Interviews

1. Red Robinson - Wednesday 23 October 1957
2. Freeman Hover - Saturday 2 November 1957
3. Dale Lowery - Tuesday 5 November 1957
4. Ed Sullivan - Sunday 1 December 1957
5. Pat Barton - Friday 31 January 1958
6. Bob Chesney - Monday 24 February 1958
7. Alan Freed - Tuesday 23 September 1958
8. Ronnie King - Friday 17 October 1958
9. Dick Clark - Tuesday 28 October 1958

Hear some of these interviews on Roller Coaster RECD 503 (2002)

Saturday 2 November 1957
(Between midnight and 3 a.m.)
Interview with Freeman Hover
At the Albany Hotel, Denver, Colorado
On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957"
Recorded for Radio KCSR, Chadron, Nebraska
Duration: 11:01

Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Guybo Smith, and Freeman Hover

0:00 Freeman Hover: Bandstanders, believe you me, we're having a real fiesta this evening in Eddie Cochran's suite at the Albany Hotel following the big rock 'n' roll show at the Denver Auditorium and Arena. Eddie sitting very comfortably in his chair now with a new pipe that - you picked that up here in Denver, didn't you, Eddie? [Eddie Cochran smoked pipes.]

0:18 Eddie Cochran: That's right, I just bought it tonight.

0:19 Freeman Hover: Real cool, alright…

0:21 Eddie Cochran: [Garbled] …it's a beauty.

0:23 Freeman Hover: Gotta see it! We have a man in Chadron that collects pipes - I'd like to get his opinion of that, but I think it looks real sharp on you.

0:30 Eddie Cochran: [Garbled] …looks sophisticated.

0:31 Freeman Hover: Yeah, sophisticated. And then, of course, you've heard the little bit of a chat here we've had with Jimmy Bowen, who has been next door picking on a ukelele, I think. No? Oh, downstair… Oh, sleeping! Well, it's only 2:30 in the morning. Mrs Chase, you didn't hear that!

0:51 Eddie Cochran: [Laughs]

0:52 Freeman Hover: And right on either side of me now here at the, in the room, are a couple of members of The Crickets, and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and then I've got to say something, really something. Go ahead. Here's the first one.

1:04 Buddy Holly: Over here's Buddy Holly

1:06 Jerry Allison: And over here, Jerry Allison.

1:07 Freeman Hover: Jerry and Buddy, I just wrote a letter down to Norm Petty, our friend Norm Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, about two days ago, asking if there'd be any chance that The Crickets could do some station breaks for us. I haven't had a letter back yet but here we are in Denver, Colorado, with The Crickets, or at least a couple of them sitting right at my side. So, this is really something we hadn't expected at all. We want to say that your song, up there in the big Top 40 chart is doing a mighty terrific job, and the expression, "That'll be the day", is practically the word around the Chadron area now…

1:41 Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison: [Laugh]

1:42 Freeman Hover: …I don't know. No matter where you're going, a telephone con¬versation, no matter what it is, "That'll be the day". And that's kind of a good plug, isn't it Buddy?

1:50 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] It sure is, Free.

1:52 Freeman Hover: Could you tell us how you fellas kinda got together. Who's going to start it here? [Laughs]

1:57 Jerry Allison: Well it's all hard to say. Buddy and I have been together for about five years, playing around Lubbock, there, we went to school together and high school. And the other two boys, I don't know about them, how we got with them, but they just seem to be with us somehow or the other!

2:13 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] They're just kinda along for the ride, huh?

2:14 Jerry Allison: It seems like it.

2:15 Freeman Hover: It makes a mighty good-sounding ride altogether.

2:17 All: [Laughter]

2:20 Freeman Hover: Now the name Crickets. I mean, you don't go "Kreek, kreek, kreek," on your records, or at least I never heard it. It's a pretty good sound. Where does this Crickets thing come in?

2:28 Jerry Allison: Well, we were trying to think of some name that, ah, hadn't been used before, and so we came up with Crickets, and sure enough it had been used before!

2:36 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

2:37 Freeman Hover: Well, very, very good. We had one the other day, The Brother Sisters, that was pretty novel. Of course they're doing pretty well too on a label, but The Crickets, that's very good. How did you happen to tie in with Norm Petty?

2:48 Buddy Holly: Well, we've known Norm for quite some time, down there in Clovis, New Mexico, and we used to go over and make a few dubs now and then to, you know, see what we sounded like and everything. So the last time, oh, let's see, it was in January, I believe, wasn't it Jerry?

3:03 Jerry Allison: Yeah.

3:04 Buddy Holly: We went over there and were making a dub to send in to various companies and see if we could possibly do anything in the line of the music business, and Norm asked us if we'd like representing in to Brunswick Records in New York. And so we told him, "Yeah, go ahead, we can't lose!"

3:24 All: [Laugh]

3:24 Buddy Holly: We're as far behind as you could get already! So, ah, he sent it in and Bob Theile, the A & R man for Brunswick okayed it and put it out, and the kids all over the United States did the rest.

3:38 Freeman Hover: Well, that's terrific. Now you've got a new one out called?

3:41 Buddy Holly: "Oh, Boy!"

3:42 Freeman Hover: "Oh, Boy!" I wish we could get that record. You got a copy in your room any place we could have?

3:45 Buddy Holly: No, sir, we don't. Ah, to tell the truth, Norm can't even get one of those things either. I talked to him while I got on the telephone and he said that he was wanting some off a bet but he couldn't get a hold of any.

3:53 Freeman Hover: Doggone, I just, er, in this letter I asked him for it too because we are waiting for it. We've got it on our chart as a pick for future popularity and we know it's going to arrive very soon and hopefully we can get that. Norm's a fine lad we had the privilege of meeting him about a year ago when we were down in Clovis visiting a relative and visited his studios there and had a wonderful time and he did some fine work for us too, and also an Air Force program that he had done some time ago that we programmed for 13 weeks. Wonderful music and he's doing real fine on commercial records now too, isn't he?

4:20 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he sure is.

