Buddy With Don Everly

Quote
sweet neo con
Was that the actual gravestone/marker at the end of that video??
Buddy Holley? What's up with that? (both Buddy & Elvis have spelling snafus on their gravesite)

the anomaly over Elvis' tombstone is easily explained He was christened Elvis Aron Presley. A few months before his death he mentioned to close friends that he preferred the Biblical spelling of his middle name, so when he died the tombstone was engraved as 'Elvis Aaron Presley', as that was presumably the way he would have wanted it.

the Winter Dance Party tour poster

...........................................................Buddy Holly 1956



ROCKMAN

Holly's legacy beats on

By KYLE MUNSON
January 23, 2009
DesMoines Register

Fifty years ago, Graham Nash stood on a street corner in his hometown of Salford, England, with his best friend, Alan Clarke, and wept.

The source of their sadness was news from 4,000 miles away and across the Atlantic Ocean - a frozen field north of Clear Lake, where the airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson crashed on Feb. 3, 1959, killing the three rock stars from the Winter Dance Party tour as well as their local pilot, Roger Peterson.

"It was very traumatic for me," said Nash, who was only 17 years old that day. He went on to form the Hollies with Clarke in 1962. They found themselves among a rising tide of '60s rock musicians on both sides of the pond who owed a huge musical debt to the innovations of the Winter Dance Party artists.

Today it might be tempting to sum up the musical legacies of Holly, Valens and the Bopper in terms of Don McLean's landmark 1971 tune "American Pie" (that forever dubbed the tragedy the Day the Music Died), the biopics (1978's "The Buddy Holly Story" and 1987's "La Bamba") and the annual "oldies" rock tribute concerts at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, site of the trio's final performance on Feb. 2, 1959.

But today's musicians still continually claim Holly as a primary songwriting influence; celebrated indie singer-songwriter M. Ward, for instance, releases a new album Feb. 17 that includes a cover of Holly's "Not Fade Away." And younger music fans are discovering classic rock in greater numbers as the songs flow freely from iTunes and other online, digital sources.

Valens is revered for his guitar technique and as the prototypical Latino rocker who anticipated the careers of everybody from Santana to Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys.

The Bopper wrote country music hits for other artists and is credited with creating the first distinct music video.

"They are all different but of the same era - pioneers, artists that really did catch the ear of the world, not just America," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The Bopper has yet to join Holly and Valens as an official Rock Hall inductee, but the museum is co-producing a series of events Wednesday, Feb. 2 at the Surf to commemorate the enduring influence of all three artists.

Back in 1959 the Winter Dance Party served first and foremost as a teen dance that left the adult world unmoved - much in the same way that today's Disney heartthrob chart-toppers, the Jonas Brothers, while not poised for artistic impact on par with Holly, play to a predominantly teen fanbase.

Now that the teens of 1950s rock have long since grown up and are retiring, the likes of Buddy and the Beatles have in a way become canonized as classics. And it's no great stretch to imagine that Bruce Springsteen might even cover a Holly song during his halftime performance next weekend at the Super Bowl.




Musicians young and old now trace the musical thread of rock history back to the Day the Music Died.

"Buddy Holly totally was the model for the Beatles and everything that came after," said Dion DiMucci, the Bronx-born rock troubadour with blues roots and a doo-wop streak who remains the sole surviving headliner from the 1959 tour. "He was self-contained, he wrote, he had two guitars, bass and drums. He was the whole model of that."

"(Holly) was the essence of the first real rock 'n' roll band," agreed John Mueller, who today performs as Holly on his own Winter Dance Party tribute tour. "And when that went away with this tragic event, I think it left a huge hole. It didn't really start comin' back until ... the Beatles basically were doing Buddy Holly songs ... but in a little more aggressive, little more '60s kind of way."

The fledgling Beatles, as the Quarry Men, recorded Holly's "That'll Be the Day" as their first official tune before renaming themselves with a nod to Holly's band, the Crickets.

The Rolling Stones introduced themselves to America in 1964 with a cover of Holly's "Not Fade Away."

A decade after the death of his hero, Graham Nash found wider fame and became an emblem of the Woodstock generation with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. On Feb. 2 he will finally make his first pilgrimage to the Surf and Clear Lake when he headlines the capstone concert of the commemorative "50 Winters Later" events there. The star-studded musical lineup includes the Crickets, Los Lobos and a house band featuring key Rolling Stones sidemen (Chuck Leavell, Bobby Keys).

“To be invited to go and play on the 50th anniversary, I just couldn’t refuse,” said Nash, who also will mark his 67th birthday on Feb. 2.



The notion seems almost silly today, but 50 years ago not even the musical pioneers themselves were certain that rock ’n’ roll would survive much into the 1960s, whether before or after the Day the Music Died.

George Lucas’ 1973 cinematic love letter to teen car culture of the early 1960s, “American Graffiti,” includes the memorable line: “Rock ’n’ roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died.”

Today it’s taken for granted that Holly, Valens, the Bopper and their peers — Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, etc. — helped create a global youth movement that drove a wedge between mature adults and their restless kids. The post-war baby boom, teens’ disposable income, the spread of television, mass-produced vinyl 45s and LPs — many trends converged to enable the rise of rock in the ’50s, but the insistent beat of the music itself has sustained it most of all.

Dion bristles at the thought that the innovations of the ’50s were overshadowed by wilder experimentation in the ’60s; to him they’re both foundations of guitar rock.

“There’s two eras when guitar giants walked the earth: the ’50s and the ’60s,” he said. “It was like the Chuck Berry era, and the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix era.”

How Holly, Valens and the Bopper might have figured into the evolution of rock in the ’60s and beyond can provide endless speculation. Holly’s widow, Maria Elena Holly, said that her late husband longed to collaborate with soul “genius” Ray Charles.

“To me, he was a sort of a visionary even though he was 22 years old,” she said. “I always call him the old soul, because he came with ideas at that time that are happening now.”



To Graham Nash’s ears, any songwriter today who crafts a catchy pop tune has something in common with the 1959 Winter Dance Party.

“To me, the art of song writing is simplicity, and Buddy’s songs were incredibly simple, incredibly melodic,” said Nash, who hears much of Buddy in the songs of, say, modern troubadour Beck.

More examples of Holly’s enduring sound:

• The 1994 song and music video “Buddy Holly” remains a signature hit for rock band Weezer.

• Billy McGuigan, a veteran performer in the title role of the musical “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” and his own “Rave On” touring revue of Holly songs, hears Holly in the punk-pop of Green Day and the bluesy indie rock of the White Stripes.

• Like the Hollies and the Beatles, bands continue to name themselves after the 1950s pioneers: Witness Danish rock duo the Raveonettes.

Terry Stewart of the Rock Hall traces the Winter Dance Party’s musical heritage back to African drumbeats and brings it back around to the present.

“As it goes on it mutates into everything that we celebrate today, everything up to hip-hop, which is hard for a lot of people to understand,” he said. “But hip-hop is nothing more than R&B 50 years later, being done with different instrumentation and a different feel.”

