"This Day in Music History" ~ Week in Review

"This Week in Music History" Weekend Wrap-Up, SUPER BOWL EDITION, recalls a week of birthday celebrations but, more significantly, remembers a week of loss in the music industry.

As we kicked off the National Black History Month, we lost a true pioneer in music media with the apparent suicide of Don Cornelius, creator and host of SOUL TRAIN for over 35 years. (We are still not convinced of the suicide angle and have been the only media source questioning the official "case closed" nature of Don's death. (See our February 1st editorial). But our memories of loss didn't stop there.

The Day that music died...February 3, 1959. 

The Plane Crash site 5 miles North of Clear Lake, Iowa

53 years ago this week, the world lost the three early pioneers of this new music we came to know as Rock-n-Roll. After a last-minute scheduled performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, not originally scheduled as part of the 24-city in three week tour billed as "The Winter Dance Party", Buddy Holly (22), Richie Valens (17) and The Big Bopper (28) were killed in a tragic plane crash amid the icy cornfields of Albert Juhl's farm in Cerro Gordo County of Northern Iowa at 220mph. The small four-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza Holly chartered to Fargo, North Dakota, where they could get a commercial flight to Duluth, MN (their next tour stop), could only hold three passengers plus Roger Peterson, the 21 year-old pilot. It was a series of ironies as to which three people would lose their lives that fateful early morning.  

  

          The Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa (findadeath.com)    Surf Ballroom stage (Surfballroom.com)

Though a storm warning had been issued that night, this news never reached the group. Since there was only room for two passengers other than Buddy, it became a coin flip that determined Richie Valens would get one of those two seats. The $36 chip-in contribution was too rich for Dion DiMucci (Dion and the Belmonts), the fourth headliner on the tour. 

Waylon Jennings "won" the third seat but gave it up to the Big Bopper who was suffering with a cold. The young Waylon was Holly's guitarist in the make-shift Crickets for the tour. (Holly had left the original Crickets months before.) Waylon's compassion was the difference between his lifelong career in country music and imminent death that night. Ironically, Holly teased Waylon about having to freeze on the 8 hour, 380 mile bus ride. According to the biography, "The Curse of Buddy Holly", Buddy joked, "Hope your bus don't break down". Jennings retorted, "Hope your plane don't crash". That remark haunted Waylon until February 13, 2002, when he died in his sleep of diabetic complications at age 65. 

 Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly in a photo booth, 1959

The tour reluctantly continued and with a heavy heart. A virtual unknown,  Bobby Vee was added and opened the next show that was actually performed in Moorhead, Minnesota. Budding teen idols, Fabian and Paul Anka, were brought in to replace the other two acts in the show. 

Thirteen years after the crash, Don McLean wrote "American Pie" as a tribute  to these early pioneers of Rock-n-Roll. Here is great pictorial video on the story behind the song. Here is WristRock's brief tribute to those whose loss  still reverberates in music history today. 

                      Richie, Big Bopper & Buddy Holly Promo Shot for The Winter Dance Party Tour

First, The Buddy Holly Story

Charles Hardin Holley, aka Buddy Holly,  was born September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas, into a musical family. Although his career  lasted less than two years, he's been described by critics as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll". He learned the piano, guitar, banjo, lap steel guitar and fiddle as a youth.  Influenced by bluegrass music, in 1949, he teamed with Bob Montgomery at Hutchinson Junior High School as "Buddy and Bob". After seeing Elvis perform in Lubbock in 1955, he changed musical direction to a rockabilly-style and was opening for Elvis later that same year. His migration to rock progressed further when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956. 

Buddy formed The Crickets later in 1956 in preparation of laying the tracks in Nashville to "Blue Days, Black Nights" and "Modern Don Juan". The original Crickets consisted of Buddy (lead guitar/ vocals), Niki Sullivan, (rhythm guitar), Joe Mauldin, (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums). After "That'll Be the Day" was released in 1957 and hit #1 in both the US and the UK. (The Crickets were only the second all-white group to tour Great Britain!). After his performance of "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue" on the Ed Sullivan Show on ., December 1, 1957, Buddy was on his way. He parted ways with the Crickets and Decca, his original record company just months before the ill-fated "Winter Dance Party Tour".  

