After Decca's rejection, Holly and his band, which now included Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, threw themselves into what Petty regarded as the most promising songs they had, until they worked out a tight, tough version of one of the failed originals that Holly had cut in Nashville entitled "That'll Be the Day." The title and lyrical phrase, lifted from a line that John Wayne was always quoting in the John Ford movie The Searchers, had staying power, and the group built on it. Petty had a studio where he charged by the song instead of by the hour, and Holly and company had already begun working there in the late spring of 1956. It looked as though Holly had missed his shot at stardom.įate intervened in the guise of Norman Petty, a musician-turned-producer based in Clovis, New Mexico, who had an ear for the new music and what made it sound good, especially over the radio, to the kids. Some good music and a pair of near classics, "Midnight Shift" and "Rock Around with Ollie Vee," did come out of those Decca sessions, but nothing issued at the time went anywhere. They found out, however, that there was a lot more to playing and cutting rock & roll than met the eye the results of this and a follow-up session in July were alternately either a little too tame and a little too far to the country side of the mix, or too raw. It was with the latter two that Holly cut his first official recording session in January of 1956 in Nashville for Decca Records. Holly kept pushing his music toward a straight-ahead rock & roll sound, working with Allison, Welborn, and assorted other local musicians, including guitarist Sonny Curtis and bassist Don Guess. Eventually, Montgomery, who leaned toward more of a traditional country sound, left the performing partnership, though they continued to compose songs together. They'd also cut some sides that would have qualified as rock & roll, though no label was interested at that particular time. He was among those young Southern men who heard and saw Elvis perform in the days when the latter was signed to Sam Phillips' Sun Records indeed, Buddy & Bob played as an opening act for Elvis when he played the area around Lubbock in early 1955, and Holly saw the future direction of his life and career.īy mid-1955, Buddy & Bob, who already worked with an upright bass (played by Larry Welborn), had added drummer Jerry Allison to their lineup. By the mid-'50s, Buddy & Bob, as they billed themselves, were playing what they called "western and bop" Holly, in particular, was listening to a lot of blues and R&B and finding it compatible with country music. A natural musician from a musical family, he was proficient on guitar, banjo, and mandolin by age 15 and was working as part of a duo with his boyhood friend Bob Montgomery, with whom he had also started writing songs. In a career lasting from the spring of 1957 until the winter of 1958/1959 - less time than Elvis had at the top before the army took him (and less time, in fact, than Elvis spent in the army) - Holly became the single most influential creative force in early rock & roll.īorn in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936, Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley (he later dropped the "e") was the youngest of four children. Holly's influence was just as far-reaching as these others, if far more subtle and more distinctly musical in nature. Among his rivals, Bill Haley was there first and established rock & roll music Elvis Presley objectified the sexuality implicit in the music, selling hundreds of millions of records in the process, and defined one aspect of the youth and charisma needed for stardom and Chuck Berry defined the music's roots in blues along with some of the finer points of its sexuality and its youthful orientation (and, in the process, intermixed all of these elements). Holly was unique, his legendary status and his impact on popular music all the more extraordinary for having been achieved in barely 18 months. Buddy Holly is perhaps the most anomalous legend of '50s rock & roll - he had his share of hits, and he achieved major rock & roll stardom, but his importance transcends any sales figures or even the particulars of any one song (or group of songs) that he wrote or recorded.
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