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Feb. 3, 1997 - Bill Cooper
42:45
Buddy Holly Special #2
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Time Text
After all, another fella took you, but I still can't overlook you.
I'm gonna do my best to hurt you.
After all, it ain't enough.
Honey, you're gonna save me.
You're gonna save Jenny.
You're gonna save lovin' me, cause I'm gonna love you too.
Love me cause I'm gonna love you too It's gonna happen someday, it's gonna sweep things far away
It's gonna make you love me cause I'm gonna love you too It's gonna make me a sweet thing, it's gonna make my heart
sing It's gonna hear those bells ring cause I'm gonna love you
too Bye!
After all, another fella's with you, but I still can't overlook you.
I'm gonna do my best to love you, after all is said and done.
Are you gonna say you'll miss me?
Are you gonna say you'll kiss me?
Are you gonna say you'll love me?
Cause I'm gonna love you.
I'm gonna love you.
I'm gonna love you, I'm gonna love you, I'm gonna love you.
Ah, you're listening to the best of all that Buddy Holly ever recorded during his career.
I'm gonna say hi, John Levine.
I'm gonna say hi, John Levine.
You know my love never fade away You know my love never fade away
My love is bigger than the can of land I'm sure I'm sure you'd rather me cry
Your love for me got me real Oh
Like you always wished it should be.
101.1 FM.
I love the way you're not fading away.
Classic Radio, like you always wished it should be.
101.1 FM, Eager.
I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be.
I love the way you're not fading away.
And I'm going to be doing a lot of this stuff.
What do you think about that?
I mean, we've got a long time to go.
Well, folks, we're not even halfway through. What do you think about that? I mean, we've
got a long time to go, a lot of hours still ahead of us. We're going to take a break in
about 35 minutes so that you can hear the Jackie Petrou program. And we would have preempted
that broadcast tonight, but she is making her debut on a couple of new affiliates, and
we certainly don't want to lose out on that.
It's important, not only for Jackie Patru, but for the worldwide Freedom Radio Network.
After his contract with Decca in Nashville had lapsed in late 1956, Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison continued to develop their musical partnership, and it was during the ensuing months that the two perfected the fusion, which was later to be the backbone of all of the cricket's activities.
Jerry Allison, Buddy's guitar playing influenced my drumming more than anything.
I learned to play drums with what Buddy played.
We played together so much because we used to just sit around and rehearse for no reason, just to be playing.
I knew how he was going to play it, and he knew how I was going to play.
He and I used to play dances, not even a bass player, and he would play chord lead.
He wouldn't play just single string things like was normal.
that was the most different thing about the whole Buddy Holly and the crickets thing.
What Buddy played on the guitar. We had to fill up all the holes in the music. It was
during these few months that Holly and Allison taked many of their practice sessions, either
at the Hollys' home or in Larry Holly's garage. And of course they played many large dates
as well. Soon Holly and Allison determined to make another demo of That'll Be the Day
in the hope of interesting one of the major record companies, including possibly Roulette
Records in New York.
Jerry Allison said this, Buddy Knox had Party Doll that was doing great, and we said, well, how come he can do it and we can't do it?
We finally got involved with Buddy Knox's guitar player's sister, who lived in Lubbock.
She called us and wanted us to play on some demos, because she said, I'm going to send these records to Roulette.
And we said, well, hey, we'll cut some and you send them to Roulette for us.
In fact, Buddy Knox's hit, Party Doll, was made in the studio owned by Norman Petty, about a hundred miles away in Clovis, New Mexico.
And so it was to Clovis that on February the 25th, 1957, Holly, Allison, together with bassist Larry Wellborn and friend Nicky Sullivan, went to record a demo of That'll Be the Day.
Holly had already worked out a new arrangement for the song, which now was to include background vocals in an attempt to give it a more polished sound than the earlier version made in Nashville.
The normal Petty trio had already had several successful singles cut in Petty's own studio.
most notably, Moon Indigo, with his wife Vi on vocals, and Almost Paradise.
We didn't build the studio for other people.
We built it to record our own trio.
But later, after other people discovered there was such a studio with excellent equipment and clothes, they started coming in.
Unlike later Cricket's recordings, when background vocals were added later, That'll Be The Day was recorded all at the same time, remembers Larry Welber.
We had worked on That'll Be The Day for a long time, along with those singers.
But even when we went up to Clovis, it seems to me like we spent hours on it, just recording it over and over.
Buddy had worked out the arrangement ahead of time, but Norman Petty had us run through it again and again, trying to make sure it was perfect.
