Tag Archives: Buddy Holly

Bob Dylan and George Harrison – Peggy Sue (live 1987) the Buddy Holly single is 62 years old today

“Peggy Sue” is a rock and roll song written by Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, and Norman Petty, recorded in early July of 1957. It was released 20th of September with the song  Everyday on the other side. The Crickets are not mentioned on label of the single (Coral 9-61885), but band members Joe B. Mauldin (string bass) and Jerry Allison (drums) played on the recording. This recording was also released on Holly’s eponymous 1958 album.

We’d like to present George and Bob jamming at the Palomino Club in early 1987. They play a fun version of the classic Peggy Sue.

Not the greatest sound or picture, but still enjoyable.

– Hallgeir

Bob Dylan covering Buddy Holly





bob dylan buddy holly

I saw Buddy Holly two or three nights before he died. I saw him in Duluth [Minnesota], at the armory. He played there with Link Wray. I don’t remember the Big Bopper. Maybe he’d gone off by the time I came in. But I saw Richie Valens. And Buddy Holly, yeah. He was great. He was incredible. I mean, I’ll never forget the image of seeing Buddy Holly up on the bandstand. And he died – it must have been a week after this. It was unbelievable.
~Bob Dylan (to Kurt Loder, March 1984)

Buddy Holly. You know, I don’t really recall exactly what I said about Buddy Holly, but while we were recording [Time Out Of Mind], every place I turned there was Buddy Holly. You know what I mean? It was one of those things. Every place you turned. You walked down a hallway and you heard Buddy Holly records, like “That’ll Be the Day.” Then you’d get in the car to go over to the studio and “Rave On” would be playing. Then you’d walk into this studio and someone’s playing a cassette of “It’s so Easy.” And this would happen day after day after day. Phrases of Buddy Holly songs would just come out of nowhere. It was spooky. [laughs] But after we recorded and left, you know, it stayed in our minds. Well, Buddy Holly’s spirit must have been someplace, hastening this record.
~Bob Dylan (to Murray Engleheart 1998)

On this day in 1936 Buddy Holly was born.

Here are some Buddy Holly songs covered by Bob Dylan:

Continue reading Bob Dylan covering Buddy Holly

Bob Dylan covers Grateful Dead and Buddy Holly

Dylan Lesh

Bob Dylan covers Grateful Dead and Buddy Holly

In the Dark is the 12th studio album by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded between January 6 and 13, 1987, and originally released on July 6, 1987.

In the Dark was the band’s first album in six years, and its first studio album since 1980’s Go to Heaven. It became unexpectedly popular, achieving double platinum certification in the U.S. It reached #6 on the Billboard 200 chart, the Grateful Dead’s only top ten album. It has the great song, West LA fadeaway.

Not Fade Away is a song credited to Buddy Holly (originally under his first and middle names, Charles Hardin) and Norman Petty (although Petty’s co-writing credit is most likely a formality) and first recorded by Holly’s band The Crickets.

It was released in 1957 as the b-side on the single O-boy.

Continue reading Bob Dylan covers Grateful Dead and Buddy Holly

Today: The late Buddy Holly was born in 1936

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…Holly became the single most influential creative force in early rock & roll
~Bruce Eder (allmusic.com)

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Charles Hardin Holley
Born September 7, 1936
Lubbock, Texas, U.S.
Died February 3, 1959 (aged 22)
Grant Township, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, U.S.
Genres Rock and roll, rockabilly,Lubbock sound
Occupations Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano, violin
Years active 1955–1959
Labels Decca, Brunswick, Coral
Associated acts The Crickets, The Picks

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as “the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll.” His works and innovations inspired and influenced contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Don McLean, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton, and exerted a profound influence on popular music. Holly was among the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Holly #13 among “The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

Music. Personalities. pic: circa 1957. American singer, songwriter and pioneer of rock Buddy Holly (1936-1959) who with his group "The Crickets" was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1950's. Buddy Holly tragically died in a plane crash in 1959.