Holly inspired and influenced countless artists: The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, and Eric Clapton. A 17-year-old Bob Dylan saw the Winter Dance Party concert in Duluth, MN just two nights before Holly's plane crash. He was among the first group of inductees to the Rock HOF in 1986. On September 7, 2011 (what would have been Holly's 75th birthday), he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Buddy Holly with the Crickets went on to have a string of hits including "Peggy Sue" "Everyday", "Rave On", "Not Fade Away", "Oh Boy", "Heartbeat", "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", "Raining In My Heart", "True Loves Ways", "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", "Bo Diddley" and others.

 

RIP, Buddy (1936-1959)

 Richie Valens

Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes, aka Ritchie Valens, was born on My 13, 1941 in Pacoima, California, he was raised on traditional Mexican mariachi,  flamenco guitar, R&B and jump blues. He was interested in music by age 5. At 16, he joined a local band, The Silhouettes as a guitarist. He was a pioneer of the Chicano rock movement. In 1958, Valens quit high school to record "Come On, Let's Go"and "Framed", followed by a December 27th appearance on American Bandstand, to perform his signature song, "Donna". 

He released "La Bamba" a month before the accident claimed his life. It would prove to be his most influential recording; not only by becoming a pop chart hit sung entirely in Spanish but also because of its successful blending of traditional Latin American music with rock. Valens' recording career lasted only eight months as he was 17 years old when Holly's plane crashed. He is the first Latino rock 'n' roll artist to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Jimmy Page once said, "Valens was my first guitar hero and I played that bridge to 'La Bamba' a thousand times."

Other hits recorded by Richie included "We Belong Together," "Ooh, My Head," and "Dooby Dooby Wah. Ritchie inspired artists such as Chan Romero, Carlos Santana, Chris Montez, Los Lobos, and Los Lonely Boys. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll HOF in 2001 and is also a member of the Rockabilly HOF.

     Ritchie Valens's grave, San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, CA. RIP, Richie.

The "Big Bopper"

 "Chantilly Lace", The "Big Bopper", 1958

Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson, Jr., aka The "Big Bopper, was born on October 24, 1930, in Sabine Pass, Texas, was an disc jockey, singer, and songwriter whose big voice and outgoing personality made him an early rock and roll star. He is best known for this recording of "Chantilly Lace" and "Lil' Red Riding Hood". In May 1957, he broke the record for continuous on-the-air broadcasting by eight minutes. From a remote set-up in the lobby of the Jefferson Theatre in downtown Beaumont, TX, Richardson performed for a total of five days, two hours and eight minutes, playing 1,821 records and taking showers during five-minute newscasts.

He began his music career as a songwriter. George Jones recorded Richardson's "White Lightning", which became Jones' first #1 country hit in 1959. Richardson also wrote the 1959 #1 hit, "Running Bear" for Johnny Preston. Preeston had formed a rock and roll band called 'The Shades' when Richardson approached him with the song.

After the release of "Chantily Lace" (#6 in the pop charts) later that year, he released a couple more hits: "The Big Bopper's Wedding" and "Crazy Blues". With the success of "Chantilly Lace", Richardson took time off from KTRM radio and joined the "Winter Dance Party" tour and the plane crash that iltimately ended his life. He made the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (1997). Texas Country HOF (2004) and the Texas Radio HOF (2008).

 RIP, Big Bopper (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959)

Birthdays we honored this week...

