Listen to Me: Enduring Legacy of Buddy Holly

Released on 16th November 2018, this newly recorded album features Buddy Holly’s utterly distinctive original vocals and guitar playing set to exquisite arrangements performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In that last recording session, at the Decca Studios in New York, the star was joined by an 18 piece orchestra, fronted by Dick Jacobs, bringing strings to rock and roll. They recorded four tracks: ‘True love Ways’, ‘Raining in My Heart’, ‘Moondreams’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ all of which are soaked in strings, clearly demonstrating a new direction for Holly. Recorded in London’s Angel Studios, and produced by Nick Patrick, the man behind the hugely successful Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison orchestral albums, ‘True Love Ways’ truly reflects Buddy Holly’s love for strings, having learnt to play the violin as a child, that continued all his life. Beloved tracks the singer recorded with The Crickets such as ‘Everyday’, ‘Peggy Sue’ and ‘That’ll Be The Day’ are all included, with orchestrations that invigorate, rather than overwhelm, the rock and roll of which Holly was king. Holly's widow, Maria Elena, explains that her husband thought then that the rock & roll era had peaked: "Buddy felt orchestral music in a popular vein was where the future lay, so he wanted to write, record, explore and innovate that style. So what better combination than the Royal Philharmonic and Buddy's music. It's just beautiful." This is what Buddy would've wanted done." – Larry Holley, Buddy Holly's brother. Source: www.prnewswire.com

In 1986, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Holly as Number 13 among its “100 Greatest Artists.” That same year, he became a charter member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Lacking the flamboyance of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis or the sexy, movie star charisma of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly was akin to the boy next door. Holly’s bespectacled face never graced the covers of teen magazines or appeared on the big screen. Baptized at age 14, Holly confided to a pal: “It looks like every time you screw up, God is there to put his arms around you and say, ‘Let’s get going again!”’ During Buddy’s senior year of high school, he served as vice-president of the Distributive Education Club; a program, which allowed students from poorer families to attend classes in the morning and work in the afternoon. Consequently, Buddy became a part-time employee, first at Glen Decorating, followed by Davidson Printing Works. Buddy eventually became a talented draftsman, which he considered as a back-up occupation if he failed to make it in the music world. 

Holley’s long-time girlfriend, Echo McGuire, was planning to attend a religious school in Abilene, Texas, 165 miles southeast of Lubbock. Many, including Buddy’s brother, Larry, “felt like he might marry her,” after the couple graduated from high school. Echo’s departure for college, however, was a significant step toward ending their adolescent relationship. “Buddy and Elvis got along pretty good,” Larry Welborn explained. Much to the chagrin of his original manager, Hi Pockets Duncan, in February of 1956, Buddy traveled to Clovis, New Mexico, 90 miles northwest of Lubbock, where Norman Petty had constructed a recording studio. “Whatever you do, don’t go to Clovis. Norman Petty has a bad reputation for taking advantage of kids,” Hi Pockets warned Buddy. A headstrong Holly, not yet 19-years-old, disregarded Duncan’s advice; a decision he would later regret, many times over.

"Of all the 50's rock and roll giants, Buddy Holly was the most selfless, the most talented and the most likable." —"This'll Be the Day: The Life and Legacy of Buddy Holly" (2009) by Professor Maury Dean

-Lance Monthly: Do you think that Holly was justified in wanting to distance himself from Norman Petty? -John Beecher (co-author of Remembering Buddy: The Definitive Biography Of Buddy Holly): Yes I do. Norman never wanted an artist to be big. Norman was a great engineer/producer in his own environment, but out of his depth in the big studios of New York; and the "biz cats" in the big city knew what he was up to, eventually shunning him. For a while Norman was powerful, but with the power came greed and carelessness and that was his undoing. Source: www.musicdish.com

Norman Petty’s loyal bookkeeper, Norma Jean Berry, had abandoned her career as a local journalist. The pleasantly plump, bespectacled Berry appeared mannish, especially when dressed in blue jeans and penny loafers. Intermittent rumour had it that Petty's wife Vi and Norma Jean carried on a lesbian relationship; that Norma Jean and Petty had once had an affair; even that the three participated in troilistic sexual acts. Maria Elena Holly believed the mannish-looking Norma Jean had sexual designs on her, and kept her distance. During a late-night recording session, Maria Elena chose to sleep in Buddy’s Cadillac, rather than the studio’s bedroom. The truth appears to have been that all three, Norman & Vi Petty and Norma Jean Berry, for different reasons, were virtually sexless, and Norma Jean clung to the Pettys as her surrogate family. Norman Petty, however, seemed fixated on his protegé Holly and now wife Maria Elena's sexual relationship. In one occasion, Peggy Sue Allison remembered: "Buddy and Norman Petty were just about halfway to the door where the reception room is, and Maria said, ‘Buddy, Norman looked up my skirt!’ We absolutely froze. All the blood just drained from Buddy’s face." 