However perfect it was, Roulette turned the record down, thinking it too similar to those of Buddy Knox and Jimmy And it was only then that Petty stepped in and offered to help by playing the tapes to contacts he had established through his own success in New York.
After another rejection from Mitch Miller at Columbia, Petty finally got a release from Bob Thea, then running the Brunswick and Coral labels, ironically subsidiaries of Decca Records, who not a year previously had terminated Holly's contract.
Success was still a far-off And between the recording of this new version of That'll Be the Day and its release in the last week of May, Holly, Allison, Sullivan, and Joe B. Mauldin continued to rehearse, play live dates, and make more recordings with Norman Pei.
The Cricket's first live date, which was before the release of That'll Be the Day, was in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Nicky Sullivan remembers it vividly.
Norman got us a booking in Carlsbad at the VFW Hall on the strength of Buddy's Decca recordings.
Nobody went to Carlsbad as an entertainer, so the place was packed.
When we got there, the place was packed with kids until we looked upstairs and it was all adults.
We felt really ill at ease, because this was our first performance publicly.
But we went out and performed for a good three hours, and we had the place rocking.
You couldn't have heard Joe B., because we had muted instruments, so Jerry and Buddy really carried the show.
Regardless, the show must have been a success, for the group made front-page headlines the next day.
The headlines said this.
Buddy Holly and the Crickets break up Carlsbad.
Not bad for a young country boy from Lubbock, Texas, even if it was Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Joe Baldwin also has fond memories of the event, too.
Buddy and Jerry came by one day.
They had a job in Carlsbad to play a dance, and they needed a bass player for that night, and so I accepted the job, and on the way back, Buddy asked me if I wanted to play regular with him.
We've got a record called That'll Be the Day, and it's gonna be a stone hit.
In fact, although it took thirteen long weeks from the day they recorded That'll Be the Day to the day it was issued, it was a further ten weeks before the record showed in the bottom reaches of the American Top 100.
It did, however, allow the group to stockpile, if unintentionally, enough material for future use.
Buddy was in the studio all the time.
I was recording other people at the time, too, but it would have suited him fine if I'd just dropped everything and just recorded Buddy.
He would have been there 24 hours a day.
Buddy's brother, Larry Holly, says, Everything Buddy did, he did with a sense of urgency.
That he wasn't going to have a lot of time, he didn't slow down at all.
I think it was because he was doing what he wanted to do more than anything in this world.
Jerry Allison.
We just sort of hung around.
We could record any time we wanted.
It wasn't a thing where you'd go in for three hours and quit because we could record for five minutes if we wanted to, then knock off for three hours and then record more.
The first titles to be cut in Clovis after That'll Be the Day I'm Looking for Someone to Love were last night and a demo
of Maybe Baby, recorded on 12 March, a couple of weeks after Joe Maldon had joined the
group.
Next came Words of Love, the first recording on which Holly double-tracks his voice in
guitar, and as Jerry remembers, Buddy had two guitar parts worked out before we even
started to record that.
I don't know how he got the idea, but he planned to do it that way.
According to John Goldrosen, Holly Pretty, Holly Petty, and the Crickets spent at least six hours on the tune, working out the overdubbing by process of trial and error, trying to achieve the balance and sound Holly wanted, and by all accounts, The sun was rising before the session was over.
Fortunately, Petty's studio had a small area in an adjacent room where the boys could rest or sleep after a particularly long recording session, and of course, this saved them the inconvenience of the long ride back to Lubbock when things were going well.
Nikki, I remember words of love that was tough.
I finally went to sleep on the couch about four in the morning.
I think they finished it after that.
That session went from eight in the morning till about six or seven the following morning.
Jerry's calendar for 1957 indicates that one session that started on June 29th did not end until the early hours of July 1st.
However, the approach seems to have worked, for it was this marathon that produced not only both sides of Holly's third solo single, Listen to Me and I'm Gonna Love You Too, but also the Cricket's second smash hit, Oh Boy, and probably Holly's most remembered release under his own name, entitled Peggy Sue.
There is no doubt that Peggy Sue rates as possibly Holly's greatest recording.
And the way this track was recorded is probably typical of most Clovis sessions.
Originally known as Cindy Lou, after Holly's young niece, it had a slower tempo and a Latin beat, far removed from the final master.
Nicky Sullivan said, But it didn't sound right with the cha-cha beat.
It had no class.
Then Jerry said, Let's put my girl's name to it, which was Peggy Sue.
But that was hard to do until Buddy said to Jerry, Why don't you put paradiddles to it?
Which is a drummer's beat that they use when they are taking lessons.
With these changes, the group ran through the song, but Allison's drums were far too loud and were spoiling the sound balance.
