THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED - RITCHIE VALENS - and LINK TO RITCHIE VALENS OFFICIAL

FROM OUR ARCHIVES OCTOBER 6, 2007  THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!

RITCHIE VALENS died in that plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.

Alan Freed, a pioneer in Rock and Roll, who held big stage shows in New York City where many of my peers performed, got ahold of Richie Valens and asked him to appear. Ritchie was just a kid with a chaperone, but we all wanted to meet him and considered him part of our Rock and Roll family. I was there when Ritchie performed in New York, and he was a total pro at 17. Everyone wanted to meet him. We didn't care that he was Mexican-American, not at all. Among us he was one of the firsts who came out of California - Los Angeles - The San Fernando Valley - a place that would become more important to many of us as the years went on! We might have been more curious about him on that basis! We were a lot of Southern boys there in the Big Apple!

Ritchie had the hit "Donna,"a soft ballad, in 1958, and there's been a movie made about his life, "La Bamba."

NEW LINK RITCHIE VALENS OFFICIAL


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NEW VIDEO!
 

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED - BUDDY KNOX AND BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS AND ME (part one)

FROM OUR ARCHIVES OCTOBER 6, 2007  THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!

Many of you have heard the song called "American Pie," also known as The Day The Music Died song, performed and written by singer-songwriter Don Mclean. The lyrics which are a bit of a puzzle to the uninitiated are meant to honor three early Rock n' Rollers whose influence was profound, and who were killed in a small plane crash over Mason City, Iowa.

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Knox and I were traveling on tour. After a late night we got up and went to breakfast. I ran to get the newspaper and was shocked to see the headline. Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson also known as JP), and Ritchie Valens had been killed in a plane crash. The three men had been trying to make time on their own road tour. Buddy Knox ran for the men's room and threw up his breakfast.

Buddy Knox and Buddy Holly had been good friends in New York and the had Texas roots and musical influences in common. Buddy Knox had sent the song "That'll Be The Day" over to Buddy Holly rather than record it himself, and was happy when Buddy Holly had a hit with it.

I'd met Buddy Knox and some of the other Crickets in New York City. I thought of Buddy Holly as a zany guy. On this tour he had left the Crickets behind.

Friends, there's no way we can honor all three Rock n Rollers on just one blog entry, so we're going to post separately, one for Buddy Holly, one for JP, and one for Ritchie. Stick with us! We're having a great time posting our blog, we're excited about it, and we know those of you who aren't familiar with my era are getting a real lesson - we hope a fun one - out of it.



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BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS - BIG BOPPER - RITCHIE VALENS AND DION AND THE BELMONTS

At the time that I was signed by United Artists, I became friends with a group of guys who liked to hang out in diners and plan their musical careers.  The group included Dion as well as Buddy Knox and Bobby Darin.

PHIL EVERLY - THE EVERLY BROTHERS on the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME and EVERLY FAMILY FAN SITE

ARTICLE ON THEIR STAR from THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME  link

EVERLY BROTHERS NET - A FAN SITE  link (Phil spoke at the induction of BUDDY HOLLY TO THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME.

Phil Everly, as many of you know, passed away a few days ago.  In his honor, we're running some of our archived posts about Phil and Don Everly, the Kings of Harmony!

LENNONYC : JOHN LENNON and JACK DOUGLAS, MUSIC PRODUCER ON ELVIS and the EARLY ROCK AND ROLLERS

LENNONYC is a documentary put out by PBS : AMERICAN MASTERS

Jack Douglas was the music producer of Lennon's album DOUBLE FANTASY.  In this film, he talks about the song "Starting Over" and John talks about that time in his life when he was reaching back to his roots in early Rock and Roll.

JACK :  "He's doing his Elvis Impersonation... the Elvis intonation.  It brought back the feeling of early Rock and Roll."

JOHN :  "It was tongue and cheek Elvis.  It was John Lennon - American Rock and Roll - not competing but enjoying it."

John Lennon goes on to mention Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley as inspirations to him as a developing musician.

BUDDY HOLLY and THE CRICKETS : CRICKETS WERE INDUCTED INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME IN 2012

  The Crickets who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 were Jerry Allison, Joe B. - Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, and Sonny Curtis.  The picture is of Jerry and Sonny with Buddy.

Here's an updated link! ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME PAGE - THE CRICKETS

Buddy left Sonny and Joe B behind when he went on the tour where the plane crashed and killed him, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, so they survived and went on.  They played surf inspired music in the early 1960's.

THE ROSES : BUDDY HOLLY and the CRICKETS BACK UP SINGERS : ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME LINK!

Back on May 10, 2010, post (308) we posted a link to the Roses ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME page.  Here it is again : THE ROSES : ROCKABILLY HALL   Robert Linville, tenor; Ray Rush, baritone; and David Bigham, bass.

To quote the page, "In March of 1957, "The Roses" traveled with Roy Orbison to Clovis, New Mexico to record at the Norm Petty Recording Studio. At this time, they met Buddy Holly and the Crickets. "The Roses" got an opportunity to work with Buddy and the band when another group didn't show for the session. Norman Petty liked their work and asked "The Roses" to move to Clovis to be available as a staff vocal group. During 1957, "The Roses" did vocal back-up for numerous artists."

These included, Buddy Knox: "Somebody Touched Me," "To Be with You," "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself"

Well, friends, I was there when Buddy recorded those songs with the Roses backing him, and I recorded with them backing me too!

Thanks to our friend Arne who posted this YouTube video you can hear The 1957 era Roses (and me!)

BUDDY HOLLY HAS INSPIRED GENERATIONS

OFFICIAL BUDDY HOLLY SITE  link here!

“Buddy did everything he could to make sure that talented young
musicians and songwriters got a real chance,” says Maria Elena Holly.