Whether classic rock is defined as Buddy Holly, James Brown, the Beatles, the Clash or Nirvana, young rock fans have increasingly adopted a “broad definition of this music that occurred over a long period of time that their parents grew up with, and … it shows you that they are listening more than ever to the music that came ahead of whatever’s on the radio.”

In other words, the very technology that has been largely blamed for the decline of the music industry’s business model — digital recordings freely shared online — also is helping to preserve and promote the roots of rock ’n’ roll among its newest fans.

Compared to 1972, when Don McLean’s “American Pie” hit No. 1 on the pop charts, or 1978, when Gary Busey starred in “The Buddy Holly Story,” the music of the Winter Dance Party artists is more widely available than ever before.

Rock ’n’ roll’s history and future will meet later this month in Clear Lake.

“Going back to play in that very ballroom on the 50th anniversary — that’s kind of scary to me,” Nash said. “I love it.”



Tracing their roots: The Beatles and beyond
"One of the main things about the Beatles is that we started out writing our own material. People these days take it for granted that you do, but nobody used to then. John and I started to write because of Buddy Holly. It was like, 'Wow! He writes and is a musician.' ... In our imaginations back then, John was Buddy and I was Little Richard or Elvis."
- Paul McCartney of the Beatles, "The Beatles Anthology," 2000

"To guys of my age at the time, if you were the least bit interested in music, Buddy was the one, because he sang and was very self-contained. Elvis was fantastic, but because Buddy had glasses and looked a bit like a bank clerk, you could say to yourself, 'Well, it's not just for guys who look like Elvis,' because otherwise it was sort of unattainable."
- Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, "According to the Rolling Stones," 2003

"When I was 16 or 17 years old I went to see Buddy Holly play in Duluth, National Guard Armory. And I was three feet away from him, and he looked at me. And I just have some kind of feeling that he was - I don't know how or why - I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way."
- Bob Dylan, Album of the Year acceptance speech at the Grammys for "Time Out of Mind," February 1998

"When I think of Buddy Holly I think of the ... purest form of rock 'n' roll. ... And if we want to change things, if anybody wants to change anything in this business ... let's get back to that."
- Shawn Crahan of Slipknot, interview with Des Moines Register reporter Joe Lawler, 2009

"Bo (Diddley)'s rhythm was first borrowed by Buddy Holly, later by me for 'Magic Bus.'"
- Pete Townshend of the Who, Entertainment Weekly, June 2008

"As a musician and singer (Holly) had a style of singing that we all try to at some point emulate. If you don't do it exactly the way he did it, at least it's a thing always in the back of your head."
- Billy Bob Thornton, interview with Des Moines Register reporter Joe Lawler, 2008

"The great thing about Buddy Holly is his songs had a rhythm and bluesey kind of feel, super catchy with really strong vocal melodies. That's what I really liked. Later on I really appreciated that he played a Strat while other guys played hollow body. Part of his sound was the way he played that Fender, and I really appreciated it."
- Kirk Hammett of Metallica, interview with Des Moines Register reporter Joe Lawler,
----------------------------------------------------------

New Holly collections in stores
Jan. 27 — “Down the Line: The Rarities”: Two CDs, 59 songs, from a raw 1949 home recording in Lubbock, Texas, to the undubbed “apartment tapes” recorded in December 1958 and January 1959 in the New York flat Buddy Holly shared with wife Maria Elena. Also heard are Holly’s 1952 rockabilly recordings as Buddy & Bob (with Bob Montgomery) and the early garage rock tapes of the Crickets.

Feb. 10 — “Memorial Collection”: Three CDs, 60 songs, a sampling from Buddy & Bob to the “apartment tapes,” with all the essential hits between.

Fans revel in Buddy Holly stop in Eau Claire

[www.leadertelegram.com]

By Monte Olmsted
Leader-Telegram correspondent



Glenn St. Arnault, 70, of Eau Claire attended the "Winter Dance Party" on Jan. 26, 1959, at Fournier's Ballroom. St. Arnault designed the T-shirts for John Mueller's "Winter Dance Party" tribute show, which will stop Thursday in Eau Claire.



Two friends, two diehard Buddy Holly fans, two tickets to paradise ... at Fournier's Ballroom.

Don Larson and Glenn St. Arnault arrived together at the Eau Claire stop of the "Winter Dance Party" to watch and listen to the young Texan whose records they both owned and listened to religiously.

These Holly disciples and obsessed rock 'n' roll fans would leave that night satisfied at seeing one of their heroes, who to this day plays a role in each of their lives.

"That night was an absolute thrill," Larson, 67, said.

Added St. Arnault, "We went there not knowing that we were seeing history."

It was a night that reaffirmed their devotion to the bespectacled Holly and his Fender Stratocaster.

Larson, now living in upstate New York, has gained a reputation as a Holly historian and describes himself as "one of the foremost experts in the world on Buddy Holly." Later this month, he will be a panelist discussing that tour during a weeklong celebration at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, the site of Holly's final performance.

Meanwhile, St. Arnault, who still lives in Eau Claire, has made six pilgrimages to the Surf Ballroom.

'Little ol' Eau Claire'
In 1959, St. Arnault was a 20-year-old living at home and studying accounting at the local technical college. Larson was a 17-year-old high school senior.

St. Arnault had amassed a collection of 45-rpm records, including most of Holly's singles, which he bought from the $35 a week he earned as a newspaper carrier. Meanwhile, Larson had two of Holly's three albums and was accumulating three scrapbooks related to the tour.

Neither hesitated getting "Winter Dance Party" tickets, which they bought for $1 at Meyer Music - the same place where St. Arnault purchased his records. Larson got the money from his mother.

"I only went there to see Buddy Holly," Larson said. "I couldn't believe he was coming to little ol' Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Buddy was my hero."

Larson and St. Arnault watched the show, which started at 7 p.m., from the front of the stage, no farther than 5 feet from the musicians. Preferring not to dance, Larson focused on the music. He still remembers what Holly wore: gray slacks, black socks, black shoes, a black blazer and a white silk ascot.

But he also noticed some impostors.

The band backing Holly was not the Crickets, even though the bill advertised such. Unbeknownst to many fans, Holly had split from the Crickets about three months earlier and hit the road with a different band.

"I said to Glenn, 'Those aren't the Crickets!' And I was right," Larson said. "Buddy had went on this tour with guitarist Tommy Allsup, drummer Carl Bunch and Waylon Jennings, who had never played bass guitar in his life."

Yes, that Waylon Jennings, who along with Willie Nelson pioneered the mid-1970s country music outlaw movement. At the time, Jennings was a Texas disc jockey turned Holly protege. Holly had asked him to join the tour.

"Waylon told me he had two weeks to learn the songs," said Larson, who became friends with Jennings in the late 1970s.

