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Buddy Holly Biography
BUDDY HOLLY BIOGRAPHY
Despite his shortlived recording career (lasting from the spring of 1957 until 1959), along with Elvis, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley, Buddy Holly became one of rock and roll's most influential artists. He drew on country and R&B styles to form a unique brand of rock and roll and was the first man to bring NHS specs into the pop arena!
Holly was born in Lubbock, Texas on 7 September, 1936. The youngest of four children, as a child he played piano and guitar and loved blues, R&B and country music. He formed a duo at high school with friend Bob Montgomery. The pair recorded some demos of songs recorded by Montgomery playing a brand of music the duo nicknamed western 'n' bop. (The tracks were later released on the album, Holly In The Hills.) In 1955 Buddy and Bob opened shows in Lubbock for Elvis Presley and when Buddy first saw Elvis perform he saw the future direction for his own career.
By mid-1955, Buddy & Bob, had added a double bass player and drummer to the lineup. Montgomery would eventually leave the group. Without him, Holly leaned towards a harder rock and roll edge and he cut his first official recording session in January 1956 for Decca Records in Nashville. However nothing came of the sessions apart from a couple of near-singles, Midnight Shift and Rock Around.
After the failure of the Decca sessions, Holly formed a new band and travelled to Clovis, New Mexico to work with producer Norman Petty. Petty had an ear for the new, emergent rock and roll music and what made it sound appealing. In the studio Holly worked on one of the failed songs from the Nashville sessions entitled That'll Be The Day. The line was lifted from a John Wayne phrase in the movie The Searchers. Eventually the song came to the attention of Coral Records executive Bob Thiele. Ironically Coral Records was a subsidary of Decca for whom Holly had recorded unsuccessfully in Nashville.
That'll Be The Day was released in May 1957 under the name of The Crickets, so as Decca wouldn't realise it was the same artist they'd dropped the year before. And when the smoke cleared, the record shot to the top of the US charts. Eventually, Holly had two recording contracts, one with Coral Records as Buddy Holly and one with Brunswick as a member of the Crickets. Thiele figured that by releasing two separate bodies of work he would give room for Holly to eventually break out on his own. The first Buddy Holly release, Peggy Sue, soon became a hit too. Further Cricket hits followed in 1958 with Oh Boy, Maybe Baby and Think It Over. The dual recording contracts meant Holly would record a massive volume of work in his brief period of fame. Also, the fact that the group relied on originals for their singles made them unique and put them years ahead of their time.
Buddy Holly & the Crickets became one of rock & roll's top acts with electrifying live shows. Buddy Holly was even more popular in Britain than the US, rivalling Elvis, largely because he spent time touring the UK. His boy next door persona also connected with ordinary rock and roll fans. Holly made NHS specs in pop cool, with The Shadows%u2019 Hank Marvin and latterly, Elvis Costello imitating his style. Holly's sound also fitted in with the sound of skiffle, blues and country that was merging in Britain. Listen To Me, which had failed in the US, was a Top 20 UK hit, as was Rave On and the Bobby Darin-penned Early In The Morning. The albums, Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly, released in 1958 included the innovative hits Words Of Love, Look At Me and Not Fade Away.
By the end of the year Holly had moved to New York. His music took on a new edge of sophistication. In the Big Apple he utilised musicians such as King Curtis. He recorded with a string section on Moondreams and on the Paul Anka song It Doesn't Matter Anymore. During this period Holly suffered a slackening off in singles sales. Heartbeat didn't sell as well as the singles of 1957. There was also an ongoing dispute with Norman Petty who Holly believed was withholding some of his royalties. With a new wife, Maria Elena Santiago, who was pregnant and no settlement coming in from Petty, Holly decided to earn some quick money by signing on to play the Winter Dance Party package tour of the Midwest of America, together with Ritchie Valens and JP 'Big Bopper' Richardson. Tragically, during that tour, all three stars died when their plane crashed on February 3, 1959. Holly was just 22 years of age. For rock and roll fans it was the first public tragedy of its kind. Holly's death and Elvis' induction into the US army left a massive hole in rock and roll. Holly's final single, It Doesn't Matter Anymore, was released shortly after his death and shot to the top of the UK charts.
Holly's influence remained strongest in Britain long after his death. Holly's approach to writing and recording was an influence on '60s beat music and artists including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The Beatles covered the gentle, unusual Listen To Me while The Rolling Stones had a hit with Not Fade Away while Blind Faith (featuring Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood) had a hit with Well All Right. In 1971 Don Maclean commemorated Holly's death with the No.1 single, American Pie. Maclean echoed many music fans sentiments when he sang that Holly's death was "the day the music died."
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