Any recordings made at Petty’s studio and later picked up by one of the many record labels that did business with Norman, came at a high cost to performers. Petty not only shared in the profits from record sales, but also insisted on a portion of the song-writing royalties, even when he had no role in their composition. Nor-Va-Jak secured publishing rights for any records produced at Norman Petty Studios. Petty would no doubt help Holly, but in exchange, would demand partial song-writing credits, thus sharing in the royalties for compositions he had no role in creating. Holly, at age 19, was simply too impatient to think about money or seriously question Petty’s shady reputation. All he knew was that Norman Petty had transformed Buddy Knox and Party Doll into overnight sensations. As Hi Pockets Duncan had predicted, Petty’s offer to sell Holly’s record came at a steep price—both That’ll Be the Day and I’m Looking for Someone to Love would be published by Nor-Va-Jak. Petty also insisted that his name be added to the song-writing credits, explaining that disc jockeys who recognized an established performer’s name on the record would be more apt to give it playing time. Such a move guaranteed that Petty would receive an equal share of the song-writing royalties, which an eager and naïve Buddy did not yet fully realize. Niki Sullivan summarized the song-writing process in Clovis: “Buddy was the major contributor, or the originator on the idea of the song. We (The Crickets) would all contribute, but it was Buddy who was the creator.”

In the summer of 1957, Buddy Holly did become romantically involved with a married woman, June Clark. The relationship began when the Crickets started rehearsing at the Lubbock home of their friends, James “Nig” Clark and his wife June. In their late 20s, the Clarks were rock and roll fans, and from the very beginning, ardent supporters of the Crickets. Some of their friends believed that Nig and June remained married solely for the benefit of their son. Buddy’s attraction to June, however, appeared to be driven by more than just youthful lust. Buddy’s infatuation was such that he would linger for hours at Hull’s Drug Store, where June worked behind the cosmetics counter. June grew concerned that Buddy’s conspicuous behavior would alert Nig to their clandestine affair. Buddy, who seemed to care little about what others thought, told June that he would give up music, if she would leave her husband and run away with him. Whether that promise was made during the height of passion or represented genuine devotion, it was truly a profound statement; Buddy would be abandoning his long-standing dream of becoming a professional entertainer, just as he was on the cusp of achieving stardom. They began a risky, on-the-wing romance, stealing kisses over coffee-cups. To further complicate matters, June had begun to suspect that Jerry Allison was also ‘sweet’ on her. ‘I felt I should tell Buddy that because Jerry was his best friend. Buddy acted like we were the only two grown-ups involved. “Jerry’s young,” he said. “He’ll probably get over it.”’ The intensity of Buddy’s feelings began to alarm her. Forgetting the need for discretion, he phoned her constantly, and also took to hanging around the Hull drugstore. ‘He’d just stand there staring at me, till it got to be really embarrassing and unnerving.’

In the fall of 1957, Buddy and June were reunited under the camouflage of a party for Buddy Knox; June's sister Tuddie lent them her apartment on West 10th Street to resume their love affair. When Tuddie needed to be at home, they would meet to make love at a nearby apartment hotel. ‘He told me time after time that it wasn’t just a crush – that he wanted to have a permanent relationship with me,’ June recalled: ‘I seriously thought about it, because I did have feelings for him. The last time we were due to be together, just before he left on that first big national tour, we ended up just talking on the phone. Buddy told me again that he wanted me to leave Nig and go away with him. I kept saying I couldn’t because I had a little boy. It went on for about an hour, him begging, me saying no I just couldn’t. In the end, there was nothing else to do but just hang up.’ 