Missing out at Sammy's
Holly and his band played seven songs and finished their set in about 15 minutes, Larson said. The show was over by about 10:30 p.m., and because it was a school night, Larson and St. Arnault headed straight home, skipping their usual jaunt to Sammy's Pizza Palace.

That decision would haunt them.

The next day, the two found out that Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and other musicians from the show had been at Sammy's.

"We usually went to Sammy's, but we didn't go that night," St. Arnault, 70, said. "Now we could kick ourselves in the butt that we didn't do it. But it was so cold, and I was lucky to get the car started."

Before going to bed that night, Larson used his mother's typewriter to type Holly's set list on a piece of paper, which he still has in one of three "Winter Dance Party" scrapbooks.

From that Eau Claire show, Larson has other mementos, including a number of photographs he obtained. Years later in 1977, Larson said he had one of those photos enlarged and gave it to Jennings after the country superstar's concert near Denver. The shot included Jennings, Allsup and Holly.

"When I showed Waylon the photo, he just stood there shaking. He asked me, 'How did you get it?' " Larson recalled.

Holly's influence
Larson still gets choked up when recounting the day he learned of Holly's death. He was in school when a friend told him the news. Larson confirmed it a short time later when he heard a WAXX radio announcer mention that the song he had just played was by "the late Big Bopper."

"Jesus, my heart started pounding," Larson said. "'This can't be true. This can't be true,' I said."

A glum Larson rode the school bus home, went to his bedroom, closed the door and didn't come out for dinner.

St. Arnault was stunned too.

"Here, we'd just seen him the week before. It's just tragic. I know this affected Don much more than me since he lived the Buddy Holly-thing for many years afterward," said St. Arnault. "They say that it was 'the day the music died,' but it never did die. Buddy's music still lives on. Every time you hear his songs, it puts a little life in you."

Music scholars continue to debate the relevance of Holly and his brief career, but disciples like Larson and St. Arnault insist that the young rock 'n' roller's imprint on music is everlasting.

"Who knows where Buddy Holly would be today?" St. Arnault said. "Maybe he'd have his own record company because he was such an innovator. Each generation thinks they came in during the best time in music. But I know we did because that music has influenced so much to date."

amazing photos from the Winter Dance Party 1959,
that are in the public domain, can be viewed here:-

[www.buddyhollyonline.com]

Bob Dylan - "Buddy Holly looked at me"

Site of Buddy Holly's last gig named rock landmark

The Associated Press

[www.mercurynews.com]


CLEVELAND—The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has added the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, to its list of designated rock 'n' roll landmarks.
The Surf was where Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens played their final gig on Feb. 2, 1959. The three died in a plane crash after the performance. The anniversary is being marked with a weeklong commemoration culminating in a Feb. 2 anniversary concert at the Surf.

Other sites in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Landmark Series are the Whisky-a-Go-Go in Los Angeles where the Doors were resident performers; Brooklyn High School in Brooklyn, Ohio, where Elvis played his first concert north of the Mason-Dixon line; and The Crossroads in Clarksdale, Miss., cradle of the blues.

For more information about the Surf anniversary event, which is called "50 Winters Later," visit [www.50winterslater.com]. While the Surf Ballroom is still a venue for concerts and other events, there is also a museum at the site dedicated to preserving musical history. Details at [www.surfballroom.com].

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Cleveland but recently opened an annex in New York City at 76 Mercer St.; details at [www.rockhall.com].

- One snowy night 50 years ago, Buddy Holly took off on a small plane and died a few minutes later when it crashed in an Iowa field.

A tragic icon was born, but so was a half-century of litigation and finger-pointing. The latest legal showdown has been going on for 15 years as Holly's family chases alleged unpaid royalties from his Universal Music Group label.

"They've cheated us," Holly's older brother Larry told Reuters. Universal won the initial case, he said, but the family is appealing. He later declined to elaborate, suspecting that he was speaking to "an agent" for the label. A Universal official did not reply to a request for comment.

But the parties have made up, at least temporarily, to collaborate on a pair of multi-disc CD sets that will be released on January 27, a week before the anniversary of the February 3, 1959, crash that also claimed Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

The three-CD "Memorial Collection" boasts all of Holly's hits -- including "That'll Be The Day," "Not Fade Away," "Peggy Sue" and "Rave On"-- as well as seven recordings previously unreleased in the United States.

The two-CD "Down The Line - Rarities" features home recordings dating back to when Holly was 14, widely bootlegged undubbed versions, alternate takes and informal solo tapes.

Some of the recordings -- such as "Think It Over" and "Fool's Paradise" -- have been stripped of overdubs that were added by Norman Petty, arguably the No. 1 villain in the Buddy Holly story.

Petty was an independent producer who owned the Clovis, N.M., studio where Holly and his band the Crickets recorded most of their tunes between 1956 and 1958. In addition to taking control of Holly's career and finances, he added his name to the songwriting credits -- a dubious but not uncommon practice in those days.


"I'D RATHER SEE YOU DEAD"

After Holly suffered disappointing sales for such tunes as "Rave On" and "It's so Easy," he grew resentful of Petty's control. The cash-strapped musician and his new wife, Maria Elena, visited Petty at the studio to end their partnership, and seek his unpaid royalties.

In an interview with Reuters, Maria Elena Holly, recounted that Petty told his young protege, "You know what, Buddy? I'm gonna say this to you. I'd rather see you dead than to give you the money now."

Holly almost punched Petty, but his wife's cooler head prevailed, and they returned to their new apartment in New York where they borrowed money from Maria Elena's aunt. In a financial bind, Holly reluctantly joined the lineup of the "Winter Dance Party" tour of small towns in the frozen upper Midwest, leaving his pregnant bride at home.

The troupe traversed vast stretches in an old, unheated bus. For Holly, the discomfort was exacerbated by his legal problems with Petty.

After the 11th show, at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, he decided to take a small plane rather than reboard the bus for an overnight trip to the next venue 400 miles away in Moorhead, Minnesota.

The single-engine, four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza was no match for the developing blizzard, making it about four miles before crashing in a corn field and tossing its famous stars out into the snow. All died instantly, with Holly's skull split open and his chest crushed. He was just 22.

Maria Elena, who miscarried after learning of her husband's death, stopped short of saying Petty "killed" Holly, but said, "He had something to do with his accident."

Larry Holley (the "e" was dropped by Buddy for his stage name) was less equivocal.

"Man, that guy. I hope he's in hell right now. I imagine he is."
(Petty died in 1984)

THE BUDDY HOLLY BUSINESS

After Holly died, his family split the estate with Maria Elena. For the most part, the two camps get along fine now, although there were problems in the past, said Holley.

Tax bills forced the family to sell down their interest in Holly's catalog to Paul McCartney's publishing company, but they still make "a good living" from royalties, said Holley. McCartney's MPL Communications also scooped up Petty's ownership stake in Holly's compositions.

Maria Elena kept her share, and has spent her life overseeing the Buddy Holly business. She briefly remarried and had three children, but her husband "realized that my heart was not there. It was still with Buddy."

