen idols and manufactured stuff, but that's not really true," he said. "The music continued to evolve and change, but it certainly seemed like a curtain went down on that first era."


IN WAKE OF TRAGEDY, UNFULFILLED DREAMS
Since then, fans have speculated endlessly about what the future might have held.

Before his death, Holly had been contemplating all kinds of career moves.

"At the time [of] the last tour, he was trying to get Ritchie . . . to come to New York," said Maria Elena, 74. "When Buddy talked to me from every place that he was playing -- the last one was, of course, the Surf -- he mentioned that he was going to bring Ritchie to New York to stay with us, because he wanted Buddy to produce him."

Holly also wanted to do film scores, as well as duet albums with Mahalia Jackson and Ray Charles, Maria Elena said.

"Buddy was interested in all types of music," she said.

On their very first date, Holly asked Maria Elena to marry him. They tied the knot two months later, on Aug. 15, 1958.

"When we got married . . . he showed me the place [where] he used to go on Sundays, where they have the black churches [in Holly's hometown of Lubbock, Texas]," Maria Elena said. "He used to sit outside, listening to the people sing."

Holly "was an incredibly creative person," Stewart said. "He'd already started to change his music, going with strings and being much more introspective."

Tougher to guess is where teen sensation Valens' career was headed.

"Ritchie already had pulled on his Latin influence," Stewart said. "Could he have continued that? It's hard to say."

The Big Bopper "may be in some ways one of the more interesting of the three, because he was a multiple threat," Stewart said. "I suspect he would've managed to stick around in one form or another, but I'm not sure if it would've been as a performer.

"He was a DJ, writer and entrepreneur, too. A few months before he died, he made these videos with his own money. He believed that the future of the music industry was having artists produce their own little short films and promote themselves in that fashion."

Who knows? If Richardson had lived, perhaps music videos would have caught on years before MTV's debut, Stewart said.

Holly and Valens are Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, although Richardson has yet to be enshrined.


PUTTING A FRESH SPIN ON HOLLY'S OLDIES
Regardless of what might have been, there's no denying that Holly played a key role in steering the course of popular music, said singer-guitarist Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens ("A Girl like You").
ONLINE EXTRA

On his new album, Smithereens frontman Pat DiNizio offers a fresh take on Buddy Holly's music.

"You can't underestimate Buddy's importance," said DiNizio, 53.

"Without Elvis, there wouldn't have been a Buddy. Without Buddy, there wouldn't have been a Beatles. And without the Beatles, there wouldn't have been anything."

On his new album, "Pat DiNizio/Buddy Holly," DiNizio offers heartfelt yet bold interpretations of classic Holly songs, including a string-laden "Peggy Sue" and an a cappella "That'll Be the Day."

DiNizio gave props to Holly for being one of the first rock artists to write his own material and for establishing, with the Crickets, the classic rock band format of two guitars, bass and drums.

With his trademark glasses and skinny frame, Holly also was the archetypal "geek rock star," DiNizio said.

"Buddy was the role model," DiNizio said. "If he could do it, anybody could do it."

Holly's death failed to make a deep impression at the time on DiNizio, then only a young boy. A couple of decades later, however, he had a life-altering experience when he bought Holly's self-titled 1958 album for $20 at a record store in Times Square. Moved to tears by the music, DiNizio quit his job as a garbageman and started the Smithereens shortly afterwards.

"It's important for me to keep this man's memory alive for as long as I can," said DiNizio, who is on the bill for the "50 Winters Later" festivities in Clear Lake.

So is Maria Elena, who remarried after Holly died and later divorced. She usually marks the anniversary of Holly's death simply.

"I try to stay home," she said. "I light some candles and say a prayer for him, which I do every night anyway."

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/38766267.html


http://images.clickability.com/partners/214192/mainLogo.gif (http://www.ohio.com/)



http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif
Boomers remember 'The Day the Music Died' It's been 50 years since Buddy Holly crash, and for one generation, it meant everything

By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer

Published on Sunday, Feb 01, 2009
On Feb. 3, 1959, a Beechcraft Bonanza with an inexperienced pilot crashed into a cornfield in Iowa.
The passengers — singer/songwriters Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. ''the Big Bopper'' Richardson — and pilot Roger Peterson were all killed, giving a young musical genre called rock 'n' roll its first major casualties.
Five decades later, the Surf Ballroom, the site of the trio's final concert, is being named a Rock 'n' Roll Landmark by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and thousands of fans are expected to migrate to Clear Lake, Iowa, this weekend to take part in 50 Winters Later, a tribute culminating with a big concert Monday night. It will feature professed fans such as Graham Nash, Wanda Jackson and Los Lobos to honor Holly, Valens and Richardson.