4:21 Freeman Hover: Do they plan to stay in Clovis, or…?

4:23 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he's, er, got quite a set-up there and I imagine it'd be, ah, quite a bit of trouble to move it. [Laughs]

4:29 Freeman Hover: Do they still have a little puppy that I saw down there?

4:31 Buddy Holly: Yeah, his name is...

4:32 Freeman Hover: He's the pride of the family.

4:33 Buddy Holly: His name is Speedy, and a little Mexican chihuahua.

4:37 Freeman Hover: That's right, uh-huh.

4:37 Buddy Holly: And he's really something.

4:40 Freeman Hover: You'll be going down that way after the tour again?

4:42 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, as you probably know Lubbock and Clovis are about a hundred miles apart and when we are at home we spend most of our waking hours, you might say, over in Clovis. And we'll be going home around the second of December. That'll be after we do our Sullivan show, on the first.

5:01 Freeman Hover: You're all set for it. Well, wonderful. That's great, great.

5:04 Jerry Allison: It's not much to get plugging, man! [Laughs]

5:05 Freeman Hover: Why, sure.

5:06 Jerry Allison: Bug the mechanical monster!

5:07 All: [Laughter]

5:09 Freeman Hover: Ah, this is really, really trite, but I'm going to say great having you fellas here and we do look forward to having more of your disks. You have something planned after… "Oh, Boy!", of course, is on the way up now but have you got something in mind to be putting on disk very, very soon or in the near future, we'll say?

5:26 Jerry Allison: Ah, no, for The Crickets we don't have anything. I don't know if Buddy's modest or anything but he's got two records out of his own now, "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday", that are doing a little bit of good, I think. I hope they are.

5:37 Freeman Hover: Oh, great. What's that? "Peggy Sue" on the Brunswick label…

5:40 Jerry Allison: On Coral.

5:40 Freeman Hover: Coral.

5:41 Jerry Allison: Yes, sir.

5:41 Freeman Hover: Good. We'll check on that as soon as we get back. Right. Band¬standers, you're having a wonderful treat this afternoon hearing all of your great Top 40 stars and Bandstand stars as we promised you and even more in the bargain, and we feel it is a great privilege to bring them out your way. [Pause] I wanted to say to you fellas that we certainly enjoyed your stint here in Denver, this evening, and say that you did a grand job on this, on those songs.

6:08 Buddy Holly: Well, Free, we're, ah, certainly tickled to be here in Denver. It's the first time we've played here and we've been looking forward to it for quite some time now ever since the tour started, and we knew we were gonna be here, and, ah, we'd like to also mention that we would like to thank you for plugging our records and we'd like to thank everyone around here for listening to them and buying them.

6:28 Freeman Hover: Good. And we do thank you for that. Now, is there any chance of anything in the way of pictures or are you going to stick strictly to records, and anything? Nothing that would be… not letting the cat out of the bag.

6:40 Buddy Holly: Well, I might stick a little bit of a plug in here for Eddie Cochran, sitting over there, so contented like. [Laughs]

6:47 Freeman Hover: With that pipe!

6:49 Buddy Holly: He's starring in a picture that'll be out pretty soon, I don't know exactly when it will be out, but he said that he could arrange it for The Crickets to appear in that picture singing a song or something.

7:00 Freeman Hover: Great!

7:01 Buddy Holly: And so we've been buddying up to him…

7:03 Jerry Allison: Getting in as good as we can!

7:05 All: [Laughter]

7:06 Freeman Hover: Well, that'll be the day, won't it?

7:08 All: [Laughter]

7:10 Freeman Hover: Ah, well. Well, well, well. We're so enthused about being able to talk to you and bring these interviews to our Bandstanders this Monday afternoon. As we mentioned, it's a weird hour, but maybe not for you guys - it is for us.

7:22 All: [Laughter]

7:24 Buddy Holly: Considering we have to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and get on a plane.

7:27 All: [Laughter]

7:32 Freeman Hover: Well, this is a great country around here and we want to invite all of you fellas. We've been trying to get Eddie over here to Chadron, Nebraska, for I don't know how long now, twisting his arm pretty bad - if you notice it's misshapen. It's not from holding…

7:43 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

7:43 Freeman Hover: …holding that guitar or anything like that - we've been twisting it. And we'd like to have you fellas if you ever get a chance to come out and visit us. And we've already got him set to run a combine during wheat harvest season…

7:54 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

7:54 Freeman Hover: …and so, we can probably, er, we can always use some announcers or anybody you know, er, anything around the station, if you guys do drop in.

8:01 Buddy Holly: Well, do you pay all the records you need? [Laughs]

8:06 Freeman Hover: [Pause] You got me! Start of the week!

8:08 All: [Laughter]

8:10 Freeman Hover: We got, we got records - oh man, we got records! Well, again, fellas, Crickets, we've got some more over here, haven't we, or have we? No. Well…

8:21 Eddie Cochran: That's my bass player

8:22 Freeman Hover: That's your what?

8:23 Eddie Cochran: My bass player.

8:23 Freeman Hover: Oh, your bass player. Well can't we talk to him?

8:25 Eddie Cochran: Guybo Smith.

8:27 Freeman Hover: Well, let's just bring him over here. This is fabulous, it's really wonderful. The name again? [Laughs] Sit right down, this is… We're going to have to start paying rent on the edge of your bed here, boy. [Laughs] Sure Bandstanders, here he is. And the name again?

8:40 Guybo Smith: Guybo.

8:41 Freeman Hover: [Pause] Say that again…

8:43 Guybo Smith: Guybo.

8:44 Freeman Hover: Okay, Guybo. And Smith?

8:45 Eddie Cochran: Guybo Smith.

8:46 Freeman Hover: Yeah, Smith. We've got that, right. And what are you to this lad over here, by the name of Cochran?

8:51 Guybo Smith: His bass player.

8:52 Freeman Hover: His bass player. Are you the fella that was standing kind of off the side there tonight?

8:55 Guybo Smith: Mmm.

8:56 Freeman Hover: Oh, wonderful. Couldn't get along without you, could he?