The Puerto Rican native has earned a reputation for being fiercely protective. She refused to let Holly's hometown of Lubbock, Texas, use his name for its walk of fame and annual music festival, but says she is on good terms with the city now.

"I trademarked that name already," she said. "People want to use it without compensation and I feel that was Buddy's bread and butter and the legacy left to us. I'm the guardian of that legacy. "


[uk.reuters.com]

Chuck Leavell & Bobby Keys are confirmed, to play
as members of the 'House Band' at the Surf Ballroom on Feb 2nd

[www.50winterslater.com]


MONDAY, February 2nd, 2009*

SURF BALLROOM/GIFT SHOP:
Hours: 6:00pm - close

EXHIBIT/DISPLAY: “SPECIAL TRIBUTE COLLECTION”:
Time: 6:00pm - close
Location: Surf Ballroom Lounge Stage
Event Description: Tom Fontaine's Rock and Roll Investments will present a special tribute collection exhibit featuring personal items, contracts, lyrics, autographs, etc. belonging to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper Richardson.” Bonus items from The Beatles (celebrating the 45th Anniversary of first arrival in the US), Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison etc. will also be on display during this time. Event open to ticketed 50 Winters Later concert-goers only.

CONCERT: 50 Winters Later Commemorative Concert
Artists Scheduled to Appear:
Tommy Allsup
Big Bopper JR
The Crickets
Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens
Joe Ely
Wanda Jackson
Los Lobos
Los Lonely Boys
Delbert McClinton
Chris Montez
Cousin Brucie Morrow
Graham Nash
Peter & Gordon
Sir Tim Rice
Bobby Vee
and special guests TBA
House Band:
Kenny Aronoff
Chuck Leavell
Bobby Keys
Hutch Hutchinson
Doors Open: 6:00pm
Concert: 7:00pm
Location: Surf Ballroom
Tickets: $85



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-01-27 12:01 by Adrian-L.

Rock fans head to Iowa to recall day music died

By MARCO SANTANA –

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) — It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.

The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes.

"It was really like the first rock 'n' roll landmark; the first death," said rock historian Jim Dawson, who has written several books about music of that era. "They say these things come in threes. Well, all three happened at the same time."

Starting Wednesday, thousands of people are expected to gather in the small northern Iowa town where the rock pioneers gave their last performance. They'll come to the Surf Ballroom for symposiums with the three musicians' relatives, sold-out concerts and a ceremony as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame designates the building as its ninth national landmark.

And they'll discuss why after so many years, so many people still care about what songwriter Don McLean so famously called "the day the music died."

"It was the locus point for that last performance by these great artists," said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. "It warrants being fixed in time."

Clear Lake is an unlikely spot for a rock 'n' roll pilgrimage — especially in winter. The resort town of about 8,000 borders its namesake lake, and on winter days the cold and wind make the community 100 miles north of Des Moines anything but a tourist destination.

The crash site is on private property, a five-mile drive from Clear Lake and half-mile walk off the road. Corn grows high in adjacent fields during the summer, but in winter the fields are covered with snow and a path to the small memorial is often thick with ice. The memorial features a small cross and thin metal guitar and records, all of which are draped in flowers during the summer.

"It's a much nicer trip in the summer," said Jeff Nicholas, a longtime Clear Lake resident who heads the Surf Ballroom's board of directors. "But in the winter, you get more of a feel of what it was like."

No one tracks the number of visitors, but fans stop by throughout the year and on some summer days visitors to the crash site can create the oddity of a corn field traffic jam.

Stewart said the deaths still resonate because they occurred at a time when rock 'n' roll was going through a transition, of sorts. The sound of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Holly was making way for the British Invasion of the mid-1960s.

"The music was shifting and changing at that point," he said. "The crash put a punctuation point on the change."

All three musicians influenced rock and roll in their own way.

Holly's career was short, but his hiccup-vocal style, guitar play and songwriting talents had tremendous influence on later performers. The Beatles, who formed about the time of the crash, were among his early fans and fashioned their name after Holly's band, The Crickets. Holly's hit songs include "That'll Be The Day," "Peggy Sue" and "Maybe Baby."

Richardson, "The Big Bopper," is often credited with creating the first music video with his recorded performance of "Chantilly Lace" in 1958, decades before MTV.

And Valens was one of the first musicians to apply a Mexican influence to rock 'n' roll. He recorded his huge hit "La Bamba" only months before the accident.

The plane left the airport in nearby Mason City about 1 a.m., headed for Moorhead, Minn., with the musicians looking for a break from a tiring, cold bus trip through the Upper Midwest.

It wasn't until hours later that the demolished plane was found, crumpled against a wire fence. Investigators believe the pilot, who also died, became confused amid the dark, snowy conditions and rammed the plane into the ground.

The crash set off a wave of mourning among their passionate, mostly young fans across the country. Then 12 years later the crash was immortalized as "the day the music died" in McLean's 1971 song, "American Pie."

Vonnie Amosson, who manages the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Clear Lake, said that ever since the plane crash, the community has embraced the tragedy. It's a continues stream of tourism dollars, and the town's chamber of commerce estimates that this year's events, dubbed "50s in February," will generate more than $4 million for Clear Lake's economy.

"It's kind of sad that that is what we are known for," Amosson said. "But on the other part of it, I think the whole '50's in February' weekend is a huge memorial and it's an honor to them."

In part because of its role in rock history, the Surf Ballroom has retained its vintage look, with a 6,000-square-foot dance floor, ceiling painted to resemble a sky, and original cloud machines on either side of the room. Ten Buddy Holly banners line the wall opposite the stage. The 2,100-capacity ballroom still hosts many national and regional performers, most of whom add their names to a backstage wall that is now crowded with drawings and signatures.

"It's quite a special place," said Nicholas, the Surf board member. "This place looks just like it did in 1959."

Crying, Waiting, Hoping: The Story of Buddy Holly's Last Tour

Saturday 31 January 2009
1900-2000

Steve Harley tells the story of the 'Winter Dance Party', an ill-advised bus tour of the Midwest, which ended tragically with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.

The sound of Buddy Holly And The Crickets prefigured the coming wave of rock 'n' rollers in the Sixties, influencing musicians like The Hollies and The Beatles. In the aftermath of his death, Holly's legend has grown in books, on stage, and on screen.

This programme looks at the personal and business circumstances which led Buddy Holly to embark on this relatively second-division tour, and the seemingly unrelated incidents that conspired to bring about his death.

It also covers the legal issues which have affected Buddy Holly's legacy and re-assesses the often-overlooked talents of Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.

The programme features new interviews with the two surviving members of Holly`s touring band, guitarist Tommy Allsup and drummer Carl Bunch, as well as contributions from Crickets' drummer Jerry `J.I` Allison and guitarist Sonny Curtis.