For many boomers, the impact of the crash, immortalized as ''the Day the Music Died'' in Don McLean's classic 81/2-minute song American Pie, is still one of the defining moments in rock history. But for younger fans, even those who know their early rock music mainstays, that title may seem like self-absorbed generational hyperbole, as throughout rock's storied near-60-year history, many, many rockers have died in equally and, in some cases, even more spectacular and tragic ways.
Additionally, though Holly recorded prolifically, allowing albums to be released a decade after his death, he spent only two years in the rock 'n' roll spotlight. Teenaged Valens had released only two singles, and the Big Bopper was riding the success of his novelty hit, Chantilly Lace.
So why is this tragedy ''the Day the Music Died''?

At the time, Elvis Presley was the swaggering, singing, shimmying embodiment of teenage desires and an obvious threat to decent, moral 1950s American society. Other seminal rock legends such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard were, you know, ''colored'' guys making what was still considered by many to be crossover ''race music,'' another obvious threat to decent, moral society.
But while the three performers on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party Tour — Buddy Holly with his thin lanky frame, horn-rimmed glasses; teenaged Chicano newcomer Ritchie Valens; and the affable Big Bopper — were playing this ''dangerous'' music, they didn't fit the now traditional rock 'n' roll rebel image inspired by Marlon Brando's dungaree-clad scofflaws in The Wild Ones and James Dean's tortured teen in Rebel Without A Cause.
Terry Stewart, president and chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was in Clear Lake for the anniversary to name the Surf Ballroom a landmark. He believes one reason the crash was so important is that it inadvertently delineated a crucial moment in rock and societal history, when young people were just discovering they had a voice and that this new voice could be silenced.
''There is an emotional side, the freeing of the emotions,'' Stewart said about the allure of early rock for youngsters.
''The word 'teenager' doesn't show up until the early '40s and now, suddenly, you have these kids making music for other kids, expressing all their own thoughts. So, yes, Elvis was threatening because he had some racial, black overtones, while Holly wasn't quite that way. But to the parents in general, this was still heresy kind of music. It certainly wasn't something they liked.''

All 3 pioneers

Interestingly, all three artists had short musical careers but are considered pioneers in their own ways. Holly and Valens have been enshrined in the rock hall, in 1986 and 2001, respectively.
Valens was rock's first Chicano star, scoring a hit with the Mexican folk song La Bamba. He was an actual teenager singing to actual teens.
J.P. Richardson was not only a record-breaking radio DJ (in 1957, he broadcast for five days straight, playing more than 1,800 records), but he is also credited with coining the term ''music video'' in 1959. At the time of his death, he was planning on producing music videos for television.
Of the three, it is Holly's influence that cuts the deepest and widest path through rock music. The Beatles, growing up thousands of miles away from Holly's hometown of Lubbock, Texas, named their band in part because of Holly's backing band, the Crickets. Both Paul McCartney and John Lennon imitated Holly's trademark vocal hiccups in their early tunes, while one of the Rolling Stones' early hits was Holly's Not Fade Away.
While Holly was not the first to use multitracking (Les Paul invented the technique), he is credited with bringing it to rock music at a time when most artists simply set up in a big room with a single microphone and hit the record button. Holly was also one of rock's earliest accomplished singer/songwriters, writing classic rockabilly-flavored tunes such as Oh, Boy and Rave On, along with deceptively complex songs such as the ballad It Doesn't Matter Anymore with its gentle shuffle, and Raining in My Heart. Both of those songs included plinking string arrangements and a few more chords than expected in the average rock song of the day.
His band setup, prominent use of the Fender Stratocaster and his desire to control his music and the people profiting from it were largely uncharted territory.
British songwriter Tony Macaulay recently described Holly's effect on young fans to London-based newspaper the Independent thusly:
''Most people in the late '50s were into Elvis Presley, but Holly was the nerd's hero. He wasn't very sexual or particularly good-looking, but he had great warmth and he invented the two guitars, bass, drums lineup as we understand it now. He got more spotty, pre-pubescent boys writing songs and playing the guitar than anybody else, and I was one of them. His death had such an impact on young boys, more so I think than if Elvis Presley had died.''
Additionally, today's rock fans have grown up with the genre as an established, dominant musical part of their lives. We are accustomed to the now-cliched dangers of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, such as ridiculous amounts of potentially dangerous travel, between-gig downtime allowing for the acquisition of bad (and deadly) habits, and being surrounded by sycophants who won't tell you when you're out of control, to name a few of the pitfalls.
But in 1959, there was no rock 'n' roll lifestyle. Teenagers, still excited to have a form of music all to themselves, couldn't fathom the idea of losing one of their new heroes. And they had no way of knowing that in a few years, the 1960s would upend nearly every aspect of Eisenhower's nice, quiet '50s American dream.

