#166 Buddy Holly, '20 Golden Greats: Buddy Holly Lives' (1978)
Previously #92
Buddy Holly didn’t invent Rock ‘n Roll. Artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard and Chuck Berry lay claim to that, but he certainly popularised it. After opening for Elvis Presley in 1955, he decided to seriously pursue his career in Rock ‘n Roll. Later that year, while opening for Bill Haley & His Comets, he was spotted by a scout, which jumpstarted his career. In under two years, Holly would write and record songs that would go on to have a major impact on music, ultimately changing its course. He would go on to be a major influence to artists like The Beatles, who named their band in homage to his, The Crickets. They studied his performance style and lyrics and based their stage act and music on his. In their first recording sessions, still as The Quarrymen, they recorded ‘That’ll Be The Day,’ which is available on ‘Anthology 1.’ The spent their breaks on their own career-making Ed Sullivan Show appearance trying to find out as much about Buddy Holly’s performances as possible. The version of Holly’s ‘Words Of Love’ was included on ‘Beatles For Sale,’ and Lennon included ‘Peggy Sue’ on his solo album, ‘Rock ‘n Roll.’ A 17-year-old Bob Dylan saw Holly two days before his death, a performance which influenced his career, by his own account. A young Mick Jagger would also see Holly live, and Keith Richards based his guitar style on the song, ‘Not Fade Away,’ which the Stones famously covered and charted at #3. Elton John started wearing his famous horn-rimmed glasses thanks to Holly and Buddy Holly’s ‘The Chirping Crickets’ was the first album bought by Eric Clapton. Early on in his career, Springsteen would play Buddy Holly every night before he went on stage to hype himself up (he might still, for all we know).
’20 Golden Greats’ is exactly that. 20 great songs featuring all of Holly’s most influential and successful songs. ‘That’ll Be The Day,’ ‘Peggy Sue,’ ‘Words Of Love,’ ‘Everyday,’ ‘Not Fade Away,’ ‘Oh Boy’ amongst them. Without these songs, we might not have had many of the 20th Century’s most influential artists, or at least might not have had them in the incarnations that we know. Buddy Holly was a true pioneer and he did it all in 617 days. Holly would die on 3 February 1959 at 23-years-old, alongside Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper following a gig. The incident was famously recounted in Don McLean’s song, ‘American Pie.’
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