There are also memories and thoughts from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Don Everly, Hank Marvin, Carl Perkins, Bobby Vee, Little Richard, Los Lobos, Tony Hicks of The Hollies, Mike Pender of the Searchers, Maria Elena Holly and Don Mclean.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

All the material on the above two new cd collections can be obtained(plus alot more!) on the Purple Chick Buddy Holly 10 cd set.

Quote
scottkeef
All the material on the above two new cd collections can be obtained(plus alot more!) on the Purple Chick Buddy Holly 10 cd set.

the Purple Chick guys have produced a treasure trove,
a great labour of love.

I agree, they obviously care alot about the product they make avilable for fans(sure aint for the money!!) although lots of people are mading dough off their efforts. If The Beatles organization EVER get off their duffs to remaster and put out some collections they need to hire these "guys" since they already have done their homework.

Holly fans come from near and far

[www.globegazette.com]

CLEAR LAKE —

British Buddy Holly fans make the pilgrimage to Clear Lake every year for the annual tribute concerts at the Surf Ballroom.

But this is the first time Roger Johnson of Leeds, England, and his family have made the trip.

Johnson said one reason they came is that it’s the 50th anniversary of the Winter Dance Party at the Surf. Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens were killed in a plane crash after the concert.

“There will never be another 50th,” Johnson said. “It’s awesome to be a part of it.”

Johnson, who came to a 50 Winters Later reception at the Clear Lake Arts Center Wednesday with his wife, Rita, and their grown children, Richard and Ruth, said they are big Holly fans, but even bigger fans of Bobby Vee, one of the performers this year.

They have met him in person a number of times.

“Bobby tells us we are his Yorkshire VIPs. That’s spelled V-E-E-I-P-S,” Roger said.

The Johnsons have seen Vee perform in England. Just before coming to Clear Lake for 50 Winters Later, they were on a Caribbean cruise where Vee was one of the performers.

Roger said he is looking forward to seeing The Crickets perform at the Surf, in addition to Vee.

“Everyone who has been here has told us we are going to love it,” he said.

Another visitor from across the Atlantic is Torbjorn Lorentsen, who is from northern Norway.

Lorentsen came to the Surf five years ago to see Merle Haggard perform.

“It’s an interesting place,” he said.

Lorentsen was 15 when Holly died, but he didn’t know anything about him at the time because his town had only one radio station and it didn’t play his music.

He said he learned about Holly from reading a biography of Waylon Jennings, who performed with him that night.

Among the North Iowa fans attending Wednesday’s reception was Dennis Tierney of Charles City.

Tierney came with his son, Brad Tierney, a 1991 Charles City High School graduate now living in North Liberty.

The younger Tierney, who has a pair of Buddy Holly-style glasses he wears just for the annual celebration at the Surf, said he inherited his love for Holly and other early rock ’n’ roll performers from his Baby Boomer parents.

He has several ’50s-related drawings he did on display in the current exhibit at the Clear Lake Arts Center, including a portrait of Elvis.

He said he is looking forward to this year’s celebration because he thinks the 50th anniversary will attract people who don’t normally attend.

“The atmosphere should be great,” he said.

rumours are circulating, amongst us Holly fans,
that Paul McCartney, will be putting in an appearance,
at The Surf show, on monday.

Quote
scottkeef
I agree, they obviously care alot about the product they make avilable for fans(sure aint for the money!!) although lots of people are mading dough off their efforts. If The Beatles organization EVER get off their duffs to remaster and put out some collections they need to hire these "guys" since they already have done their homework.

everything you need to know, regarding the Purple Chick 10-cd set, can
be viewed here (incl. downloadable artwork)

[www.bigozine2.com]

BBC-4 are showing a Buddy Holly documentary (incl. Keith interview)
and the Gary Busey movie, on Wed 4th Feb

[www.bbc.co.uk]

Why Buddy Holly is still pop’s hero

Chas Hodges



I enjoyed John Gribben’s piece on Buddy Holly, who died 50 years ago on Tuesday, (The Times, January 16), but I don’t think his reasoning as to why Buddy is still so popular today is good enough. So how? He was the first man to mix original melody with rock’n’roll.

I’ve become a friend of Jerry Allison, who was the drummer and wrote a lot of songs with Buddy: That’ll Be the Day, Think It Over. I stayed with him in Nashville and said to him one night: “Do you realise it was you and Buddy Holly who actually put melody into rock’n’roll?” The Beatles wouldn’t have been the Beatles without Buddy Holly: he showed them the way forward.

I first heard Buddy Holly in 1957, singing That’ll Be the Day on a programme called Six Five Special on the BBC. They used to play records — they didn’t have videos in those days — and they’d get the kids to dance. I became an immediate fan. I had enough money for one record at the music stall in Edmonton Market and I had to choose between Buddy’s Listen to Me and Breathless by Jerry Lee Lewis. I chose Listen to Me. He’d overdubbed his own voice — it gave off an eerie, haunting sound that I’d never heard on record before.

When Buddy’s new records came out, unlike Lewis or Little Richard, they always sounded different. Not too different, but enough to make you think a bit. The only band since then who have give me the same feeling have been the Beatles.

We lost a driving force with Buddy Holly

I was in a skiffle group at the time and I learnt a lot of Buddy’s guitar chords: the quick changes in Peggy Sue were quite nifty at the time and I was really pleased with myself when I pulled them off. My playing improved enormously after listening to his records, and we used to play his songs on stage.

I was 15 when he died. I remember the kid next door but one knocking at the door and saying: “Guess what, Buddy Holly’s been killed in a plane crash!” My stupid response was: “Just as long as it isn’t Jerry Lee Lewis.” Why did I say that?

I remember the papers saying what crap music rock’n’roll was, but when he died they were saying: “What a talent, a contender for the throne of Elvis.”

I joined a band called Mike Berry and the Outlaws and we did a tribute to Buddy Holly, which was in the charts in 1961. We recorded it with the producer Joe Meek, who was obsessed by Buddy Holly. He used to have seances and say, “I spoke to Buddy Holly last night,” and he committed suicide on the anniversary of his death.

If Buddy were alive today, he would have loved the Beatles saying it was him that influenced them but I don’t think he would really have been fully aware of it. He wouldn’t realise quite how important he was.

Chas & Dave: All About Us, by Chas Hodges, is published by John Blake

[entertainment.timesonline.co.uk]

Local couple remembers 'The Day The Music Died'

[www.timesrepublican.com]

The rock 'n' roll craze: When teenage boys wore pompadours and girls taped dreamy pictures of Elvis onto their bedroom walls.

It was 1959 and wrapping up in Green Bay, Wisc., some musicians piled inside of a bus and drove to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake where they began setting up for another gig on their 24-day tour.

At the same time, Ron Barth and his wife Charlene were anticipating the Feb. 2 show, entitled "Winter Dance Party," purchasing two tickets almost four months in advance. He was 23 years old and she 22. The pair lived in Mason City and only 9 miles away from the venue where they danced nearly every Saturday night.