Holly saw Elvis Presley sing in Lubbock in 1955, and began to incorporate a rockabilly style, similar to the Sun Records sound, which had a strong rhythm acoustic and slap bass. On October 15, 1955, Holly, along with Bob Montgomery and Larry Welborn, opened the bill for Presley in Lubbock, catching the eye of a Nashville talent scout. Holly’s transition to rock continued when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local show organized by Eddie Crandall, the manager for Marty Robbins.

Following this performance, Decca Records signed him to a contract in February 1956, misspelling his name as “Holly”.  He thereafter adopted the misspelled name for his professional career. Holly formed his own band, later to be called The Crickets, consisting of Holly (lead guitar and vocals), Niki Sullivan (guitar), Joe B. Mauldin (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums). They went to Nashville for three recording sessions with producer Owen Bradley. However, Holly chafed under a restrictive atmosphere that allowed him little input. Among the tracks he recorded was an early version of “That’ll Be The Day”, which took its title from a line that John Wayne’s character says repeatedly in the 1956 film The Searchers (GREAT film~Egil). 

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From allmusic – Bruce Eder:

Buddy Holly is perhaps the most anomalous legend of ’50s rock & roll — he had his share of hits, and he achieved major rock & roll stardom, but his importance transcends any sales figures or even the particulars of any one song (or group of songs) that he wrote or recorded. Holly was unique, his legendary status and his impact on popular music all the more extraordinary for having been achieved in barely 18 months. Among his rivals, Bill Haley was there first and established rock & roll music; Elvis Presley objectified the sexuality implicit in the music, selling hundreds of millions of records in the process, and defined one aspect of the youth and charisma needed for stardom; and Chuck Berry defined the music’s roots in blues along with some of the finer points of its sexuality, and its youthful orientation (and, in the process, intermixed all of these elements). Holly’s influence was just as far-reaching as these others, if far more subtle and more distinctly musical in nature. In a career lasting from the spring of 1957 until the winter of 1958-1959 — less time than Elvis had at the top before the army took him (and less time, in fact, than Elvis spent in the army) — Holly became the single most influential creative force in early rock & roll.
Read more @ allmusic

 

some Influence:

  • A 17-year-old Bob Dylan attended the January 31, 1959, show, two nights before Holly’s death. Dylan referred to this in his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his Time out of Mind being named Album of the Year:
“And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him…and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don’t know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.”
  • Keith Richards attended one of Holly’s performances, where he heard “Not Fade Away” for the first time. The Rolling Stones had an early hit covering the song.
  • Holly influenced many other singers during and after a career that lasted barely two years. Keith Richards once said Holly had “an influence on everybody.” In an August 24, 1978, Rolling Stone interview, Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh, “I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest.”
  • The Grateful Dead performed “Not Fade Away” 530 times over the course of their career, making it their seventh most-performed song. The song also appears on eight of their official live recording releases.
  • Don McLean’s popular 1971 ballad “American Pie” is inspired by Holly and the day of the plane crash. The American Pie album is dedicated to Holly.
  • On September 7, 1994 (Holly’s 58th birthday), Weezer released their single, “Buddy Holly”.

Peggy Sue (Arthur Murray Dance Party on December 29, 1957):

Album of the day – The Very Best of Buddy Holly:

Other September 07:

Continue reading Today: The late Buddy Holly was born in 1936

Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 1

paul williams 100 best singles

There’s a scream inside everyone of us at every moment. And every one of us has had the experience of listening to a record and feeling that scream take over. Release. Abandon. Let it all out. Rock and Roll for me is about Eros, not Logos, which is paradoxical since my job is putting the experience in words.
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

One of our favorite authors here at JV is Paul Williams, and…. he did write about other stuff than Bob Dylan.

We all love lists, so I’ll try out a new series of posts honoring one of his lesser known books:

Rock And Roll: The 100 Best Singles

..the list is chronological, starting back before the beginning and going through the 50’s and the 60’s and the 70’s and the 80’s, and ending for the sake of convenience in 1991. So #1 is not supposed to be ‘better’ than #100. It just got in the line first.

My criteria are simple: the song has to have been released as a seven-inch 45 rpm single in the United States or Great Britain (Robert Johnson’s 78 rpm ten-inch is the exception that proved the rule), and it has be “rock and roll” according to my subjective evaluation…
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

All quotes are from the book.

Here is #1 – 10:

Continue reading Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 1