'One of us'

But still, the Day the Music Died?
''It is a difficult thing to wrap your arms around, but I think you have to put into perspective where we are and the history of the music. Here are three big, young names that suddenly are extinguished, and it had not happened before like that,'' Stewart said.
''Sure, Glenn Miller dies in a plane crash in the 1940s and it's a loss, but we don't think about that as 'one of us.' This was a new time, a new era, and the music resonated with young people, and their emotions are different than when they are adults and they're different when you have had 20 or 30 years of this music being the soundtrack of your life. This just came at a point when it was just becoming our music and our time, and then suddenly, it's 'how could this be possible that these people are gone?' ''
A young rock fan may never fully understand the impact of the crash and its importance in rock history. But rock music's history is littered with the obituaries of stars who died young. Kurt Cobain is probably the most recent example of a rock star who spoke (or at least mumbled and screamed) to and for a sizable chunk of a generation, and whose life was snuffed out early, though by his own hands.
April 5 will mark the 15th anniversary of Cobain's death (has it already been 15 years?) and like the early rock legends to varying degrees, a cottage industry has sprung up following his death. In fact, in 2006, the already long-dead rock star's image and music earned his widow, Courtney Love, $50 million, surpassing Presley, who had led the list of top-earning dead celebrities for four years in a row (Presley reclaimed the title in '07).
Chances are thousands of supposedly apathetic Generation X-ers will show up in Seattle to commiserate and honor Cobain's equally brief legacy, the way folks are gathering in Clear Lake.
And just as many Gen Xers and younger folks may be baffled by dedicated fans' pilgrimages this weekend, many boomers will be just as mystified by the sadness Cobain's death generated in their sons and daughters.
It's one of the nebulous things that makes pop music an integral part of most of our young lives. Each generation finds its voice in part through the music it is listening to because at that moment, that music is all about their lives, reflecting it either directly through pertinent lyrics or simply by being the soundtrack to important moments at a time when important moments happen frequently.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. ''the Big Bopper'' Richardson didn't release a lot of music during their lifetimes and, of course, the music didn't really die with them.
But through just a few songs and their untimely deaths, they touched and, in some cases, changed millions of lives.

Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com (http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/mailto:mabram@thebeaconjournal.com) or 330-996-3758.

http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/38783382.html

http://www.startribune.com/photos/?c=y&img=2maria0202.jpg


StarTribune.com
Buddy Holly's wife to attend 50th anniversary tribute

By PAMELA HUEY, Star Tribune

February 2, 2009

Fifty years ago Monday, Maria Elena Holly talked by phone with her husband, Buddy, as he was about to take the stage at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

He promised to call her from Moorhead, Minn., the next stop on the Winter Dance Party Tour. He didn't tell her he was planning to fly.

"He always said to me, 'When I get to the next one, I'll give you a call,'" she said in a telephone interview Sunday from Iowa. "I said, 'Make sure you do, so I know you got there safe.'" She never got that call.

It's now legend: After the show at the Surf on Feb. 2, 1959, Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. (the Big Bopper) Richardson boarded a single-engine plane that crashed shortly after takeoff. The three and the pilot were killed.

Tonight at the Surf, Maria Elena Holly, 73, will join a long lineup of old rock 'n' rollers -- including Tommy Allsup, who was on the '59 tour, and Bobby Vee, who filled in at the Moorhead show -- for a 50th-anniversary tribute to "The Day the Music Died."

"Celebrating Buddy's music, that's what I'm here for," she said. "I actually have a bittersweet feeling because, of course, you can't stop thinking this is where it happened. But when I come in and see all the fans that are here, 2,000 people at the Surf, dancing and enjoying themselves, that erases from my mind that this is where this happened."