"We saw Johnny Cash, Jimmy Dean and Loretta Lynn," Ron said. "Whenever they'd bring in a new star, we'd always go to the Surf."

And knowing Dion & The Belmonts, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Jiles "Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens would be together at the same venue, the pair was going - no matter what.

The show came and went and with a fun-filled evening at an end, the Barth's left for home, only to confront blowing snow and a car ride atop ice-covered roads. Approaching two hours, they had yet to reach the city limits.

"Why we or anyone else were even out that night was stupid," Ron said.

Meanwhile, the bands were packing up gear with dread. Barely half-way through the tour, rigors were taking an irritable toll. The bus had a broken heating system which caused Carl Bunch, Holly's drummer, to leave the day before with frost-bitten feet. Richardson had the flu.

Reaching limits of his own, Holly told band mates Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings that after the show, they would ride to the Mason City Municipal Airport where he had charted a flight to Fargo, N.D., then on to their next stop in Minnesota.

After debating on the airfield as to whom would be in tow, the "Big Bopper", Valens and Holly prevailed; each entered the four-passenger plane - oblivious to a pilot and his ignorance of the instrument panel or weather advisories.

At 1:05 a.m. and regardless of the blizzard, the entourage left the runway.

Relieved to be almost home, the Barth's happened ironically upon a police officer who informed them a plane had gone down near the airport. A sinking feeling overtook them and "we just knew right away what that was about."

Amid the brisk hours of the morning, headlines revealed a gruesome tragedy - all aboard the airplane had perished. Barth and his wife were literally stunned.

"It was like losing someone in the family because we followed them since they started out. We were there the night they died," Ron said, then paused. "Awful."

Now residents of Marshalltown, the Barth's sometimes wonder where the promising entertainers would have gone in their careers. Ron claimed Holly and his music were something different which placed him 30 years ahead of his time.

"He was just tremendous, playing his own guitar leads 99 percent of the time - just unbelievable, and Valens was the same way for his age. He was so young; it was a shame," he added.

Though Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" refers to Feb. 2 as "the day the music died," fans world wide have kept the Winter Dance Party very alive. With this year marking the 50th anniversary of the accident, thousands are expected to walk Iowa's frozen fields and visit the memorialized crash site.

Starting off a week-long celebration Jan. 28, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum will dedicate the Surf Ballroom as a historic landmark.

The commemoration will offer symposiums, educational programs and concerts, along with special appearances from Maria Elena Holly, Tommy Allsup, Big Bopper Jr., Carl Bunch, Los Lobos, The Crickets, Bob Hale, Graham Nash, Delbert McClinton and others. A musical tribute will occur on the Surf stage Feb. 2 featuring an all-star lineup performing where they played five decades ago. The concert is slated to air nationally during the 2009 PBS television season.

As for the Barth's, they have never attended a dance party since that night and are not sure why.

"We're very fortunate. That is national history and we were a part of it," Ron said. "Not everybody can say that ... yeah, it was quite an evening."

Tyrades! Rave On, Buddy Holly Fans

Friday, January 30, 2009
By Danny Tyree
February 3, 2009: that'll be the day.
That's the 50th anniversary of the tragic plane crash that claimed the lives of rock and roll stars J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly.

There are a number of ways to mark the anniversary of "the day the music died."

Holly hometown Lubbock, Texas, plans tours, panel discussions, and other events on Feb. 2 and 3.

The Smithereens will perform a tribute to Holly at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa (the last place Holly performed) on Feb. 2.

You could reminisce over ways Holly's music has touched your life. I was born the year after Holly died, but during my one-weekend career as a DJ at WJJM (1982), I proudly opened my first show with "Oh Boy!"

You can play Linda Ronstadt's 1977 cover version of "It's So Easy" over and over, watch Gary Busey in 1978's "The Buddy Holly Story" (mindful of the standard biopic inaccuracies, shortcuts and distortions), or lock yourself in your room and listen to the 3-CD "Memorial Collection" or 2-CD "Down The Line: Rarities" (both to be released Jan. 28).

Imitate one of the aforementioned Lubbock panels and speculate on where Holly would be now if not for the plane crash. Would he be an elder statesman of music, like Tony Bennett? (Even though Holly's national fame lasted only 18 months, and he was only 22 when he died, "Rolling Stone Magazine" in 2004 ranked him #13 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.) Would he be a reclusive retiree? Would he have reinvented himself a dozen times over the decades?

Marvel at just how much the music industry has changed since Holly's time. We now have stereo FM radio, satellite radio, MTV, and VH1 -- but no "American Bandstand." Digital downloads, CDs, iPods and ring tones have changed our relationship with music. Radio station consolidation has tightened playlists and reduced DJ flexibility.

Debate the cryptic references in 1971's "American Pie" (some observers see Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Janis Joplin hidden in the lyrics, but give it your own spin) and briefly share Don McLean's longing for a simpler era, before overt sexuality, drug abuse, and social protest took over rock.

Encourage an "oldies" radio station to give more airtime to Holly and his contemporaries. Many of today's oldies programmers think rock and roll history started with the British Invasion or even Woodstock. Next, it'll be starting with Milli Vanilli.

On the other hand, refrain from hypocrisy. It's easy to snicker at the rigid establishment figures who banned Holly's innovations as "jungle music," but some fans of Holly's music have become locked into one sliver of musical history. Come out of your comfort zone for at least one day. It's hard to celebrate the rebelliousness of Holly by turning a deaf ear to a new artist or new genre. Give a chance to someone else who hears the music in his head and wants to share it.

Holly deserves to be more than a fleeting glimpse of a young guy with geeky eyeglasses surrounded by coonskin caps, Hula Hoops, and "I Like Ike" buttons. Do your part this February and guarantee that the legacy of Buddy Holly and the other pioneers of rock and roll will "Not Fade Away."

Note: Danny Tyree welcomes e-mail at tyreetyrades@aol.com.

[www.marshalltribune.com]

A Don McLean autographed copy of the lyrics for the song "American Pie"
on a wall, in the green room , at the Surf Ballroom

Why Buddy Holly will never fade away


[www.telegraph.co.uk]

Fifty years after Buddy Holly's death, a leading critic argues that the influence of the man who created rock music is as great as ever

By Philip Norman




American idol: Buddy Holly was the model that countless stars followed
On the basis of simply counting heads, rock music surpasses even film as the 20th century's most influential art form. By that reckoning, there is a case for calling Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash 50 years ago next Tuesday, the century's most influential musician.

Holly and Elvis Presley are the two seminal figures of 1950s rock 'n' roll, the place where modern rock culture began. Virtually everything we hear on CD or see on film or the concert stage can be traced back to those twin towering icons – Elvis with his drape jacket and swivelling hips and Buddy in big black glasses, brooding over the fretboard of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.