Buddy's tortuous love relationships (Echo McGuire's chaste courtship, his impossible love affairs with Lubbock's wild girl and the married June Clark) would be eclipsed by his true love, Maria Elena Santiago. In her teens, Maria Elena had settled into her Aunt Provi’s apartment, located on 10th Street in Greenwich Village, and completed school in New York City. After graduating from high school, she worked for a time at St. Vincent’s Hospital as a translator for Spanish-speaking patients. Maria Elena also served as her aunt’s assistant, packing luggage, purchasing clothes, and serving as a hostess during the cocktail parties Provi held at her apartment for Peer-Southern song-writers. Buddy found Maria Elena to be unlike any other woman he had met—attractive, intelligent, articulate, sophisticated, and a good listener. Likewise, Maria Elena felt an immediate connection, as if she had known Buddy “for years already.” She was particularly impressed by his humor as well as his maturity. Provi, who was about to embark on a business trip, offered Maria Elena her credit card to purchase a wedding dress and other accessories. Buddy cavalierly objected, promising to pay for whatever items his fiancé might need. But Norman Petty was totally opposed to Buddy getting married. He warned Holly that a married rock and roll star would lose many female fans. Petty even told Buddy that Maria Elena was a “cheap girl,” who “picked up” numerous singers. This scurrilous rumor had supposedly been passed along to Petty by an executive at Peer Southern. Sensing that Buddy was about to punch Norman, she quickly intervened: “Let’s get back to New York.” The seeds of discontent between Holly and Petty had been sown well before Buddy met Maria Elena. Above all, Buddy was tired of Petty’s calculated snubs to Maria Elena. 

Norman Petty, sensing that his days with Holly were numbered, began quietly undermining The Crickets. Petty told Jerry and Joe B. that Maria Elena was forcing Buddy to move to New York City. If the Crickets followed him, Norman warned them that they would be financially exploited by New York record executives. Nearing the end of 1958, Holly had learned how to collect and distribute tour fees, function as a road manager, produce records, and manage the band’s financial affairs, all without Petty’s guidance. Joe B. eventually came to understand that Petty had a broader agenda; he was determined to extract personal and financial revenge on Buddy Holly. Joe B. explained Petty’s counterproposal in greater detail: “It’s not Maria that broke the group up; I felt like Norman Petty’s the one who broke the group up. Norman said, ‘Look, let’s stay down here, where we have control of everything.’ Norman said he had ‘all Buddy’s money in the bank, and he'd starve to death.” Jerry Allison likely confused the sequence of events, but he never blamed Buddy for their break-up: “I am sure that Buddy wasn’t fed up with us. He was fed up with Norman Petty. Actually, we were unhappy we hadn't gone to New York with him. After Buddy moved to New York, he wrote a dozen songs which I thought were some of his very best songs, like "Learnin' The Game", "Love Makes It Tough" and "Peggy Sue Got Married".” Since they could not afford a secretary in New York, Buddy and Maria Elena kept up with Holly’s fan mail. Buddy personally answered each letter. 

Even though he was unhappy about the WDP tour, angered by Norman Petty’s refusal to relinquish his royalties, and hurt by Jerry’s and Joe B.’s betrayal, Holly still did try to maintain a smiling face. For the remainder of his life, Petty never cleared himself of allegations that he had cheated Buddy Holly and the Crickets. By the early 1970s, Petty was in dire financial straits. He purportedly began writing a book about his life as a producer of different musical artists, but never finished it. Larry Holley: "I personally think Buddy would have reached the very pinnacle of the music world if he had got to live longer. Norman Petty cheated Buddy out of millions of dollars by putting his name on every song that Buddy wrote. Also, it's my opinion that The Crickets (Jerry Allison and Joe B.) both deserted Buddy, but they keep riding on his shirttail. They can't write good songs, but just like Norman, they have got their name on songs they could never have written." Jerry Allison has freely acknowledged it: “We’ve pretty well proved that the Crickets without Buddy Holly aren’t too hot of an item.” Allison's ex-wife Peggy Sue Gerron explained in March of 2017: “I don’t know if Buddy was in love with me! I adored Buddy and he was one of my closest friends. I don’t know how he really felt, because he didn’t discuss it with me,” confirming Maria Elena's suspicions that Peggy Sue's recollections were mostly fabricated.