8:58 Guybo Smith: Mmm?

8:59 All in background: [Laughter at Smith's reticence.]

9:03 Eddie Cochran: He peddles tomatoes on the side too...

9:05 Freeman Hover: Oh, was he the fella I saw down here in [??] or some place tonight before the show with those tomatoes?

9:10 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] Yeah, he peddles tomatoes before the show and tells them to throw 'em at me.

9:14 Freeman Hover: Say that again. [Laughs]

9:15 Eddie Cochran: I say he peddles tomatoes before the show and tells 'em to throw it at me.

9:18 Freeman Hover: Ah, what's the urging [?] that?

9:20 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] No, I think he wants to get fired.

9:23 Freeman Hover: Well, if he drops off here in Denver we'll bring him up to Chadron…

9:26 Eddie Cochran: I would fire him, but I'm getting a cut off it!

9:29 All: [Lots of laughter]

9:31 Freeman Hover: Folks, we've got a great crew here this evening. [Laughs] We've got… [Laughs] Wow, well again… [Laughs]

9:39 Buddy Holly: [Garbled] …king for humour, that's 1A.

9:41 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] Dry humour. This portion of the Bandstand is brought to you by [lowers voice] everyone, folks.

9:47 All: [Laughter]

9:49 Freeman Hover: And if you haven't heard some of the songs you've heard some of the best in entertainment. You'll never hear anything like it, with Eddie Cochran and The Crickets, kreeking along here…

9:58 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

9:59 Freeman Hover: That slays me. [Laughs] Guybo Smith. Have I got it right, have I? Okay. [Laughs] And a wicked-looking pipe. It's been transferred from… or is that somebody else's pipe? No that's Eddie's. You're renting it out I suppose? You get a cut on that rental?

10:16 Eddie Cochran: I get [garbled].

10:17 Freeman Hover: Wow! Jimmy's relaxing on the other… [Laughs]

10:23 Buddy Holly: [Garbled]

10:25 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] Well guys, it's been, it really has been wonderful and we appreciate your dropping in this afternoon at The Bandstand and letting some of our folks hear a very informal little chat with you. So, on with the music and you know what we're gonna do we're going to music right now by Eddie Cochran, by The Crickets, by Jimmy Bowen. Is Guybo Smith back in one of those records we played?

10:46 Eddie Cochran: Yeah, he's played behind all my records.

10:47 Freeman Hover: How far behind?

10:48 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] Just far enough back where you can just barely hear him.

10:52 Freeman Hover: [Dryly] Kind of picks up on the other side?

10:53 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] Yeah, way back. Way back in the background.

10:55 Freeman Hover: Okay, well, we've got the whole crew here.

10:57 Eddie Cochran: [Subtle laugh]

10:57 Freeman Hover: So, Bandstanders, that's it, and let's go on with the show.

11:01 End.

Wednesday 23 October 1957
Interview with Red Robinson
At the Georgia Auditorium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957"
Duration: 3:05

Buddy Holly and Red Robinson

0:00 Red Robinson: Well, backstage here at the Georgia Auditorium for the Biggest Record Star Show for 1957, talking to Buddy Holly.

0:06 Buddy Holly: Hullo, Red.

0:07 Red Robinson: How are you?

0:07 Buddy Holly: Just fine 'n' dandy.

0:08 Red Robinson: Yeah, I missed that phone call we had from Toronto that day [14 September 1957].

0:10 Buddy Holly: Yeah, ah, we couldn't get together on that, some way or another.

0:13 Red Robinson: I don't know, but I'd just like to tell you right now that your song "Peggy Sue" that you do on a solo there on Coral Records, is it Coral Records in the States too?

0:20 Buddy Holly: Ah, yes it is.

0:21 Red Robinson: Yeah, it's doing real well. It's number seven song here and that's lucky number seven, as we say over here.

0:25 Buddy Holly: Well, that's fine. [Laughs]

0:26 Red Robinson: Well, how long have you had The Crickets together, Buddy?

0:28 Buddy Holly: Since January.

0:29 Red Robinson: Since January.

0:30 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

0:31 Red Robinson: When did you decide to form a group up, was it at that time?

0:34 Buddy Holly: Well uh, we just uh… the drummer and myself have been playing together for about four years and we got the other two boys and asked them if they'd like to join us and form a group.

0:42 Red Robinson: You write your own material, is that right?

0:43 Buddy Holly: Yes, that's right.

0:44 Red Robinson: Who helped you with "That'll Be the Day"?

0:46 Buddy Holly: Jerry Allison, the drummer.

0:47 Red Robinson: He's the fellow that plays drums?

0:48 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

0:49 Red Robinson: Where are you all from - where's your home town?

0:50 Buddy Holly: Lubbock, Texas.

0:51 Red Robinson: Would you like to go back there?

0:52 Buddy Holly: Sure would! [Laughs]

0:53 Red Robinson: What's the weather like this time of year down there?

0:55 Buddy Holly: Oh, it's not quite this cool.

0:56 Red Robinson: It's not?

0:57 Buddy Holly: And its a little bit drier!

0:59 Red Robinson: Well, I'm going to put you on the spot and I said I - I asked you before and I didn't have a microphone with me - but I'm going to put you on the spot again. What do you think about Rock 'n' Roll music, do you think it is on the wane, or what?

1:09 Buddy Holly: I think it's, ah, going out quite a bit in the States.

1:12 Red Robinson: Down South?

1:13 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

1:14 Red Robinson: How far down?

1:15 Buddy Holly: Er… deep! [Both laugh]

1:16 Red Robinson: It is, but I mean, how long do you think it will last, another six months? Seven months?

1:21 Buddy Holly: Oh, possibly, yeah.

1:22 Red Robinson: Think after Christmas things may change a bit there?

1:24 Buddy Holly: Ah, they, they… it might pick back up, but I rather doubt it.

1:27 Red Robinson: Well, we'd like to congratulate you here because - in a special way - because the West Coast here is sort of responsible for "That'll Be the Day" to get its start. It started out here and it went well.