Maria Elena Santiago married Charles Hardin Holley (family spelling) in August 1958, about two months after they met in New York City, where she worked for a music publisher. After his death, she eventually remarried, had three children and divorced.

Maria Elena, now living in Dallas, has dedicated her life to preserving Holly's musical legacy. That legacy is evident, she says, by the way his music inspired other rock legends, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

"What he really wanted was for his music to be liked and enjoyed, and 50 years later, it is still fresh. ... You hear the fans say, 'Oh, this music will never die.'"

Fans also tell her that his music appeals across generations. "You can see at the Surf -- they bring their children and you see them dancing to Buddy's music."

She has vivid memories of the last time she saw him. They were living in a New York City apartment and he took the gig with the Midwest Winter Dance Party tour because they needed the money.

Ordinarily, she accompanied him. But she was pregnant (she later lost the baby), and he insisted she stay home.

"He said, 'Honey, it's just going to be two weeks. I don't want you to get sick and lose our baby.' Still, I had my suitcases all beside the door, and up to this day, I say to myself, 'My God, I should have put my foot down and followed him there because I know as a fact, he would have never, never [taken a plane]. I would have taken over and found new transportation."

The tour had been plagued by frozen buses that broke down and a travel schedule that pingponged across the Upper Midwest. She said Buddy chartered the airplane in Mason City to give him time to make arrangements for better buses.

Maria Elena, who is terrified of flying in small planes, also blames the service that chartered the plane for allowing a takeoff in bad weather.

But she tries to remember the good times and revel in the joy his music brings to people: "That is really my consolation for losing Buddy at such a tender age."

Pamela Huey • 612-673-7044

[SHANIANUTS!]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/01/mclean.buddy.holly/

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/01/mclean.buddy.holly/art.don.mclean.jpg
Don McLean says Buddy Holly was a musical genius who paved the way for other great rock acts.

http://ads.cnn.com/event.ng/Type=count&ClientType=2&ASeg=&AMod=&AdID=267084&FlightID=194217&TargetID=31327&SiteID=1588&EntityDefResetFlag=0&Segments=776,789,2274,2607,2690,2743,2980,3030,328 5,4008,4898,6298,8463,8796,9496,9781,9784,9853,131 05,13106,13108,13109,13112,13760,14036,15605,16113 ,16309,16338,18517,18672,18857,18902,18961,18982,1 9419,20139,20650,21188,21717,21928,22006,22082,223 54,22506&Targets=31327,2739,29029,1515,7967,54499,53380,345 49,29142,56452,47962&Values=30,61,81,100,150,682,685,917,977,1285,1588, 1601,1671,1682,1712,1815,2647,2673,2738,4418,4448, 13047,47120,47457,52263,52509,52897,56058,56872,57 005&RawValues=&random=KxcupA,beypdoKbwikRI

http://images.clickability.com/partners/3000/mainLogo.gif (http://www.cnn.com/)
(http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%28printArticle%28%29%29;)


http://images.clickability.com/pti/btn-print-page.gif (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%28printArticle%28%29%29;) http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif SAVE THIS (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%28open%28%27http://cnn.site.savethis.clickability.com/st/saveThis?partnerID=211911&urlID=33976696&origin=11%27,%27click%27,%27height=450,width=510,t itle=no,location=no,scrollbars=yes,menubars=no,too lbars=no,resizable=yes%27%29%29;) | EMAIL THIS (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%28open%28%27http://cnn.site.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=createPT&partnerID=211911&urlID=33976696%27,%27click%27,%27height=450,width= 510,title=no,location=no,scrollbars=yes,menubars=n o,toolbars=no,resizable=yes%27%29%29;) | Close (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:self.close%28%29;)
February 02, 2009 http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif
Commentary: Buddy Holly, rock music genius



Story Highlights
Don McLean: Buddy Holly was an inspiration for young musicians
McLean calls Holly a musical genius whose work paved way for other stars
Holly's work is as musically advanced as that of great pop composers, he says
McLean: Holly's work inspired him to write ambitious song "American Pie"