Even though it was freezing outside, the Surf Ballroom was decorated like a Florida night club. Palm trees greeted visitors in the lobby and were positioned on either side of the stage. The vaulted ceiling, overlying the 6,300-square-feet maple wood dance floor, was blue, with projected images of drifting clouds. Wooden booths, with green, padded leather upholstery, lined the periphery of the room, to accommodate non-dancers. Bob Hale, the 25-year-old disc jockey at KRIB in Mason City, remembered how impressed he was by Buddy Holly: “From the moment the bus arrived, Buddy took charge. He directed the equipment set-up, discussed the upcoming events, and decided the performance order, and did so while sitting at the piano playing as he spoke. He was only 22-years-old, but was clearly in charge of everything and everyone. It was equally apparent that those he led respected and liked him, while looking to him for direction.” Buddy developed a bond with the streetwise Dion  DiMucci, who had a history of alcohol, marijuana, and heroin abuse. Having battled his personal demons, Dion considered Holly a role model: “I admired how together he was.” Before the first show, Hale chatted with Buddy and the Big Bopper, sharing a common bond; all three of their wives were pregnant. Holly openly discussed his ongoing dispute with Norman Petty: “I’ve got to get this stuff straightened out. One problem with being on the road, you don’t know what’s going on back there.” When Valens took the stage, Hale remembered “the girls went crazy over Ritchie.” Buddy’s performance, however, “almost blew the roof off. They didn’t want to let him go,” Hale recalled. Tommy Allsup remembered that Buddy was infuriated with Petty’s nefarious bookkeeping: “When this tour is over, I’m going back to Clovis and I’m going to kick Norman Petty’s ass. I’m going to get my money out of that studio, one way or the other.” During the drive to Clear Lake, the bus developed heater problems, forcing the group to stop at a service station in Praire du Chien. Buddy called his attorney in New York City, to discuss the ongoing dispute with Norman Petty. “He came back on the bus and was mad. I mean he was bad mad; the maddest I ever saw him,” Waylon Jennings recalled. At the same time, Petty was maligning Buddy’s character, describing him as child-like, with “a tendency to want to make contracts and get out of them.”

Many music historians and performing artists believe the death of Buddy Holly marked the beginning of the end for the first phase of rock and roll. “Rock ‘n’ roll died in ’63, and became Rock. In the later 60s, rock ‘n’ roll splintered. It became surf rock, psychedelic rock, protest rock, and drug rock. It wasn’t the fun rock ‘n’ rock roll Buddy created,” Holly historian, Bill Griggs, opined. Jerry Lee Lewis remembers Holly as “a real champion” and “a true gentleman,” claiming that: “He was my buddy. He was hotter’n a pistol, and he could play the guitar as good as Chet Atkins. He was a gentleman, and he never lied, he never cheated or anything like that on his girlfriend.” Buddy went on to tell Jerry Lee about a beautiful girl he’d met in New York City named Maria Elena. He’d already proposed to her on their very first date. “If you love her,” said Jerry Lee, “it don’t matter what nobody else thinks,” was Jerry Lee's advice. “John and I started to write because of Buddy Holly,” Paul McCartney admitted. “Buddy Holly had it all,” the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards proclaimed. “Something about him seemed permanent and he filled me with conviction, it gave me the chills,” Bob Dylan said of Holly on his Nobel speech in 2016. It is hard to conceive that Buddy Holly, at any age, would have been as ostentatious as John Lennon, who in 1966 opined that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. Stardom never appeared to go to Holly’s head or disrupt his long-standing relationships. “We loved Buddy. He was a good man and we could never detect that success changed him one bit. He was kind, humble, and excessively nice,” recording artist Gary Tollet, acknowledged. Less than two months before his death, Holly was not only willing to play during a KLLL remote radio broadcast, but was also planning for a homecoming concert in Lubbock. 

Buddy Holly was always very generous. Gary Tollet’s wife, Ramona, summarized Holly’s willingness to give, even when the recipient was less than generous toward him. Buddy’s generosity and kind-hearted nature were accompanied by naïvete, particularly in the early stages of his brief career. In May of 2017, Sonny Curtis remembered his long-lost bandmate and close friend: “He was very confident, a great singer, guitarist, song-writer, which made him a trailblazer in rock and roll. His talent was extraordinary and he was a good ole boy.” Eager to become a recording star, an overly-trusting Holly was ripe for exploitation by Norman Petty. When Holly became fully aware that he was being financially exploited by Petty, he was nearly broke. In dire financial straits, Buddy embarked on an ill-advised, but necessary tour that culminated in his premature death. In today’s world, filled with mass shootings, acts of terrorism, and musical genres that glorify violence, we need Buddy Holly. In the words of Henry David Thoreau: “In a world of peace and love, music would be the universal language.” Sources: —"Listen to Me" (2017) by Jeffrey K Smith and "Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly" (2011) by Philip Norman

A study has found that golden oldies stick in millennials’ minds far more than the relatively bland, homogenous pop of today. A golden age of popular music lasted from the 1960s to the 1990s, academics claimed. Songs from this era proved to be much more memorable than tunes released in the 21st century. Lead researcher Dr Pascal Wallisch, from New York University in the US, said: ‘The 1960s to 1990s was a special time in music, reflected by a steady recognition of pieces of that era-even by today’s millennials.’ During this period songs reaching the top of the US Billboard charts were significantly more varied than they were between 2000 to 2015, said the scientists. Songs selected for the study included those that reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 between 1940 and 1957, and the top slot on the Billboard ‘Hot 100’ from 1958 to 2015. Source: metro.co.uk