Very few people ever pissed off Ed Sullivan on purpose. Jim Morrison / The Doors did, Bo Diddley did and so did Buddy Holly. On January 26, 1958, Buddy Holly and The Crickets were on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was their second time on the show. They were scheduled to perform two songs. Sullivan wanted the band to substitute a different song for their record hit Oh, Boy!, which he felt was too raucous. Holly had already told his hometown friends in Texas that he would be singing Oh, Boy! for them, and told Sullivan as much. During the afternoon the Crickets were summoned to rehearsal at short notice, but only Holly was in their dressing room. When asked where the others were, Holly replied, I dont know. No telling. Sullivan then turned to Holly and said I guess The Crickets are not too excited to be on The Ed Sullivan Show to which Holly caustically replied, I hope theyre damn more excited than I am. Sullivan, already bothered by the choice of songs, was now even angrier. He cut the Crickets act from two songs to one, and when introducing them mispronounced Hollys name, so it came out vaguely as Hollered or Holland. In addition, Sullivan saw to it that the microphone for Hollys electric guitar was turned off. Holly tried to compensate by singing as loudly as he could, and repeatedly trying to turn up the volume on his guitar. For the instrumental break he cut loose with a dramatic solo, making clear to the audience that the technical fault wasnt his. The band was received so well that Sullivan was forced to invite them back for a third appearance. Hollys response was that Sullivan did not have enough money. Heres the video of the performance 57 years ago today.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 11:15:50 +0000
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