1:36 Buddy Holly: Yeah, that's what I heard. [Laughs]

1:38 Red Robinson: And, er, we're all real happy about it here. Phil Rose of Compo, of Coral Records and Impax [?] and Brunswick in Eastern Canada was trying to get through to us with you on the phone back there [on 14 September 1957]. How was your engagement in Toronto?

1:48 Buddy Holly: It was real fine. They received us real well there.

1:51 Red Robinson: What've you got coming up in the future for records?

1:53 Buddy Holly: Well, we've got one that was just released the other day by the Crickets, called "Oh, Boy!"

1:56 Red Robinson: "Oh, Boy!"

1:57 Buddy Holly: And you should be getting it just any day now.

1:58 Red Robinson: Well, that's terrific and we'll be playing it just like the other one. That'll mean that we've got three songs in our chart that come from Buddy!

2:03 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

2:04 Red Robinson: That'll be "Peggy Sue", "That'll Be the Day" and "Oh, Boy!"

2:07 Buddy Holly: Yeah?

2:08 Red Robinson: How do you think it compares with the others?

2:09 Buddy Holly: Well, I like "Oh, Boy!", better than "That'll Be the Day", really.

2:13 Red Robinson: You think it's better?

2:14 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. But, ah, of course I'm no judge. [Laughs]

2:17 Red Robinson: It's always the listeners that decide the fate of a record in the end. We'd like to congratulate you and I think you've got a good future in the business. One other question, Buddy. If trends change would you hop on the trend and go into the other, or would you just give up?

2:27 Buddy Holly: I'd hop on the trend. [Laughs]

2:29 Red Robinson: You would?

2:30 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh, because I'd prefer singing a little bit - something a little more quieter, anyhow.

2:33 Red Robinson: What are you like down in Texas where you come from? How far is that from a place like Dallas or Crystal City? I mean Texas is BIG, man! [Laughs]

2:39 Buddy Holly: Well, uh, our home town, Lubbock, is, uh, 280 miles straight west of Dallas.

2:45 Red Robinson: It is?

2:46 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

2:46 Red Robinson: Yeah, I'm going to hit Dallas right off! Wow!

2:47 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

2:49 Red Robinson: Well, it's been real wonderful talking to you backstage here, Buddy, and I guess your act goes on pretty soon, does it?

2:52 Buddy Holly: Yes it does. We go on right after Fats [Domino].

2:54 Red Robinson: How many numbers?

2:54 Buddy Holly: We do three.

2:56 Red Robinson: You do three numbers. What are you going to do up there?

2:58 Buddy Holly: We'll do, ah, "Ready, Teddy", and our new one, "Oh, Boy!" and "That'll Be the Day".

3:02 Red Robinson: Well, gee, it's been a real pleasure talking to you backstage. Buddy Holly of the fabulous Crickets!

3:05 End.

Saturday 2 November 1957 (3:00 A.M.)
Interview with Freeman Hover
At the Albany Hotel, Denver, Colorado
On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957"
Recorded for Radio KCSR, Chadron, Nebraska
Duration: 7:28

Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison and Freeman Hover

0:00 Freeman Hover: And right on either side of me now here at the, in the room, are a couple of members of The Crickets, and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and then I've got to say something, really it's something. Go ahead. Here's the first one.

0:11 Buddy Holly: Over here's Buddy Holly

0:12 Jerry Allison: And over here, Jerry Allison.

0:14 Freeman Hover: Jerry and Buddy, I just wrote a letter down to Norm Petty, our friend Norm Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, about two days ago, asking if there'd be any chance that The Crickets could do some station breaks for us. I haven't had a letter back yet but here we are in Denver, Colorado, with The Crickets, or at least a couple of them sitting right at my side. So, this is really something we hadn't expected at all. We want to say that your song, up there in the big Top 40 chart is doing a mighty terrific job, and the expression, "That'll be the day", is practically the word around the Chadron area now…

0:45 Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison: [Laugh]

0:46 Freeman Hover: …I don't know. No matter where you're going, a telephone conversation, no matter what it is, "That'll be the day". And that's kind of a good plug, isn't it Buddy?

0:54 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] It sure is, Free.

0:56 Freeman Hover: Could you tell us how you fellas kinda got together. Who's going to start it here? [Laughs]

1:01 Jerry Allison: Well it's all hard to say. Buddy and I have been together for about five years, playing around Lubbock, there, we went to school together and high school. And the other two boys, I don't know about them, how we got with them, but they just seem to be with us somehow or the other!

1:16 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] They're just kinda along for the ride, huh?

1:17 Jerry Allison: It seems like it.

1:18 Freeman Hover: It makes a mighty good-sounding ride altogether.

1:20 All: [Laughter]

1:23 Freeman Hover: Now the name Crickets. I mean, you don't go "Kreek, kreek, kreek," on your records, or at least I never heard it. It's a pretty good sound. Where does this Crickets thing come in?

1:31 Jerry Allison: Well, we were trying to think of some name that, ah, hadn't been used before, and so we came up with Crickets, and sure enough it had been used before!

1:39 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

1:39 Freeman Hover: Well, very, very good. We had one the other day, The Brother Sisters, that was pretty novel. Of course they're doing pretty well too on a label, but The Crickets, that's very good. How did you happen to tie in with Norm Petty?

1:51 Buddy Holly: Well, we've known Norm for quite some time, down there in Clovis, New Mexico, and we used to go over and make a few dubs now and then to, you know, see what we sounded like and everything. So the last time, oh, let's see, it was in January, I believe, wasn't it Jerry?

2:04 Jerry Allison: Yeah.

2:05 Buddy Holly: We went over there and were making a dub to send in to various companies and see if we could possibly do anything in the line of the music business, and Norm asked us if we'd like representing in to Brunswick Records in New York. And so we told him, "Yeah, go ahead, we can't lose!"

2:25 All: [Laugh]

2:26 Buddy Holly: We're as far behind as you could get already! So, ah, he sent it in and Bob Theile, the A & R man for Brunswick okayed it and put it out, and the kids all over the United States did the rest.