So for this session, Jerry was moved out into the lobby of the studio.
From there, Teddy ran the microphone wires through the echo chamber and achieved the in-and-out echo effect of the drums by manually raising and lowering the volume and amount of echo in time with the music to give the recording its unique and hypnotic sound.
There was one other problem.
Holly's now-legendary guitar break in the middle required him to flick the pickup switch on his guitar, which he could not accomplish without stopping playing.
Which would have interrupted the flow of the song.
Sullivan remembers how they did it.
I was in the same room, playing rhythm guitar, the same exact part, along with Buddy, and it wasn't coming out on the tape.
Buddy couldn't switch from rhythm to lead fast enough without breaking rhythm.
He couldn't get his hand to the switch fast enough, and it showed up on tape.
So we stopped, and redid it, with me pushing the switch on Buddy's guitar.
On the next tape, we did it.
It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes.
Norman Petty's recollection confirms the speed with which Peggy Sue was finally recorded.
We had been working for a couple of days on various cuts, and I think the boys were going to put me on because they knew I was tired.
So Buddy said, Let's record some more.
I don't want to go to bed.
So at about 5.30 that morning, Buddy said, let's write a song about Jerry's girlfriend.
It was about 5.30 that morning, and I think about 9.30 we had the completed master.
So it really was a quick thing.
And as Jerry Allison says, we were all pretty flipped out about that one.
We said, man, that's weird.
That's different.
It sounds good.
The flip side of Peggy Sue was every day, and as Norman Petty recalls, was more time-consuming than usual.
Every day took us a long time because I played Celeste on it.
I would have to go in and set the level, walk back into the studio and hit the recorder, so it made it a little bit time-consuming.
The recording is also unusual from the point of view of Jerry Allison's performance.
While Holly was demonstrating the song during the run-through, Jerry started to join in, improvising by slapping his knees, and the sound appealed to Holly.
So the only drumming on the recording is Jerry Allison slapping his knees.
This leisurely pace in Clovis was to change noticeably when That'll Be the Day started to climb the charts and climb it did, and thereafter, many sessions were cut out of Clovis, either in New York or even on the road during the hectic touring schedule that the Crickets now undertook.
During August of 1957, the group undertook their first touring engagements, culminating in a week-long stint at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn.
The tour included a week at the Apollo Theater, which by 1957 presented almost exclusively black artists.
For ironically, the promoters of the tour had confused the Crickets with another black vocal group of the same name.
After appearances on the Alan Freed TV show and the Paramount Dates, along with other artists such as Larry Williams, Little Richard, the Dell Vikings, and the Moonglows, all black artists The group embarked on a grueling 80-day tour, culminating on December 1st in an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
After a short break and a visit back to Lubbock, the Crickets were back in New York, minus Nicky Sullivan, who left to pursue his own career for the Alan Freed Christmas Holiday Shows at the Paramount Theater.
New York, Sherry Billing with That's Domino, the Everly Brothers, Danny and the Juniors, and Paul Anka.
This heavy schedule was to continue until May of the next year, 1958, with breaks only for a few days' rest or in instances when white artists were forbidden to appear on the same shows as black ones.
Recalled Nicky Sullivan, We hit the Mason-Dixon line and it was a whole new ballgame.
There were 116 of us on tour, both black and white, and the biggest problem we had was going into New Orleans out of Atlanta.
At the county line, we were met by two patrol cars, and they forced the buses off the road, and they informed us that in New Orleans, there is no way that blacks and whites are going to appear on the same program.
So they put all the blacks on one bus, that's 96 people, and they put all the whites on the other bus, that's 20 people.
And from there we were escorted into town.
The blacks were taken to one hotel, the whites were taken to another, and then we were informed we could not appear on the same show.
It was during this enforced break on the road that the Crickets and Petty took advantage of the situation and met up in Oklahoma City where their touring schedules coincided to record several titles to complete an album required To capitalize on the success.
That'll be the day, was having.
Norman Petty.
At the time, my trio were playing Oklahoma City, and Buddy had two days off, so he stopped by and we recorded major soundtracks in one corner of the Officers Club one night, and Buddy continued on the road, and I took the tape back and added the background voices and echo in New Mexico.
Nicky Sullivan remembers the event clearly.
We did four sides there.
Maybe Baby was the biggest thing to come out of that session.
It was the only track I played reed guitar with Buddy Duplicate along with him.
Most of the remaining tracks were recorded in Clovis between May and July of 1957, mainly to complete either of the only two albums ever released during Holly's own lifetime.
The Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly.