But Presley's contribution to original, visceral rock 'n' roll was little more than that of a gorgeous transient; having unleashed the world-shaking new sound, he soon forsook it for slow ballads, schlock movie musicals and Las Vegas cabarets. Holly, by contrast, was a pioneer and a revolutionary. His was a multidimensional talent which seemed to arrive fully formed in a medium still largely populated by fumbling amateurs. The songs he co-wrote and performed with his backing band the Crickets remain as fresh and potent today as when recorded on primitive equipment in New Mexico half a century ago: That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Not Fade Away.

To call someone who died at 22 "the father of rock" is not as fanciful as it seems. As a songwriter, performer and musician, Holly is the progenitor of virtually every world-class talent to emerge in the Sixties and Seventies. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Bruce Springsteen all freely admit they began to play only after Buddy taught them how. Though normal-sighted as a teenager, Elton John donned spectacles in imitation of the famous Holly horn-rims and ruined his eyesight as a result.

Holly's voice is the most imitated, and inimitable, in rock. Hundreds of singers have borrowed its eccentric pronunciation and phrasing. None (except perhaps John Lennon) has exactly caught the curious lustre of its tone, its erratic swings from dark to light, from exuberant snarl to tender sigh, nor brought off the "Holly hiccough" which could fracture even the word "well" into eight syllables.

Unlike Presley and other guitar-toting idols of the mid-Fifties, Holly was a gifted instrumentalist who had grown up playing country music in his native West Texas. His playing style became as influential as his voice – the moody drama he could conjure from a shifting sequence of four basic chords, his incisive downstrokes and echoey descants. The deification of the rock guitarist, the sex appeal of the solid-body guitar, the glamour of the Fender brand: all were set in train by Buddy and his sunburst Strat.

Pop music has become an endless recycling, each new generation believing they are the first to discover its repertoire of "cool" and limited palette of sentiments and chords. In the genes of almost every band, Buddy Holly has been there, either by conscious assimilation or via his disciples. "Listen to any new release," says Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, whose first killer riff was on the 1964 cover of Not Fade Away. "Buddy will be in it somewhere. His stuff just works."

Holly's time on the world stage was pitifully short, lasting only from September 1957, when That'll Be The Day became an international hit, to February 3, 1959, when he and two fellow performers, Ritchie Valens and J P "The Big Bopper" Richardson, fatally decided to fly from Clear Lake, Iowa, to Fargo, North Dakota, to avoid a freezing night on a tour bus. The crash of their chartered aircraft into a snowy stubble-field has become rock's most famous tragedy, enshrined by Don McLean's American Pie as ''the day the music died''.

In 16 crowded months, Holly had created a blueprint for enlightened rock stardom that every newcomer with any pretence at self-respect still aspires to follow. He was the first rock 'n' roller both talented and strong-minded enough to insist on the artistic control his musical heirs now take for granted. He was the first not only to write his own songs but also to arrange them, directing his backup musicians to his own exacting standards. He was the first to understand and experiment with studio technology, achieving effects with echo, double-tracking and overdubbing on primitive Ampex recorders which have never been bettered.

He was the first rock 'n' roller not to be a scowling pretty boy like Elvis – to be, in fact, angular and geeky-looking, with bad skin, discoloured teeth and glasses that did not acquire their stylish black frames until the last months of his life. He was the first to make it on sheer ability, energy and personality, appealing to a male audience as much as a female one, redefining the perception of good looks and style much as John Lennon and Mick Jagger would in the next decade.

The years since 1959 have seen many other great talents prematurely snuffed out. But Holly's death has a special poignancy. This was no rock 'n' roll roughneck, hell-bent on self-annihilation, but an amiable (and deeply religious) young Texan whose life had not the least taint of scandal, discredit or unkindness; who had recently married and was about to become a father; who went on tour through the snowy Midwest only because his ex-manager, Norman Petty, refused to pay his royalties; who took that fatal flight with his two colleagues only to snatch a few hours sleep in a hotel and get his laundry done.

His fans are numbered in the millions, and grow in number with each passing year. And dying so young, and so pure, as he did, he left them an extra gift. They can never be disillusioned.

'Buddy: the Definitive Biography of Buddy Holly' by Philip Norman has just been reissued in paperback by Macmillan at £7.99. See Tuesday's Daily Telegraph for details of how to claim a free Buddy Holly CD, with 22 tracks by Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-01-31 19:17 by Adrian-L.

Quote
Adrian-L
Crying, Waiting, Hoping: The Story of Buddy Holly's Last Tour

Saturday 31 January 2009
1900-2000

Steve Harley tells the story of the 'Winter Dance Party', an ill-advised bus tour of the Midwest, which ended tragically with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.

The sound of Buddy Holly And The Crickets prefigured the coming wave of rock 'n' rollers in the Sixties, influencing musicians like The Hollies and The Beatles. In the aftermath of his death, Holly's legend has grown in books, on stage, and on screen.

This programme looks at the personal and business circumstances which led Buddy Holly to embark on this relatively second-division tour, and the seemingly unrelated incidents that conspired to bring about his death.

It also covers the legal issues which have affected Buddy Holly's legacy and re-assesses the often-overlooked talents of Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.

The programme features new interviews with the two surviving members of Holly`s touring band, guitarist Tommy Allsup and drummer Carl Bunch, as well as contributions from Crickets' drummer Jerry `J.I` Allison and guitarist Sonny Curtis.

There are also memories and thoughts from Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Don Everly, Hank Marvin, Carl Perkins, Bobby Vee, Little Richard, Los Lobos, Tony Hicks of The Hollies, Mike Pender of the Searchers, Maria Elena Holly and Don Mclean.

[www.bbc.co.uk]

available for download, at Hungercity

[www.hungercity.org]

The Big Boppers son was on "Coast to Coast" radio show last night-pretty interesting!

Maria Elena Speaks

Buddy Holly's wife tells how she'll pay tribute with fans 50 years after tragedy

[www.sundaymail.co.uk]

Feb 1 2009 By Billy Sloan Showbiz Editor

FEBRUARY 3, 1959 was the day the music died...when a plane crash claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.

The tiny aircraft Holly hired to fly them to a gig plummeted to earth at 170mph in an Iowa snowstorm. Buddy was 22, The Big Bopper 27 and Ritchie just 17.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of their deaths, Holly's widow told the Sunday Mail he only signed up for the fateful tour to earn money to prepare for the birth of their first child.

On Tuesday, Maria Elena Holly, 73, will gather with fans at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa - the venue for his last ever performance - to celebrate his life.

She was ill in bed with morning sickness when she heard the awful news.

Maria said: "I got a telephone call from a friend saying, 'Maria Elena, stay in bed and don't put the TV on'.

"Of course, I got up, turned it on and saw a news report saying Buddy, The Big Bopper and Ritchie had been killed.

"I collapsed crying my heart out and within minutes the house was besieged by newspaper men. I was devastated and the shock was so traumatic I later miscarried and lost our child."

One of the first telephone calls of condolence Maria Elena received was from a young American serviceman posted in Germany.