2:38 Freeman Hover: Well, that's terrific. Now you've got a new one out called?

2:41 Buddy Holly: "Oh, Boy!"

2:42 Freeman Hover: "Oh, Boy!" I wish we could get that record. You got a copy in your room we could get?

2:45 Buddy Holly: No, sir, we don't. Ah, to tell the truth, Norm can't even get one of those things either. I talked to him while I got on the telephone and he said that he was wanting some off a bet but he couldn't get a hold of any.

2:53 Freeman Hover: Doggone, I just, er, in this letter I asked him for it too because we are waiting for it. We've got it on our chart as a pick for future popularity and we know it's going to arrive very soon and hopefully we can get that. Norm's a fine lad we had the privilege of meeting him about a year ago when we were down in Clovis visiting a relative and visited his studios there and had a wonderful time and he did some fine work for us too, and also an Air Force program that he had done some time ago that we programmed for 13 weeks. Wonderful music and he's doing real fine on commercial records now too, isn't he?

3:20 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he sure is.

3:21 Freeman Hover: Do they plan to stay in Clovis, or…?

3:23 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he's, er, got quite a set-up there and I imagine it'd be, ah, quite a bit of trouble to move it. [Laughs]

3:28 Freeman Hover: Do they still have a little puppy that I saw down there?

3:30 Buddy Holly: Yeah.

3:31 Freeman Hover: He's the pride of the family.

3:32 Buddy Holly: His name is Speedy, and a little Mexican chihuahua.

3:36 Freeman Hover: That's right, uh-huh.

3:37 Buddy Holly: And he's really something.

3:39 Freeman Hover: You'll be going down that way after the tour again?

3:41 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, as you probably know Lubbock and Clovis are about a hundred miles apart and when we are at home we spend most of our waking hours, you might say, over in Clovis. And we'll be going home around the second of December. That'll be after we do our Sullivan show, on the first.

3:59 Freeman Hover: You're all set for it. Well, wonderful. That's great, great.

4:02 Jerry Allison: It's not much to get plugging, man! [Laughs]

4:04 Buddy Holly: Why, sure.

4:05 Jerry Allison: Bug the mechanical monster!

4:08 Freeman Hover: Ah, this is really, really trite, but I'm going to say great having you fellas here and we do look forward to having more of your disks. You have something planned after… "Oh, Boy!", of course, is on the way up now but have you got something in mind to be putting on disk very, very soon or in the near future, we'll say?

4:25 Jerry Allison: Ah, no, for The Crickets we don't have anything. I don't know if Buddy's modest or anything but he's got two records out of his own now, "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday", that are doing a little bit of good, I think. I hope they are.

4:35 Freeman Hover: Oh, great. What's that? "Peggy Sue" on the Brunswick label…

4:05 Jerry Allison: On Coral.

4:37 Freeman Hover: Coral.

4:37 Jerry Allison: Yes, sir.

4:38 Freeman Hover: Good. We'll check on that as soon as we get back. Right. Bandstanders, you're having a wonderful treat this afternoon hearing all of your great Top 40 stars and Bandstand stars as we promised you and even more in the bargain, and we feel it is a great privilege to bring them out your way. I wanted to say to you fellas that we certainly enjoyed your stint here in Denver, this evening, and say that you did a grand job on this, on those songs.

5:04 Buddy Holly: Well, Free, we're, ah, certainly tickled to be here in Denver. It's the first time we've played here and we've been looking forward to it for quite some time now ever since the tour started, and we knew we were gonna be here, and, ah, we'd like to also mention that we would like to thank you for plugging our records and we'd like to thank everyone around here for listening to them and buying them.

5:22 Freeman Hover: Good. And we do thank you for that. Now, is there any chance of anything in the way of pictures or are you going to stick strictly to records, and anything? Nothing that would be… not letting the cat out of the bag.

5:34 Buddy Holly: Well, I might stick a little bit of a plug in here for Eddie Cochran, sitting over there, so contented like. [Laughs]

5:42 Freeman Hover: With that pipe! [Eddie Cochran smoked a pipe]

5:43 Buddy Holly: He's staring in a picture that'll be out pretty soon, I don't know exactly when it will be out, but he said that he could arrange it for The Crickets to appear in that picture singing a song or something.

5:54 Freeman Hover: Great!

5:55 Buddy Holly: And so we've been buddying up to him…

5:58 Jerry Allison: Getting in as good as we can!

5:59 All: [Laughter]

6:00 Freeman Hover: Well, that'll be the day, won't it?

6:01 All: [Laughter]

6:04 Freeman Hover: Ah, well. Well, well, well. We're so enthused about being able to talk to you and bring these interviews to our Bandstanders this Monday afternoon. As we mentioned, it's a weird hour, but maybe not for you guys - it is for us.

6:16 All: [Laughter]

6:17 Buddy Holly: Considering we have to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and get on a plane.

6:20 All: [Laughter]

6:25 Freeman Hover: Well, this is a great country around here and we want to invite all of you fellas. We've been trying to get Eddie over here to Chadron, Nebraska, for I don't know how long now, twisting his arm pretty bad - if you notice it's misshapen. It's not from holding…

6:36 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

6:37 Freeman Hover: …holding that guitar or anything like that - we've been twisting it. And we'd like to have you fellas if you ever get a chance to come out and visit us. And we've already got him set to run a combine during wheat harvest season…

6:47 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

6:47 Freeman Hover: …and so, we can probably, er, we can always use some announcers or anybody you know, er, anything around the station, if you guys do drop in.

6:56 Buddy Holly: Well, do you pay all the records you need? [Laughs]

6:58 Freeman Hover: You got me! Start of the week!

7:00 All: [Laughter]

7:03 Freeman Hover: We got, we got records - oh man, we got records! Well, guys, it's been, it really has been wonderful and we appreciate your dropping in this afternoon at The Bandstand and letting some of our folks hear a very informal little chat with you. So, on with the music and you know what we're gonna do we're gonna music right now by Eddie Cochran, by The Crickets, by Jimmy Bourne. So, Bandstanders, that's it, and let's go on with the show.