“He even started his own label – he called it ‘Prism’ – to make this
possible. He would be especially thrilled, as I am, that so many
outstanding artists are part of this effort to honor his personal

commitment to recognize and help great young musical talent.”

What's "new" about Buddy.  In May of 2012 there was a special celebration and tribute album.  It was Buddy's 75th birthday...

Here's the sound sampler...

WEEZERS TRIBUTE TO BUDDY HOLLY

"Buddy Holly" came out in 2004 on Weezer's Blue Album (Geffen Records) and was produced by Ric Ocasek.  The band, which formed in Kinosha, Wisconsin has been touring in New Zealand and Australiasia.

Curious?  Here's a link to their official site! WEEZERS 2013 TOUR

BUDDY KNOX INTRODUCED ME TO BUDDY HOLLY

I met Buddy Holly in New York City in the late 1950's.  Buddy Knox, who I went on tour with for a couple years,  introduced us first. 

You can pull up older posts on this blog by using the Google Search feature.  Try the words BUDDY HOLLY or BUDDY KNOX!

GRAHAM NASH PLAYS ON BUDDY HOLLY'S OLD GUITAR

Graham NASH mentions the guitar cover inspired by Elvis's guitar cover. Buddy hand tooled the leather cover himself!  See our post about Rick Nelson's guitar cover... use the Google search feature... and AL SHELTON or RICK NELSON to bring up that older post!

ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC CELEBRATES BUDDY HOLLY!

Buddy Holly A LEGEND REMEMBERED : ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC  check this out!

(435) ME AND COUNTRY MUSIC : MY ROOTS IN CHEROKEE COUNTY

I grew up in rural Cherokee County North Carolina - The Smokey Mountains - where I ran with a kid gang, and as a teen followed my father's work to Oregon and then around the country to Akron, Ohio, where I got my big break.  From there I would move to New York City as my base but tour throughout the South.

I grew up hearing Country Music and I've always loved it. Rockabilly, as you probably know, has strong roots in Country.  Many of my peers in the business in the late 1950's and early 1960's also had country roots, people like Buddy Knox, Jimmy Bowen and Buddy Holly, who were from West Texas, and Glen Campbell, who was from the "Deep South".

As a song writer, I was just as interested in writing for Country music artists as ever and I was able to place some of the songs I wrote or cowrote with Country artists.  

BUDDY HOLLY : EVERYDAY

BEATLES WORDS OF LOVE : BUDDY HOLLY WORDS OF LOVE

BUDDY HOLLY CENTER : LUBBOCK TEXAS

Driving through Texas? Stop in Lubbock and check out the Buddy Holly Center where you can see some of Buddy's things, such as his homework and his personal collection of 45RMP records!


This is a new link for WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC. If you'll use the search feature you can find past posts on Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

If you go to our side-bar you can find three other BUDDY HOLLY LINKS!

BUDDY HOLLY : THOSE BIG GLASSES HAD NEARSIGHTED PEOPLE EVERYWHERE PUTTING THEIR GLASSES BACK ON!

BUDDY HOLLY

JOHN LENNON. the Beatle, PUT HIS GLASSES BACK ON... Today these glasses that Buddy Holly is seen wearing in a famous publicity photo are considered "classic cool." I see the same style on men, young and old, hipster and preppy, everywhere I go.

I'm the first to get the new book on John Lennon - The Man, The Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life by Tim Riley, published by Hyperion - New York, and so far I think this is the best book on Lennon or the Beatles I've ever read. You bet I'll be excerpting from it. Yes, there is a lot about the American Invasion of Britain! in this book... Christine Trzyna

WE CELEBRATE EARLY ROCK AND ROLL PIONEERS : BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS, J.P. RICHARDSON

Tomorrow, the 3rd, is the day some call "THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED" because its the anniversary of the plane crash that killed three early rock' n rollers who were on tour together. I met Buddy Holly in New York and I was on tour with Buddy Knox when the plane crashed. I also got to record with a couple of the Crickets left behind backing me.

So I was there and shocked like everyone else in my early rock 'n roll generation. Of course the music didn't really die. So many others carried on the music.

For the last couple years here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC, we've tried to post some videos that we think are special as our celebration and we always link to sites that can give you more information, as a kind of tribute to these musicians, these singer-songwriters.

We're going to post over a three day period, starting tomorrow, on Buddy, Ritchie, and J.P Richardson.

Wes

POSTING FROM PALEY CENTER FOR THE MEDIA in BEVERLY HILLS : ED SULLIVAN SHOW and BUDDY HOLLY and THE CRICKETS

Christine here: My personal celebration was to go to the Paley Center for the Media in Beverly Hills today to start watching old Ed Sullivan and Dick Clark American Bandstand shows. What a beautiful, light and airy, masterfully designed modern space! I watched an Ed Sullivan from early December 1957 that featured two performances by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, which were "That'll Be the Day," and "Peggy Sue." When Ed talked to Buddy and the boys from Lubbock, Texas, he asked them how old they were. Buddy said he was 21, and that two of the guys were 18 and one was 19.

We link to Paley Center For the Media (where the curators blog!)

THREE STARS sung by TOMMY DEE : THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED : A TRIBUTE VIDEO PUT UP ON THE NET BY A RITCHIE VALENS FAN!

Tribute to Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and J.P Richardson (the Big Bopper) and Roger Peterson (The Plane's Pilot!) includes radio broadcast announcing the tragic crash. Featuring Tommy Dee performing the song "3 Stars."

We're linking to the video posting website on Myspace called GOTTALOVERITCHIE! This fan site is approved by Ritchie's brother in Pacoima, California, up the road from us. I met Ritchie in New York back stage of a big Alan Freed Rock n Roll show!