February 3 

Happy 77th Birthday to Johnny "Guitar Watson (February 3, 1935 – May 17, 1996)

Johnny "Guitar Watson (February 3, 1935 – May 17, 1996) was born in Houston, TX. He was an American blues singer and funk guitarist. A flamboyant showman and guitar picker in the style of T-Bone Walker and Gatemouth Brown, Watson's ferocious LP, Space Guitar (1954) pioneered guitar feedback and reverb. Watson influenced a new generation of guitarists with the special effects. His song "Gangster of Love" (from the above video) was first released 1957. It did not appear in the charts at the time, but was later re-recorded and became a hit in 1978, becoming Watson's highest charting song. Watson recorded throughout the '50s and '60s with moderate success. His raunchy reinvention in the 1970s with disco and funk  saw him break hits like "Ain't That a Bitch", "I Need It" and "Superman Lover". His successful recording career spanned 40 with his biggest hit being the 1977 "A Real Mother For Ya". RIP, Johnny.

Happy 65th Birthday to Dave Davies of The Kinks

Dave Davies, lead guitarist, keyboards, harmonica and vocalist for The Kinks was born in Fortis Green, London, England. Davies grew up playing skiffle but eventually bought an electric guitar and started experimenting with rock. Dave and his brother Ray, worked out the two-chord power riff on piano as teenagers which became the signature riff on The Kinks' first hit, "You Really Got Me". Dave achieved the sound later on guitar by slitting the speaker cone on his Elpico amplifier, which he then ran through a larger Super Beatle Vox as a "pre-amp".This sound was one of the first mainstream appearances of guitar distortion, which was to have a major influence on many later musicians. Other Kinks hits include "Who'll Be the Next in Line?", "All Day and All Night" "So Tired of Waiting", "Set Me Free" "Lola" and "Sunny Afternoon". Dave released his first true solo studio album in 20 years, Bug, in 2002. Fractured Mindz followed in January 2007, his first album of all new material in nearly 5 years. It was also his first new studio effort since his stroke in the summer of 2004.


February 4 

Happy 64th birthday to Alice Cooper

Vincent Furnier, aka Alice Cooper, the Detroit, Michigan shock rocker whose heavy metal career has spanned more than four decades with a stage show that features guillotines, electric  chairs, live snakes and fake blood.  (see 20+ music video of Alice Cooper in Guitar Maniacs'  "Top 10 Glam Rock Guitarists" (Under Glen Buxton #4)

February 5

 Happy 68th birthday to Al Kooper, Blues Project/ Blood, Sweat & Tears

Alan Peter Kuperschmidt aka Al Kooper guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist for The Blues Project and later Blood, Sweat & Tears was born in Brooklyn, New York. Al joined The Royal Teens who had a Top 5 hit with the tune "Short Shorts" in 1958 and a Top 30 hit a year later with "Believe Me." After a successful career as a session player (including the signature Hammond organ riff in Dylan's "Like a Rollin' Stone", he hooked up with guitarist Danny Kalb, bassist Andy Kulberg, guitarist Steve Katz, and drummer Roy Blumenfeld to form The Blues Project. Their 60's urban blues style resulted the live album, SOUL OF A MAN. That album also contains live takes of "I Can't Keep From Cryin'' Sometimes," "Flute Thing" and "Violets Of Dawn." After forming Blood, Sweat & Tears, Kooper left in 1968 after just one album, CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN. He went solo and collaborated on specific projects like Mike Bloomfield and SUPER SESSION), then Shuggie Otis, and his own solo debut, I STAND ALONE. He continued to do session work, adding his keyboards to records by The Rolling Stones ("You Can't Always Get What You Want"), Jimi Hendrix ("Long Hot Summer Nights"), The Who ("Rael"), and countless others.

Other notable passings this week...

February 4: 

Doris Coley was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina on August 2, 1941. Doris was a founder member and lead singer of The Shirelles. She initially left the group in 1968, but returned in 1975. The girl group formed in New Jersey in 1958, and went on to release a string of hits including "Baby It's You" , "Mama Said", "Foolish Little Girl", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Soldier Boy" and "Sha La La". Doris sang lead on "Dedicated to the One I Love", "Welcome Home Baby" and "Blue Holiday". She was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll HOF  with The Shirelles in 1996. Their effect went far beyond the Philadelphia sound of the Ronettes and The Orlons, or the Shangri-Las. The early Beatles,  Smith even Adele has covered their songs. She passed from breast cancer in 2000 at age 59. RIP, Doris.