7:28 End.

Tuesday 5 November 1957
Interview with Dale Lowery
At the Municipal Auditorium, Topeka, Kansas
On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957"
Recorded for KTOP Radio, Topeka, Kansas
Duration: 1:38

Buddy Holly and Dale Lowery

0:00 Dale Lowery: And we have here, right now, as guests at The KTOP Microphone, members of The Crickets. The Crickets, a quartet, and we have first, on my left, Buddy Holly. How are you this evening, Buddy?

0:13 Buddy Holly: Just fine, Dale, how are you?

0:14 Dale Lowery: Well, we're fine, and we hope you are too. Would you care to introduce for our listening audience the rest of The Crickets that we have here?

0:20 Buddy Holly: Well, here's Joe Mauldin, he plays bass, and Jerry Allison plays drums and the other one, Niki Sullivan, is not here right at the moment, he's out on the stage trying, doing something. And that's us.

0:33 Dale Lowery: Why don't you tell us a little about some of the recordings that you do have out right now?

0:37 Buddy Holly: Well, we have three records going right now and, of course, the first one was, "That'll Be the Day"…

0:44 Dale Lowery: Yeah, we all know that one.

0:44 Buddy Holly: …Our first release. And then we have a new one out by The Crickets, called "Oh, Boy!" and "Not Fade Away", and then there's one out, it's the same group but it's under my name - I don't know why they did it that way - but they put one out under my name called "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday".

1:02 Dale Lowery: How did you fellas happen to get the name Crickets? That's always intrigued me.

1:06 Buddy Holly: We had to think of some name that hadn't been used yet and Jerry came up with it. [Laughs] So sure enough, it had already been used, but it was a good while back so it didn't matter too much.

1:16 Dale Lowery: I guess that about winds up. That's all the time we have for this interview with The Crickets, and we want to thank The Crickets for taking time out of tonight's busy schedule for talking with us for just a few moments on The KTOP Microphone.

1:27 Buddy Holly: Well, we'd like to thank everyone that listens and everyone that requests and likes our records, and would like to thank you boys for playing them.

1:35. Dale Lowery: Thank you a whole lot… The Crickets.

1:37 Buddy Holly: Thank you very much, Dale.

1:38 End.

Sunday 1 December 1957
Interview with Ed Sullivan
At CBS Television Studios, Ed Sullivan Theatre, 1697 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
Broadcast live on the Ed Sullivan TV Show, "Toast of the Town"
Duration: 0:41

Buddy Holly and Ed Sullivan

0:05 Ed Sullivan: Buddy Holly! Buddy, Buddy, come back here, I want to ask you a question. How old are all of you fellas?

0:13 Buddy Holly: Well, there's two 18, one 20, and I'm 21.

0:16 Ed Sullivan: Where do you come from? Lubbock, Texas?

0:18 Buddy Holly: Lubbock, Texas, yes, sir.

0:19 Ed Sullivan: You go to school down there?

0:20 Buddy Holly: Well, we did, until, uh, we got out of high school, finally.

0:23 Ed Sullivan: Right after high school you started, ah, playing together?

0:25 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, that's right.

0:26 Ed Sullivan: You a big hit from the start, or has it been sort of a long…?

0:29 Buddy Holly: Well, ah, we've had a few rough times, I guess you'd say, but we've been real lucky, getting it this quick.

0:33 Ed Sullivan: Wow, with Texas… nice to have you up here. Let's have a very nice hand for these Texas men.

0:41 End.

Friday 31 January 1958
Interview with Pat Barton
At the Newcastle Stadium, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
On tour with "Lee Gordon's World Hit Parade"
Broadcast on Radio Station 2KO, Newcastle
Duration: 2:54

Buddy Holly and Pat Barton

0:01 Pat Barton: Ah Buddy, I'm going to start right in with a controversial one because I've just shown you a photo I don't believe you've seen before. How did you come to choose the name Crickets?

0:09 Buddy Holly: Ah, our drum player, Jerry Allison, thought of the name back last January when our group was formed and we didn't know that there was another group at that time by that name.

0:17 Pat Barton: You had to come to Australia to me to find that out, is that true?

0:19 Buddy Holly: Ah, we found out about it just right soon after we had thought of the name but we found out that the other group was non-existent any more and, ah, so nothing was heard.

0:29 Pat Barton: They were a quintet. I can't even remember any of their records being released in this country, but I thought it might have been of interest to you. You are the oldest member, aren't you, in the group?

0:37 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, that's right.

0:38 Pat Barton: What's that, 21 or 22 or something?

0:40 Buddy Holly: Twenty-one.

0:40 Pat Barton: Twenty-one. Now how did this group get started?

0:42 Buddy Holly: Well, we're all from the same home town and ah…

0:46 Pat Barton: What's that? I'm not going to pronounce it.

0:48 Buddy Holly: Lubbock, Texas.

0:50 Pat Barton: Lubbock.

0:50 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

0:51 Pat Barton: Texas.

0:51 Buddy Holly: And we've known each other for quite some time and Jerry and myself - the drummer - have been playing together for about five years and then the other boy, Joe Mauldin, the bass player, he got with us last January.

1:03 Pat Barton: Is there another one, Niki Sullivan? Was he in it somewhere along the line?

1:06 Pat Barton: Buddy Holly: He was in the group for a while and then he decided to quit and go back to school.

1:09 Pat Barton: Back to school… uh-huh. You have two contracts, one as a soloist with Coral and then you have another one with the Crickets, don't you?

1:16 Buddy Holly: Yes, that's correct. It's ah, we're actually the same group on both records, but…

1:20 Pat Barton: That's right, it's a rather unusual ahh…

1:21 Buddy Holly: …a different name.

1:22 Pat Barton: Yes, it's rather unusual. Do you write songs yourself or do the rest of the boys write the songs?

1:27 Buddy Holly: All of us write songs.

1:28 Pat Barton: All of you write songs.

1:28 Buddy Holly: Mm-hh.