She said: "Elvis Presley called to say how sorry he was. Buddy had opened for Elvis in his home town of Lubbock, Texas, and they became good friends. They used to hang out." Maria Elena - from San Juan, Puerto Rico,

And it was love at first sight at least for the singer who had classic hits with songs such as That'll Be The Day, Not Fade Away and Peggy Sue. Maria Elena said: "I had never been out on a date with a guy in my life.

"I lived with my aunt who was very strict and didn't want me to hang around with musicians.

It wasn't that she didn't trust me - she just didn't want me to go out with every Tom, Dick and Harry and at that time rock'n'rollers had a very bad reputation.

"I used to mail Buddy's records out to radio disc jockeys but when he walked through the door I had no idea who he was.

"He asked me out on the spot and we went out for dinner that night."

Maria Elena and Buddy went on a date to PJB Arthur's Restaurant and she almost fell off her chair when he proposed, just five hours after first setting eyes on her.

She said: "He excused himself and left the table.

When he came back he had one arm behind his back.

Buddy pulled out a red rose and said, 'Will you marry me?' "I thought he was kidding.

But I think I'd fallen in love with him the minute he walked through the door."

The couple married two months later on August 15, 1958 in Lubbock.

Maria became pregnant and they moved into their own appartment.

But Holly was going through a bitter and costly legal dispute with record producer Norman Petty and the newlyweds struggled to pay bills.

Maria Elena said: "My aunt got us an apartment on 11th Street and she paid the bills because we had no money.

"Buddy wasn't very comfortable with that. His money was tied up in the difficult break up with Norman and he said, 'I need to do something.

I can't have your aunt pay for everything.

I'm supposed to take care of you.' "He decided to try to get a gig to earn some money."

Buddy agreed to top the bill of a two-week tour with The Big Bopper - DJ turned singer JP Richardson - who was promoting his now classic song Chantilly Lace - and heart-throb singer Ritchie Valens, who was launching his single Donna.

As they hit the road on the badly organised tour - in the grip of a sub-zero winter - conditions were spartan.

When the heating on the bus broke down Ritchie's drummer was taken to hospital suffering from frostbite After playing the Surf Ballroom, Buddy paid
108 to hire a Beechcraft Bonanza plane to transport him to the next show in Minnesota.

But he didn't tell Maria Elena he would be travelling by air instead of road.

She said: "Buddy called me every night from each gig but in Iowa he never mentioned a plane to me. He knew I didn't like those small aircraft.

"He'd get one of the guys to hold the telephone up while he was on stage singing his closing number True Love Ways - the song he wrote for me.

"He told me everybody had flu and as there was no road manager he took it upon himself to organise alternative transport.

"There were only three seats on the plane, one for Buddy and his guitarists Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup."

Then fate defined one of the most iconic moments in pop history.

The Big Bopper had flu and asked Buddy if he could take Waylon's seat. Ritchie pleaded with Tommy to swap places with him. The friends tossed a coin and when Valens called correctly he boarded the doomed flight.

"I hope your ol' bus freezes up again," joked Holly as they set off.

Waylon replied: "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." As news of the crash spread around the world fans mourned the death of the iconic Holly.

One teenage admirer was so moved he wrote a song about the incident years later when he became a musician himself.

His name was Don McLean and the song he wrote was the classic American Pie which includes the famous lyric, I can't remember if I cried/When I read about his widowed bride/But something touched me deep inside/The day the music died.

Holly's body lies in the City of Lubbock Cemetery beneath a headstone which carries the correct spelling of his surname - Holley - carved in the shape of his beloved Fender Stratocaster guitar.

Maria Elena, who eventually remarried and had three children, has never visited his graveside.

She divorced and is now a grandmother living in Dallas.

She admits Tuesday's commemorative celebrations will be very emotional.

But the devotion of fans has helped her over the years.

She said: "Fifty years after Buddy passed on his music is still alive.

His fans have stayed loyal and he'll always be remembered.

"That's something I take great comfort from.

Losing him was heartbreaking.

I'm thrilled his music is still played and enjoyed all over the world.

It means Buddy didn't die in vain."

Holly inspired a host of superstars including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. John, Paul, George and Ringo named their group as a homage to his backing band The Crickets while Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts chalked up their first Top 10 hit with a cover of his song Not Fade Away in 1964.

Maria Elena says her husband would be amazed at his current status as a pop icon.

She said: "Buddy was not the kind of person to boast about his success.

"He never saw himself as a superstar.

He was just happy he was so prolific with his songwriting and that he was being accepted.

"He knew exactly what he wanted to do and in which direction he wanted his career to go.

He was a very modest man, it was never a case of look who I am.

"If he were alive today I think he would still have been writing songs and making music.

He wanted to get involved in all facets of the industry."

And what is Maria Elena's favourite Holly classic?

She said: "I love all of his songs because no two are like.

But I'd have to choose True Love Ways because it was our song.

"When he wrote it he said, 'This is for you'.

In every tour he did he played it last in the set.

"It's difficult for me to listen to True Love Ways if it comes on the radio.

I still get tears in my eyes and I have to stop and compose myself."

THE Very Best of Buddy Holly and The Crickets double CD and The Music of Buddy Holly: The Definitive Story DVD are released through Universal Records tomorrow.

Stage musical The Buddy Holly Story is at the King's Theatre, Glasgow from February 2-7 and Inverness Eden Court Theatre from April 13-18.


MAILFILE

HE was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas, on September 7, 1936. His career lasted just 18 months yet he was hailed the most creative force in rock 'n' roll.

BUDDY'S first recording was a cover of Hank Snow's country song My Two Timin' Woman done on a borrowed tape machine. He turned to rock 'n' roll after Elvis Presley played in Lubbock.

HE signed a record deal with Decca in 1956 and recorded That'll Be The Day...his classic song inspired by a line spoken by John Wayne in the Western epic The Searchers.

WHEN Buddy first toured the UK in 1957 he appeared on top TV variety show Sunday Night At The London Palladium. Teenage viewers John Lennon and Paul McCartney became instant fans.

ROLLING Stone Keith Richards saw Holly play Not Fade Away and suggested his own group cover it. The Hollies were named to honour Buddy.

ANOTHER famous Holly fan was Bob Dylan. He saw him play just three nights before the plane crash.

HOLLY made it cool for pop singers to wear glasses. Look at Hank Marvin, Elvis Costello, Kurt Cobain, Jarvis Cocker and The Proclaimers.

PAUL McCARTNEY bought publishing rights to Holly's back catalogue and dressed as him in his 1980 Coming Up video.

IN 1987, Gary Busey was nominated for an Oscar for best actor when he starred in the The Buddy Holly Story.

HOLLY has influenced The Ramones, Run DMC and The Strokes. Blink 182 wrote Peggy Sue in his honour and Weezer have a song called Buddy Holly.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN plays Holly hits before every gig to help vibe him up. The Boss said: "That keeps me honest." - was a receptionist for Peer-Southern Music Publishing in New York when she first met Buddy in 1958.

I think theres a typo on what year Busey made "The Buddy Holly Story".