Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 19

Record label: Coral

Produced: Norman Petty

Recorded: Norman Petty Studios, Clovis, New Mexico; February–March and May–July, 1957; Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; September 27–28, 1957

Released: March 1958

Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: Buddy Holly (g, v); Niki Sullivan (g, b, v); Joe Mauldin (b); Jerry Allison (d); Larry Welborn (b); June Clark (bv); Gary and Ramona Tollett (bv); The Picks: John Pickering, Bill Pickering, Bob Lapham (bv)

Track listing: Oh Boy (S); Not Fade Away; You’ve Got Love; Maybe Baby (S); It’s Too Late; Tell Me How; That’ll Be The Day (S); I’m Looking For Somebody To Love; An Empty Cup (And A Broken Date); Send Me Some Lovin’; Last Night; Rock Me Baby

Running time: 25.27

Current CD: Beat Goes On BGOCD517 adds: Buddy Holly album

Further listening: Buddy Holly (1958)

Further reading: Remembering Buddy (John Goldrosen and John Beecher, 1987); www.buddyholly.com; www.thecrickets.com

Download: iTunes

‘Even around the seventh or eighth grade I knew he had it. Buddy just had that rock’n’roll charisma.’ A handful of years later school and band-mate Jerry Allison co-wrote The Crickets’ first hit, That’ll Be The Day. Holly and Allison initially recorded the song for Decca under the auspices of legendary country producer Owen Bradley. However, this liaison didn’t work out, and the boys headed to Norman Petty’s tiny Clovis studio to try the song again. The punchy result was infinitely superior to the Nashville take, though Allison points out it was only a demo. ‘We intended to record it again a bit slicker, later. We liked the song, but didn’t think that version would even be released, much less be successful.’ But Bob Thiele at Coral Records liked it just so and the track became a slow-burning hit.

The band carried on recording with Petty for several good reasons. ‘The studio had really good equipment, it was cheap – seems like our first demos cost $15 each – there was no time limit, Petty was a good engineer, and Vi Petty was a great lady who made everyone feel comfortable.’

Over the next few months Petty consistently coaxed the best from Holly’s idiosyncratic, quavering tones – part country, part blues, sometimes vulnerable, often boyishly confident. The tracks could then be released by Buddy as a solo artist or as a member of The Crickets – a good way to double airplay and income. ‘The atmosphere around the studio was pretty laid back at first. The process changed a lot after we got the record deal. Then we’d do a song twenty times and it got to be like work. And after we went on the road Petty dubbed on the backing vocals, which were not particularly thrilling to us.’

Interestingly, the band also recorded four of the album tracks, including the melancholic mid-tempo rocker Maybe Baby, while out on that road – Petty dragging his gear up to Oklahoma for the purpose. Allison still jibs at the ‘schmaltzy’ backing vox which characterise The Crickets as opposed to the Holly material, and justifiably complains about dodgy songwriting attributions: ‘I co-wrote Not Fade Away, and I’m still bitching about the lack of a credit!’ But the eerie, spartan, Bo Diddley vibe of that very number, the raucous pop-rockabilly of Oh Boy and the R&B spice of Chuck Willis’s It’s Too Late helped send Holly and his band right to the front of rock music’s early leading pack.