1:29 Pat Barton: And who's your favourite vocalist - not Elvis Presley I wouldn't suppose?

1:32 Buddy Holly: I guess he's one of 'em.

1:33 Pat Barton: He's one of them. I see. Have you seen him work at all?

1:36 Buddy Holly: Yes, I used to know Elvis quite well before he got as popular as he is now.

1:40 Pat Barton: Oh, I see, yeah. And, er, who gets the gold disk? One of you, or three of you, for "That'll Be the Day"?

1:46 Buddy Holly: We all three get one.

1:48 Pat Barton: One each, is that right? Yeah. Getting back to Lubbock, what is its' main source of income - not oil or Jayne Mansfield or something like that is it?

1:56 Buddy Holly: They had a little bit of oil around there but not too much. Mostly it's, ah, the growth of cotton.

2:01 Pat Barton: Cotton, is it? I see. Norman Petty. Now where does Norman fit into the picture?

2:04 Buddy Holly: He's our manager and, ah, recording engineer and just about the whole works! [Laughs]

2:09 Pat Barton: The whole works you say. He's not in Australia with you?

2:12 Buddy Holly: Yes, he is. He's sitting right over there.

2:15 Pat Barton: Oh, is he?. Ah well… [To Norman Petty] Norman, is it? Would you like to come up and say a few words, Norman? [Back to Buddy] Umm, what's the picture regards Rock 'n' Roll, say with Presley in the army? Does that alter things, do you think?

2:27 Buddy Holly: Well, I don't think it alters anything real outstanding in the music business. Presley will probably be a little unpopular for a while, but I think he'll come back into his own after he gets out.

2:40 Pat Barton: You don't think somebody will step into his shoes, like, from the ranks…

2:43 Buddy Holly: No I don't think anybody will take his place.

2:44 Pat Barton: …like Buddy Holly or Jerry Lee Lewis?

2:47 Buddy Holly: No I don't think so.

2:47 Pat Barton: You don't think so. Good, anyway, thanks very much, Buddy, and I'll switch over to Norman now.

2:50 Buddy Holly: All right.

2:51 Pat Barton: Ah, thanks very much.

2:54 End.

Monday 24 February 1958
Interview with Bob Chesney
At the Dade County Auditorium, Miami, Florida
On tour with "The Big Gold Record Stars"
Duration: 1:29

Buddy Holly and Bob Chesney

0:01 Bob Chesney: This is Bob Chesney with Buddy Holly of the Chirping Crickets. Buddy, how do you prefer to work - alone or with the boys?

0:06 Buddy Holly: Well, I prefer it with them seeing as that's how about the only way I can do it. [Laughs]

0:09 Bob Chesney: How'd it happen - you split with them temporarily, Buddy.

0:11 Buddy Holly: Well, we didn't split, it's the same group on all the records. See, The Crickets are an instrumental group and one of them plays the drums, Jerry Allison, and Joe Mauldin plays bass. I play guitar and sing and that's The Crickets there.

0:25 Bob Chesney: Well, you boys got a fantastic story. I mean, remember that record "That'll Be the Day", you and The Ravens had it at the same time?

0:31 Buddy Holly: Yeah.

0:31 Bob Chesney: Suddenly The Ravens nothing and The Crickets, oh boy, man, to coin a phrase.

0:35 Buddy Holly: Well, it's usually not the record, doesn't seem like to me, that's the best that does it, seems like it's the first one out and ours was the first, seeing as we wrote the song and all, and usually it's the original recording that does it on that kind of a deal, seems like to me.

0:47 Bob Chesney: Well, how do you and the boys feel about "Maybe Baby"?

0:52 Buddy Holly: Well, we like the song, of course, and we hope that it does as good as the other songs out.

0:59 Bob Chesney: Buddy, how did you get into showbiz in the first place?

1:02 Buddy Holly: Well, it's just hard to say we just kept trying and trying and seeing different guys that might help us and finally we got a start.

1:10 Bob Chesney: How do you go about getting music for your various pieces?

1:14 Buddy Holly: We just play it ourselves, it's just all out of our head.

1:18 Bob Chesney: Play it and then when you get it down you write it down.

1:20 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. Usually someone performs a lead sheet on it and then they take the arrangements from there, after the record's already out.

1:26 Bob Chesney: Thank you very much, Buddy Holly.

1:29 End.

Tuesday 23 September 1958
Interview with Alan Freed
At WNEW TV Studio, 205 East 67th Street, New York, N.Y.
Broadcast by WNEW-TV on 2 October 1958
Duration: 1:55

Buddy Holly and Alan Freed

0:01 Alan Freed: The one and only… Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly! Hey!

0:03 Audience: [Cheers and applause]

0:08 Alan Freed: Buddy Holly. Hey, Buddy.

0:10 Buddy Holly: How ya Alan?

0:11 Alan Freed: How are you?

0:12 Buddy Holly: Fine.

0:13 Alan Freed: Good to see you, old Buddy, again. Ahh, where are the other fellas?

0:17 Buddy Holly: They're running around somewhere, Alan.

0:18 Alan Freed: They are?

0:19 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

0:19 Alan Freed: Gee, last time I saw you, I guess I haven't seen you since our tour have I? ["Alan Freed's Big Beat Show" 28 March to 10 May 1958]

0:22 Buddy Holly: About, ahh, in April, wasn't it?

0:23 Alan Freed: I think somewhere around there.

0:24 Buddy Holly: A good while, uh-huh?

0:25 Alan Freed: Yes, it has been. What have you been doing and where have you been?

0:27 Buddy Holly: Well, we haven't been working all summer, Alan. We've just been kinda loafing and taking it easy and running around some. Enjoying the, uh, what we hadn't enjoyed for the whole year previous, you know, with all the work going on.

0:36 Alan Freed: Oh boy, you worked hard that year, Buddy.

0:38 Buddy Holly: So, uh, we're getting ready to start in with some new work now.

0:41 Alan Freed: You're going on tour again?

0:43 Buddy Holly: I think so, uh-huh.

0:44 Alan Freed: Buddy, we had a lot of fun. We did a lot of flying.

