February 4, 2009

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile

bh-surf

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death (along with Richie Valens and the Big Bopper) in a plane crash in an Iowan cornfield, on the way home from a concert in Clear Lake’s Surf Ballroom.

Better than I could say it, this eloquent story blazes with warmth and vibrancy as it fleshes out Holly’s last days, and is well worth your time.

Radio newscast of the breaking story – KLGO Radio
Dearest (demo) – Buddy Holly
Heartbeat – Buddy Holly
Three Stars (tribute song to Holly, Valens, Big Bopper) – Eddie Cochran

OOOH WHEEE OOOH, I LOOK JUST LIKE BUDDY HOLLY (COVERS)
Well…All Right – Albert Hammond Jr.
Blue Days, Black Nights (on MTV Unplugged) – Chris Isaak
Everyday (live) – Pearl Jam
That’ll Be The Day – The Quarrymen
(early Beatles)
Words of Love – Jessica Lea Mayfield


RELATED: Buddy Holly On Line One

And Geffen Records just released a 2-disc collection of Buddy Holly’s demos and garage recordings called Down The Line: The Rarities.

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9 Comments

  • [...] I Am Fuel, You Are Friends and Licorice Pizza mark the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death with wonderful original recordings and some fantastic covers. [...]

    Trawlin’ the blogroll « It All Started With Carbon Monoxide — February 5, 2009 @ 4:40 am

  • Some facts from http;//www.thisdayinmusic.com

    A young Bob Dylan attended the Duluth National Guard Armory show on 31st January 1959, two nights before Holly’s death.

    The family name was “Holley”. When Buddy received his first recording contract from Decca Records in 1956, they inadvertently spelled his last name as “Holly”. He kept it that way for the rest of his career.

    Buddy failed his draft physical because of his poor eyesight, (and he also had a stomach ulcer).

    Many groups from the era named themselves after insects, they did the same and choose “Crickets” as it was the only insect, which made its own “music”, by chirping. (They almost named themselves the Beetles!).

    Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison had watched a John Wayne movie titled The Searchers. Each time that Wayne became disgruntled with something someone said, he’d mutter “That’ll be the day”. That catch phrase became the title of the first hit record by Buddy Holly.

    “Peggy Sue” was an actual person. Peggy Sue Gerron attended Lubbock High School and was the girlfriend and eventual wife of Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly’s drummer.

    Buddy Holly and the Crickets were the first all-white group to perform at New York’s famed Apollo Theatre.

    The Crickets were the first self-contained band and what you heard on record is what you heard at live performances, (The Beatles molded themselves after the Crickets).

    He was one of the first rock ‘n’ rollers to use overdubbing when one-track recording was the rule, and one of the first to use strings on a rock ‘n’ roll record. Buddy Holly was one of the few to write the majority of his own material and then perform it.

    Their tour busses kept breaking down and when they arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa to perform at the Surf Ballroom the evening of February 2, 1959, Buddy decided to charter a small plane to take he, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (the Big Bopper) to their next stop.

    The red Beechcraft Bonanza, took off from Mason City, ten miles east of Clear Lake, at around 1:50 AM on February 3, 1959. The weather was cold and snowy. The plane crashed just after taking off, eight miles from the Mason City airport. The pilot, Valens, Richardson and Holly, (who was found twenty feet from the point of impact) all died.

    Don McLean’s 1971 “American Pie” is inspired by the day of the plane crash.

    Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Holly No.13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

    Paul McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly’s song catalogue.

    The 1992 Nirvana video for “In Bloom” is filmed in Black and white using 1950s era television cameras and shows the band appearing in 1950s attire, (including Kurt Cobain wearing Buddy Holly style glasses) in an apparent tribute.

    Weezer’s self-titled debut album features the single “Buddy Holly.”

    On Feb 29th 1980, the glasses that Buddy Holly had been wearing when he died were discovered in a police file in Mason, Iowa after being there for over 21 years.

    Neil Cossar — February 5, 2009 @ 8:35 am

  • Hey miss, the new site is gorgeous! Going to DeVotchKa?

    Kate — February 5, 2009 @ 11:53 am

  • Buddy just undertstood;he cared about an individual’s passion for music and he believed in the future:God love him.He would have loved you,Heather, and recognised your passsion for music.He was a God and part of nature’s glory.He makes me weep and celebrate.Without him no Beatles – fact.He was the man.Buddy we love and salute you and those greats who have the guts and honesty to celebrate yor gorgeousness.

    Russell — February 5, 2009 @ 4:09 pm

  • la bamba is still one of my favorite movies of all time

    julio — February 5, 2009 @ 5:57 pm

  • Rogue Wave’s cover of Budddy Holly- Everyday is pure musical bliss.

    http://www.imeem.com/jukeboxmusic13/music/hE3OIWjo/rogue_wave_everyday/

    Catie — February 6, 2009 @ 12:33 pm

  • Thanks for posting these. I’ve loved Buddy Holly since I was about 5 thanks to my father always playing his music. Now almost 40, his timeless songs still make me smile—especially with each new band that mimics his rockabilly style (Bishop Allen comes to mind). Elvis may have been the King, but Buddy will always remain the Prince.

    jIMPERFECT — February 8, 2009 @ 3:32 pm

  • Nice tribute Heather, I’ve been listening to Buddy over thirty years and the music is a fresh and exciting today as when I was a kid hearing the songs for the first time. He’s in the class of the likes of the Beatles, Mozart, Merle Haggard, and two dozen or so other incredible composers whose music is timeless.

    Thanks for the Chris Isaac MP3 blue days black nights – I really enjoyed it!

    Steve — February 11, 2009 @ 10:13 am

  • I am working on a book about the Chordettes (have 264 pages written) and I discovered that the Chordettes performed at the Surf Ballroom on July 31, 1958, 6 months and 2 days before the Winter Dance Party did.

    Scott Lewandoske
    Sheboygan, WI(Hometown of the Chordettes)

    Scott Lewandoske — October 30, 2009 @ 10:19 pm

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Bio Pic Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson

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