DEDICATED   TO   MY   OLD   FRIEND   PETE   MOORCROFT   FROM   DERBY  !

Buddy's Legend Lives On!

 Hello, my name is Pete Moorcroft, I am from Derby in England and this page is   dedicated to the memory of Charles Hardin Holley and his wonderful talent that   created the legend which still lives on today. Cast your mind back to the mid-   fifties when record companies paid artists by the song and virtually told them   which songs they could record , well my friends Buddy Holly was one of the first   Rock'n'Roll artists to write, arrange and record his own work. He also pioneered   overdubbing (a crude way of re-recording to achieve several Buddys on one   record!) The very first record I bought was That'll Be The Day and although I   bought hundreds more by various stars of the 50's and 60's I never forgot   those great records that Buddy wrote and recorded. 

 Buddy's first recording contract was with U.S. Decca.He went to the famous   Owen Bradley Studios in Nashville in 1956 with high hopes of becoming a   successful hit recording star, but even with studio musicians that included the   great Grady Martin (Guitar Genius?) things were just not right and the great   record buying public just did not buy. 

 After arriving back from Nashville Buddy felt dejected but not surprised at not   attaining success with those Decca recordings, for he was never really satisfied   with the tracks he did at Owen Bradley's studio because they weren't HIS     musical arrangements, but I don't think at any time did he think that he was not   going to make something of his musical career . 

 Buddy decided to drive to Clovis, New Mexico to meet a man that would be the   vehicle to his success, this man was Norman Petty who would later become   Buddy's manager. Petty gave Buddy the  time and space he needed to perfect   the recording techniques that were really quite novel for the mid-fifties and I   think it would be fair to say that Petty's input at this time was crucial. 

 Their re-working of the song that was originally recorded in Nashville for Decca   called "That'll Be The Day" was presented to Coral Records who released it   immediately and although a slow seller to start with, the record picked up in the   autumn of '57 and it eventually topped the Billboard charts.

 
 The subsequent two LP records cut for Coral remain classics to this day.

 When Norman Petty successfully signed Buddy with Coral Records (ironically a   subsidiary of Decca) he was also making himself a rich man because as was usual   in management in those days he had secured songwriting credits on most of   Buddy's work even though his input was minimal. 

 When Buddy met his future wife Maria she intimated to him that perhaps he   was not getting a good deal from Petty and eventually Buddy decided to base   himself in New York, he asked the Crickets to stay on with him but Petty   persuaded Jerry Allison and Joe Mauldin that they could still be big without   Buddy and since he (Petty) controlled all the money that Buddy and The Crickets   had made he could starve him back into the group. 

 Late '58 Buddy spent time enjoying himself in New York and planning his future   with the help of Maria but as Petty had predicted Buddy found himself running   out of cash even though his former manager held royalties and performance   money. 

 Buddy then signed to tour with the Winter Dance Party, a show that included   Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. The   tour was a nightmare for the performers with tour buses continually breaking   down in the severe cold weather that was affecting the mid-west of the U.S.A.   in early 1959. On February 2nd Buddy had hired a light aircraft for himself and   the new "Crickets" (Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings) so they could at least   arrive early on February 3rd at Fargo, North Dakota for their next show.   However when Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper heard about the aircraft they   both persuaded Jennings and Allsup to give up their plane seats to them. 

 That night the fated trio of stars along with their young inexperienced pilot   Roger Petersen took off in a raging snow storm and all four were killed when the   aircraft plunged into a field not far from the airport they had just left. 

                                                                                  NEXT   PAGE