It was to complete the latter that a rather hurried morning session in New York was set up, immediately before departing for tours of Hawaii, Australia, and later Great Britain.
The session took place on the morning of January 26, 1958.
The group were to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show in the afternoon, and the song scheduled for cutting was, It had previously been recorded unsuccessfully by one of its original composers, Sonny West.
But as Norman Petty says, it was a real hillbilly number, brought to me by Sonny West and Bill Tideman.
I was playing the tape in the control room, and Buddy came in and said, I rather like that melody, but it's a real hillbilly thing.
So I said, would you like to do it if we change the lyrics?
So Buddy said, sure.
This was not a Clovis session, and I rather hurried when at that.
The opportunity for recording the background voices later was lost, and the recording was all done together in only a couple of takes.
Despite the song's inauspicious origins and the unfamiliar studio's surroundings, Holly created that cold winter morning one of his most celebrated and successful recordings.
As a young man, ladies and gentlemen, I lived in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
My father was an Air Force officer stationed at Tinker Air Force Base.
I remember that recording session, ladies and gentlemen.
It was the 27th and 28th of September, 1957, at the Officer's Club on Tinker Air Force Base near Oklahoma City.
I was in the audience.
Now you're going to hear some of the same exact music that I heard.
and all performed by Buddy Hollick and the Griffiths. So sit back, relax, and enjoy. We've got a long time to go.
The old man goes, I got a gal in high school.
I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy.
Ready, ready, teddy, too.
The rocket goes off.
The cat starts catching at the junglery jar.
The cat goes running to the gym to the soccer ball.
He starts ready-jumping.
The cat's a going wild.
And the Christmas magic makes cars run red.
Ready, ready teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready teddy.
Ready, ready teddy, too.
We're rocking the wow.
Wow.
Oh, when I'm going to the car and pick up, what will you find?
We'll be talking old baby.
She's the apple of my eye.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy.
Ready, ready, teddy, too.
We're rocking the wow.
I'm on the ball with you.
Go love my fetty feet.
There's a rocking old baby coming on the scene.
Shuffle to the left.
Now shuffle to the right.
We're rocking the wow.
Oh boy!
And it's a really nice day.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy.
Ready, ready, teddy, too.
We're rocking the wow.
Wow.
We're rocking the wow.
And it's a really nice day.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy, I'm ready.
Ready, ready, teddy.
Ready, ready, teddy, too.
We're rocking the wow.
Oh, boy.
Oh boy.
When you're with me, oh boy.
Oh boy.
The world will be back to you soon.
Oh boy.
Look at me back in your shoes, mother of God All these years, I've been through the same shit
God made me a son, oh boy God made me a son, oh boy
I've been through the same shit God made me a son, oh boy
I've been through the same shit God made me a son, oh boy
God made me a son, oh boy All of my love, all my kisses
You don't know what you've been missing, oh boy Oh boy, when you're with me, oh boy
Oh boy, the world would be better, oh boy Oh boy, I've had all I need to see
I've had all I need to see All my life I've been waitin' Tonight there'll be no hesitatein' Oh boy, oh boy, when you're with me Oh boy, oh boy, the whole world can see that you are the one for me Stars appear and the shadows are fallin' And you can hear my heart a-callin' A little bit of lovin' makes everything alright I'm gonna be my very last All my love, all my kisses
February 3rd, 1959, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash along with the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.
the everywhere he heard nineteen fifty nine buddy holly died in
a plane crash along with the big bopper and ricky balance
this is a memorial broadcast and will go until we played every recording that
buddy holly ever did in his entire short life the
the Take me one day, you'll need to see, that I'm all of this
now.
Girl I'm the way you love my way, then I'm paying, tell me how. Tell me how.
I don't know how.
I need your love.
Tell me now.
The love within your heart can't be hidden.
If you would make me say the sign for love is now.
Good eyes away.
If your love's my way, then I say tell me how.
Tell me how to keep your love.
You know how I need your love.
Tell me how to keep the love within your heart from me.
I was in the audience, ladies and gentlemen, with a young girl named Beverly Beard, who
I was deeply in love with when this record was recorded.
Maybe baby I'll have you, maybe baby you'll be mine.
Maybe, baby, I'll have you on me.
It's funny, honey, you don't care.
It's funny, funny, you don't care You never listen to my prayer
Maybe, baby, you will love me someday Well, you are the one that makes me glad.
And you are the one that makes me sad.
I think someday you won't leave.
Well, I'll be there with everything.
I'll be there when everything is clear.
Baby, baby, I'll have you in the room.
Baby, baby, you'll be true to me.
Baby, baby, I'll have you over me.
