Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the crash that killed Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Richie Valens and piot Roger Petersen. I mention this, because I pretty much had this event drummed into me in childhood, because my father was mad about Buddy Holly. I mean MAD about Buddy Holly. When Paul McCartney sold his rights to the Beatles back catalogue so he could own the rights to Buddy Holly's, the world gave a confused shake of the head. Not my dad though, who nodded approvingly - one of the few people around, who "got" what Mad Macca was doing.
If you go through my dad's collection of records, you will find numerous singles and EPs (extended players for anyone under thirty out there) by Buddy Holly and it does hit you how productive the guy was and how much of an effect he had on the music scene in the fifties and sixties, all the way to the present day. For someone who died at the age of 22 to do what he achieved in such a short space of time was nothing short of incredible. Dad used to say that he thought Holly would be bigger than Elvis and when you look at this, it's hard to argue. Dad was properly gutted about the plane crash, even many, many years later, about what he felt the world has lost. Fifty years on, it's hard to argue, as the popularity of this bespectacled singer who was only active in the industry for sixteen months, seems to increase year on year.
Posted by: |