Holly saw Elvis Presley sing in Lubbock in 1955, and began to incorporate a rockabilly style, similar to the Sun Records sound, which had a strong rhythm acoustic and slap bass. On October 15, 1955, Holly, along with Bob Montgomery and Larry Welborn, opened the bill for Presley in Lubbock, catching the eye of a Nashville talent scout. Hollys transition to rock continued when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local show organized by Eddie Crandall, the manager for Marty Robbins. Following this performance, Decca Records signed him to a contract in February 1956, misspelling his name as Holly He thereafter adopted the misspelled name for his professional career. Holly formed his own band, later to be called The Crickets, consisting of Holly (lead guitar and vocals), Niki Sullivan (guitar), Joe B. Mauldin (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums). They went to Nashville for three recording sessions with producer Owen Bradley. However, Holly chafed under a restrictive atmosphere that allowed him little input. Among the tracks he recorded was an early version of Thatll Be The Day, which took its title from a line that John Waynes character says repeatedly in the 1956 film The Searchers. This initial version of the song was played more slowly and about half an octave higher than the later hit version. Decca released two singles, Blue Days, Black Nights and Modern Don Juan, that failed to make an impression. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly his contract would not be renewed, insisting, however, that he could not record the same songs for anyone else for five years. Who could have guessed that Buddy would be dead just 2 years and 12 days later? Holly then hired Norman Petty as manager, and the band began recording at Pettys studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty contacted music publishers and labels, and Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca, signed the Crickets on March 19, 1957. Holly signed as a solo artist with another Decca subsidiary, Coral Records. This put him in the unusual position of having two recording contracts at the same time. Although Holly had already begun to become disillusioned with Norman Petty before meeting Maria Elena, his wife, it was through her and her aunt Provi, the head of Latin American music at Peer-Southern, that he began to fully realize what was going on with his manager, who was paying the bands royalties into his own companys account. Holly was having trouble getting his royalties from Petty, so he hired the noted lawyer Harold Orenstein at the recommendation of his friends the Everly Brothers, who had engaged Orenstein following disputes with their own manager, Wesley Rose. Yet, with the money still being withheld by Petty and with rent due, Buddy was forced to go back on the road Holly was offered a spot in the Winter Dance Party, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, by the GAC agency, with other notable performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. The Big Bopper Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums), and billed them as The Crickets Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. There was a snowstorm, and the pilot, Roger Peterson, was not qualified to fly by instruments only. Bandmate Waylon Jennings had given up his seat on the plane, causing Holly to jokingly tell Jennings, I hope your ol bus freezes up! Jennings shot back facetiously, Well, I hope your ol plane crashes! It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for decades. Holly, Valens, Richardson and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. Although the plane came down only five miles northwest of the airport, no one saw or heard the crash, wrote rock performer, archivist and music historian, Harry Hepcat, in his article about Buddy Holly. The bodies lay in the blowing snow through the night...... February indeed made us shiver, but it was more than the cold of February that third day of the month in 1959. It was the shiver of a greater, sometimes senseless, reality invading our sheltered, partying, teenaged life of the 50s. Holly was offered a spot in the Winter Dance Party, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, by the GAC agency, with other notable performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. The Big Bopper Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums), and billed them as The Crickets. Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. There was a snowstorm, and the pilot, Roger Peterson, was not qualified to fly by instruments only. Bandmate Waylon Jennings had given up his seat on the plane, causing Holly to jokingly tell Jennings, I hope your ol bus freezes up! Jennings shot back facetiously, Well, I hope your ol plane crashes! It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for decades. Holly, Valens, Richardson and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. Although the plane came down only five miles northwest of the airport, no one saw or heard the crash, wrote rock performer, archivist and music historian, Harry Hepcat, in his article about Buddy Holly. The bodies lay in the blowing snow through the night...... February indeed made us shiver, but it was more than the cold of February that third day of the month in 1959. It was the shiver of a greater, sometimes senseless, reality invading our sheltered, partying, teenaged life of the 50s.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 11:08:43 +0000
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