BUDDY HOLLY
REDIRECT: Buddy Holly
Sadly the Latin presence in American rock and roll is not at all recognized. Most people only know about Ritchie Valens, who had a couple of hit songs back in the 1950's, "Donna" (or "Oh Donna") and " La Bamba " (the title of a 1987 biopic film about him, La Bamba starring Lou Diamond Phillips). Along with the better known Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, Valens died in the 1957 plane crash in Iowa that was immortalized in Don McLean's haunting "American Pie" as "the day the music died".
(January 2011)
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Never having been in a band, I can't say for sure; but it seems to me that choosing just the right name has to be a major decision. Many bands go through several names before settling down. The Beatles, for instance, cycled through a long list of names beginning in March 1957, many totally unknown to their fans: the Blackjacks, the Quarrymen, Johnny and the Moondogs, the Beatals, the Silver Beetles, the Silver Beatles, and finally the Beatles in mid-August 1960. It was Stu Sutcliffe who, in January 1960, came up with the name "the Beatals" – as a tribute to the name of Buddy Holly's band the Crickets – so he should rightly be credited with the name we all knew them by. (Another British band was more direct in their honoring of Buddy, the Hollies). By the way, Pete Best was hired as the permanent drummer for the Beatles on August 12, 1960 – within days of their starting to use the name without "Silver" – and Ringo Starr wouldn't be brought in for two more years.
(June 2012)
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Future country superstar Waylon Jennings is well known as being a member of Buddy Holly's band the Crickets on "the day the music died").
(August 2012)
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Dion and the Belmonts had several hits beginning with "I Wonder Why" in 1958. On the strength of their early success, they were brought along on the Winter Dance Tour with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. At one stop, Holly chartered a plane to get to the next date on the tour; but Dion turned down the offered ride, saying that he couldn't afford the $36 cost. On February 3, 1959, the plane crashed in a cornfield in Iowa, killing Holly, Valens, the Big Bopper, and the pilot. (Waylon Jennings, who was in Buddy Holly's band the Crickets at the time, also decided against getting on the plane).
(September 2012)
