Holly’s star extinguished too soon
Ihave great friends who called their cat after Buddy Holly.
I don’t think the moggy understands he’s a puss with a purr-puss. He’s keeping alive an artist whose career lasted less than 18 months.
Buddy Holly first shone on TV on December 29, 1957, and died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. He was after Elvis, before The Beatles and beyond imagination. He had a voice, style and invented a rhythm method long before Family Planning.
In a series of Prime documentaries,
Buddy Holly (Rave On) has been my favourite. He started as a bluegrass singer, but Elvis was the game changer. He gave teenagers an identity and Buddy gave them a voice. With songs such as Oh
Boy, Heartbeat, Every Day and Rave On, his lyrics were dreamier and more palatable.
Buddy was an unknown who recorded at Norm Petty’s studio with a group called The Spiders. They quickly became The Crickets and would have gone on to The Cicadas if he hadn’t taken the last plane to Fargo.
What distinguished Buddy was his catchy tunes and driving guitar beat. Before Buddy, the electric guitar was an accompaniment. With him it became a solo instrument. Buddy duetted with his guitar.
His breakthrough songs were Peggy Sue and That’ll Be The Day and then he was on the Greyhound to glory. In those days, all pop-rock artists who had two or three hits were packed on a Greyhound bus and did the circuit. Buddy lived and sang together with Duane Eddy, The Everly Brothers, Paul Anka and Dion And The Belmonts.
They performed their numbers, walked off stage and took the next bus to Baltimore. But on February 3, 1959, he broke the mould. Buddy, 22, hired a plane and flew to Fargo with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. The Beechcraft Bonanza crashed and the world lost an icon. In between times he’d moved to New York, met and married Maria Elena, recorded some soppy songs with strings but, to make money, he returned to the circuit.
The Buddy Holly story has been told before, but not with such incisive comment from Brian May, Don Everly, Paul Anka, Buddy’s brother Larry, Don Mclean and Jerry Allison. He was ‘‘A Cricket’’ who came in to bat for Buddy.
Buddy Holly’s songs remain distinctive and contemporary, but he did one other thing for people. He had 20/800 eyesight and wore horn-rimmed spectacles. That made it popular for the rest of us to wear glasses and not look like Mr Magoo.
Buddy Holly (Prime, Wednesday) was as endearing as Peggy Sue and It Doesn’t
Matter Anymore. Sorry Buddy, it does matter. But the documentary helped us remember you and relive your life and music.
Last week I expressed concern about personality judges who couldn’t make decisions and earn their keep. They proved my point in The X Factor (TV One, Saturdays). The LMA Choir were pitted against Brendon Murray, an Irish singer with an anaemic voice.
It was like comparing a hedgehog with a hair brush. The choir was outstanding and belted out indistinguishable words with passion and precision. Brendon was no comparison. His song was powerful, but his upper register was ugly.
The judging panel was timid and Ayda Field ensured it was 2-2. The judges then left it to the audience vote. Sadly, they proved to be culturally constipated and decided in favour of Brendon. Just as well they weren’t deciding Brexit.
In between writing this column, I made a quick trip to Australia. I turned on the TV and a stalk of broccoli sang Finiculi
Finicula. What a turnip for the books. I turned off the telly.
On Breakfast (TV One, weekdays) the question ‘‘is it sexist to take your husband’s name?’’ was raised. Hayley Holt claimed it was a hangover from when women were chattels.
Opinion was divided. Yes, some names are not improved by marriage, such as Annette Kirton and Tess Stickle.
A popular trend is for women to retain their maiden name, such as Hillary Rodham Clinton. But then two barrels could become four barrels, such as the 5th Earl of Wharncliffe, who is Richard Montagu-stuart-wortley-mackenzie.
Inevitably, if you research Wikipedia you’ll find amusing double names such as Macdonald-berger, Hardy-harr and many others that can be shared around the barbecue at Christmas.
British newspapers have speculated about coupling prominent people such as Jack Straw and Mary Berry, Liz Hurley and Craig Burley.
I’m only hoping Breakfast wasn’t suggesting it was time to reverse names. Imagine the confusion. Only the telephone directory and Yellow Pages would win.