Initially influenced by bluegrass music, they sang harmony duets at local clubs and high school talent shows. As a result of this performance, Holley was offered a contract with Decca Records to work alone. However, early success as a solo artist eluded him. This put Buddy in the unusual position of having two record contracts at the same time. After the release of several highly successful songs, in March of , he and the Crickets toured the United Kingdom.
The group, The Hollies were named in homage. He also learned the basics of guitar from his older brothers. Buddy Holly formed a band after high school, paying western and country songs on a radio station in Lubbock. Before his crucial moment opening for Elvis Presley in , he opened for prominent national acts touring through town. Together with his band in early , Holly started recording singles and demos in Nashville.
They had seven different Top 40 singles charting between August and August At the time, he was facing financial and legal problems due to the band breaking up, so he reluctantly agreed to go on tour through the Midwest in with The Winter Dance Party. They were big fans and named their band as a pun. It seems that even at that early age he had an uncompromising faith that somewhere, somehow, there was career for him in music. Buddy and Bob might have gone on playing supermarket openings, fairs, and local talent shows until they were old and grey.
Things, however, were moving in the outside world that would change all that. After the disruption of the Korean war, which interrupted cthe areers of many young country musicians, a situation was created where the old guard of country pickers, who had risen to fame in the 30s and 40s, had a very conservative stranglehold on the country music output. This grip was so strong that drum kits were actually banned from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry until the mids. Despite all this there was a group of younger musicians determined to break out of the restrictions created by this early 50s Nashville mafia.
Even in the comparative isolation of Lubbock, Buddy Holly was becoming fascinated by the more lively music of people like Hank Ballard and John Lee Hooker. After a good deal of hustling he was given a contract with Decca Records in Nashville. Capitol had signed Gene Vincent after a nationwide talent search, and Decca felt strongly that they needed a similar performer. Decca might have wanted a rock star in principle, but they hardly went out of their way to accommodate or assist their new find.
Maudlin and Allison were later, along with Holly, to form the nucleus of the Crickets. Considerably sobered, Holly and his sidemen started a long grind of country roadshows. On these extravaganzas they usually opened with their own act, and then stepped back to accompany more established stars like Faron Young, Hank Thompson and Wanda Jackson.
It might have been invaluable experience but it was somewhat crushing ordeal for a group of kids who wanted to be stars. Their next try at recording was brought about by an individual called Norman Petty. Petty was the kind of 50s rock manager from the cut-corners-and-get-rich-quick school.
He negotiated a deal between Holly and the band and Coral, ironically an independent subsidiary of Decca. On the strength of this Norman Petty became their manager. Holly had already cut a version of the song for Decca, and they would have been well within their rights in stopping any other recording of the song by Holly that came out within five years of their release.
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