By Don McLean
Special to CNN
Singer-songwriter Don McLean's (http://www.don-mclean.com/) hit song "American Pie" called the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson "the day the music died." The following is based on a tribute McLean wrote for a book by Alan Howard: "The Don McLean Story: Killing Us Softly With His Songs" and on an interview with CNN.com.
(CNN) -- Of all the unique oddities of my career, I am perhaps proudest of the fact that I am forever linked with Buddy Holly.
I have heard it said that children dream in a different way than grown-ups. To them, the dreams they have for themselves are as real as reality is for grown-ups. With this in mind, I can say that Buddy was a huge part of my childhood dream.
I bet if you ask any guitar player, he will tell you that he looked at record jackets and guitar catalogs more than anything else while growing up and dreaming.
Long before I decided how I would use music or what kind of artist I would be, Buddy was there. When I listened to his music, a mood overtook me that was both happy and sad, and I often looked at the record covers while the music played.
Buddy's music is so musical. The number of great recordings he made in his very short life places him at or beyond the level of any musical artist in almost any category.
Elvis Presley never wrote songs, while Buddy (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Buddy_Holly) composed a huge number. In my opinion, looking back, no rock act, not the Beatles, not the Stones, nor anyone else, can top records such as "Peggy Sue" or "Rave On."
They are rock mountains that nobody has climbed. The diversity of Buddy's music is also profound. "Moondreams" and "True Love Ways" are musically as advanced as anything by the great popular composers. Gershwin or Berlin would have marveled at these compositions.
His electric guitars were raw, but controlled like bullwhips. They jingle and jangle freely in "That'll Be the Day" and "Oh Boy," and they snake around in "Words of Love."
The Beatles (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/The_Beatles) and the Stones (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/The_Rolling_Stones) became the behemoths they are on the back of Buddy Holly and the records he made before anyone made records or wrote songs such as his. Aside from his geek image and his sudden and cruel death, his music is a wonder that still contains the potency of its original magic. Buddy was a genuine original. He was a genius.
Buddy's death, for me, an impressionable 13-year-old, delivering papers, was an enormous tragedy. The cover photo of the posthumously released "Buddy Holly Story" and "The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2," coupled with liner notes written by his widow, Maria, created a sense of grief that lived inside of me, until I was able to exorcize it with the opening verse of "American Pie."
I went on with my life and I was 13 and then I was 14, and still very deeply into Buddy and all the rock 'n' roll stuff. Then my father died, and everything changed in our family.
We had nothing, basically no money coming in. My mother and I were alone, so the idea now began to focus on becoming a singer and a performer of some kind. I went to high school; I didn't really want to go to college, and I dropped out in 1964, and I got some jobs at a series of little coffeehouses around Canada.
One was under a pizza parlor. Another was a roadhouse. They were owned by a guy who looked like a criminal. And I was just a child basically, so this whole thing was new to me, and I didn't find it terribly exciting.
I spent a lot of time in terrible hotel rooms -- weeks at a time -- and I was just very lonely. I remember walking into this little bar or diner across the street from this one place -- the place under the pizza parlor, and there were Beatles songs on the jukebox and all kinds of Buddy Holly songs. I hadn't thought of Buddy in five years, so I would go over and have my little dinner, and I would play these songs and remember.
And then my life went downhill again, and I went back to college, I got out of college, I pursued my career. Then, in 1970, I guess it was, I was preparing songs for the follow-up to my album "Tapestry," which came out before Carole King's album with the same title, and all of a sudden Buddy came in the room, and everything all came flooding back.
It was 1970, 11 years later. This idea for a big song about America had been on my mind for a long, long time. I wanted some sort of a song that summed up the world known as America, and every time I would think about this I would end up doing something smaller than the subject that I wanted, and I couldn't find it.
So all of a sudden this memory of Buddy's death had the dramatic power that I needed and started my mind operating on a different level. And I was able to see where this song had to go, how big it had to be, how long it had to be.
Through my relationship with Buddy, I was able to discover my peculiar writing talent and, much to my amazement, help bring Buddy and his music back from the dead. In a sense, "American Pie" contains the spiritual connection to Buddy Holly that was always in me. It's as if we both gave each other new life.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Don McLean.
All AboutBuddy Holly (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Buddy_Holly) • The Beatles (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/The_Beatles) • The Rolling Stones (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/The_Rolling_Stones)

http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/01/mclean.buddy.holly

(http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%28printArticle%28%29%29;) http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif



�

[Groucho]

Indeed it is.

A recap of musicians killed in airplane crashes may be reviewed here:

http://elvispelvis.com/airplanecrash.htm

Thanks for the link. John Denver is one of my all-time favorites of all artists.

[SHANIANUTS!]

You are more than welcome - I loved John's music also...