And forever you are the one that makes me...
When some day you won't leave, well, I'll be sad.
Maybe that would come a day, you and me Well I'd be sad, wait and see
Maybe baby, I'll have you Maybe baby, you'll be too
Maybe baby I'll have you for me
Baby, baby, I'll have you for me Oh, what a rush that is, folks. I was only 13 years old at
the time.
Wow.
Baby, some love Baby, I'll lay
Baby, I'll lay How can I love you
With a brother like me?
of the mind.
Cindy, you've sent me a picture sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my lady sent me a picture of my Can't you send me your kiss?
I can see you're begging.
I need you so bad.
I'm beautiful, I'm beautiful, I'm beautiful, I'm beautiful, I'm beautiful.
My days are so long.
My nights are so blue.
I'm near and I'm lonely.
My nights are so blue I'm in and I'm lonely
I'm waiting for you If you tell me you're feeling
I can feel that love I refuse so badly
I refuse to work My days are so lonely
you My nights are so blue
I'm near and I'm lonely I'm waiting for you
I'll wait up for you Buddy Holly had a style and a sound all of his own that's
never been duplicated by anyone before or since.
Little baby, baby me Baby me.
Little baby, baby me.
In my heart you are the one.
Look around and have you reformed.
Oh, oh, oh, you'll be my little baby and baby me.
Little baby, can you see?
Don't touch that dime.
Classic Radio like you've always wished it could be.
Oh, oh, oh, won't you be my little baby?
My baby, me Don't touch that darn classic radio like you've always
wished it could be 101.1 Eager
Oh, oh, oh, won't you be my little baby?
My baby, me Little baby, baby me.
Maybe I will baby you.
With a spark of love for you.
Little baby, say to me, little baby, baby me, maybe I will baby you, with a gorgeous
love for you.
Oh, you'll be my little baby, and baby me.
Listen to this broadcast and take your time.
Oh, coming up, dinner time for some of you, but bring it in.
Listen to this broadcast and take your time.
Hey, Jude, son, I can't wait for all the love I know will be mine.
Take your time, though it's late.
Take your time, though it's late.
Heartstrings will sing like a string of climes.
If you take your time, take your time, and take mine too.
I have time to spend.
Take your time.
Go with me through time.
Till all I am done.
Take your time.
I can't wait.
For all the love I know will be mine.
If you take your time Take your time and take mine too
I have time to spend Take your time, go with me through
Time till all I'm here Take your time
I can't wait For all the love I know will be mine
If you take your time Take your time
you Please stay tuned at the top of the hour for the Jackie Petrou program, immediately followed by a continuation of this memorial broadcast honoring the work of Ritchie Valens, the big bopper, and of course, the great Buddy Holly.
We're going to play every record that Buddy Holly ever made in his entire career.
don't miss a single second of it.
The way you use that thing now, the ray-bone is a parade of heroes.
I know you've got to be the man you say I want to be, the ray-bone.
For the ray-bone is a place of evil and I know you've got to be the man that you're leaving your love for.
The ray-bone, the ray-bone is still the heroine, not the reason only the heroine, you love the ray-bone.
For the ray-bone is a place of evil and I know you've got to be the man that you're leaving your love for.
The ray-bone, the ray-bone is still the heroine, not the reason only the heroine, you love the ray-bone.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's getting close to that time.
This has been a memorable afternoon.
You got to hear little Allison's voice debut on the radio, and she was in here earlier, dancing with her puppy.
We are honoring the work and achievement of Richie Valens, the Big Bopper, and the great Buddy Holly, who died All together, in a plane crash on February the 3rd, 1959, after leaving a small town, Clear Lake, in Iowa, on the way to South Dakota, where they were going to do another day.
South Dakota or North Dakota, I forgot which.
Right now, we've got to do this.
You're going, coming up, is the Jackie Petrou program, which, immediately following,
we will continue this memorial broadcast of the Hour of the Time on the Worldwide Freedom
Radio Network.
Make sure that you don't miss Jackie Petrou, and make double sure that you're back in front
of your radio when it's time for us to resume.
This is the Voice of Freedom.
Thank you.
and I'll see you in the next one.
This is my daddy's station.
I'm Poop.
Classic radio like you always wished it could be.
101.1 FM.
I'm a 1.1 FN Eager.
Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen for the Jackie Pertreau Program.
Thank you.
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.
Make her complexion like peaches and cream.
Give her two lips like roses and clovers and tell me that my lonesome nights are over.
Amen.
I'm so low.
Don't have nobody to call my home.
Please turn on your magic beam.
Christmas sandman, bring me a beam.
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