0:47 Buddy Holly: Yeah, we sure did. [Laughs] You know I was just into town the other day in Cincinnati. You remember when we landed there and, uh, the helicopter had crashed that day that we got in there?

0:55 Alan Freed: That's right.

0:56 Buddy Holly: And, uh, we took the ride in there from the airport. It reminded me of when we landed there.

1:00 Alan Freed: We… Buddy we played… I think we rode every kind of airplane there was imaginable.

1:04 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] Uh-huh, we sure did.

1:05 Alan Freed: Those DC3s were really something.

1:08 Buddy Holly: Ah, the one with the oomp-oomp! [Mimics racketing motion and laughs]

1:09 Alan Freed: Oh boy, oh boy. Without the seat belts we'd have been right through the top, that's for sure.

1:12 Buddy Holly: We sure would.

1:13 Alan Freed: Buddy, we've had a lot of fun together and I hope we're going to have a lot of fun together in the future too, because you're just a wonderful guy. And say hullo to Joe.

1:20 Buddy Holly: Okay.

1:21 Alan Freed: Joe Buy… is it Joe…

1:23 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] Joe Buy…

1:24 Alan Freed: Joe Buy-us!

1:24 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

1:24 Alan Freed: 'Cos he was always…

1:26 Buddy Holly: That jerk over there with Joe [garbled]…

1:26 Alan Freed: …No, Joe at the [garbled] as they call it with the bass fiddle. And we called him Joe Buy-us because he always was saying, "Buy us a Coke?"

[Some words were garbled as Buddy and Alan spoke at the same time.]

1:33 Buddy Holly: Mm-hh. "Buy us something."

1:35 Alan Freed: "Buy us some… buy us a candy bar?" Well, we had a lot of fun together and, Buddy, let's get together soon, and thank you so much for being with us on WNEW.

1:41 Buddy Holly: Thank you, Alan, it's been my pleasure. Thank you.

1:43 Alan Freed: Thank you very much.

1:44 Audience: [Cheers and applause]

1:45. Alan Freed: Okay, Buddy Holly, and that's his brand new Brunswick record, "It's So Easy" and a wonderful record it is. Now it's time for station identification. We'll be back with part two, so you stick around.

1:55 End.

Friday 17 October 1958
Interview with Ronnie King
At Radio WGH, 739 Boush, Norfolk, Virginia
On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1958 - Autumn Edition"
Duration: 2:54

Buddy Holly and Ronnie King

0:01 [Advertisement]

0:26 Ronnie King: This is Ronnie King. At our WGH Teen Time Microphone we have with us Buddy Holly. Hi, Buddy

0:33 Buddy Holly: Hi Ronnie, how are you?

0:33 Ronnie King: Pretty good, thank you. Buddy, could you tell us some of the big records that you and your group have had?

0:38 Buddy Holly: Well, we've had "That'll Be the Day", which was our first one and then "Peggy Sue" followed it and along with "Oh, Boy!" and "Maybe Baby" and then "Early in the Morning", and then our latest one, "It's So Easy".

0:50 Ronnie King: You sold quite a bit. Do you know the total number of all your records - how much they've sold so far?

0:54 Buddy Holly: Ah, we don't have any idea, Ronnie, what so, but we figure somewhere around four or five million, somewhere along there.

0:59 Ronnie King: Four or five million - a tremendous volume of records. Ah, how many are in your group?

1:05 Buddy Holly: There's three of us.

1:07 Ronnie King: Ah, two of The Crickets and yourself. How did you happen to get started?

1:11 Buddy Holly: Well, we met in high school, I guess you'd say, in Lubbock, Texas. That's our home town and we all went to the same high school there and started playing together there.

1:20 Ronnie King: The Lone Star State. How old are you?

1:23 Buddy Holly: I'm twenty-two.

1:24 Ronnie King: And what about The Crickets?

1:27 Buddy Holly: Well, Jerry Allison, the drummer, is 19 and Joe Mauldin, the bass player, is 18.

1:33 Ronnie King: Eighteen. In listening to you, Buddy, it sounds like y'all could do something in jazz, have you ever tried anything along that line?

1:40 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] No we haven't. It's strange that you should say that because we've always made it a point to more or less not like jazz. Actually it's kind of in conjunction with Rock 'n' Roll in one way and then it's kind of against it in a way.

1:57 Ronnie King: Yeah, that's so true. I didn't mean to imply that your music you've played so far - although for some reason you sort of strike me as a jazz man for some reason.

2:04 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] Well, it's probably the glasses or something! [Laughs]

2:07 Ronnie King: Could be. Brubeck, man! [Laughs] Do you have any special plans for the future?

2:13 Buddy Holly: No, we don't. We don't… in the way of bookings we don't know what's coming up much after this tour. The last night of this tour is three nights from tonight and ah, in Richmond. And then we don't have anything in bookings there. And then our new release will be out in a few days - it's a Coral release entitled "Heartbeat" backed with "Well… All Right".

2:33 Ronnie King: "Heartbeat". That's a number we'll have to watch for. Finally, Buddy, you know there's many mediums that you can present yourself to the entertainment field such as the stage and the records, nightclubs. Which do you prefer the most?

2:47 Buddy Holly: I prefer the one-nighter tours such as we're on, the large rhythm and blues type package shows.

2:52 Ronnie King: Mm-hh. You feel that you can get the most out of your audience?

2:55 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. Yeah you can do your four or five songs and really, I mean it feels good to play to an audience that's watching instead of an audience that's either interested in something else like in nightclubs. You know there's a lot going on that sometimes they're interested in something besides the act on stage and then in your dances, well, they're more interested in their dancing, of course.

3:16 Ronnie King: Yes. You feel your audience a lot more. Well thank you, Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

3:20 End.

Tuesday 28 October 1958
Interview with Dick Clark
At WFIL-TV Studios, 46th & Market Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand"
Duration: 2:38

Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, and Dick Clark

0:00 Dick Clark: Buddy Holly and The Crickets, America's very… how can I put it… you know, I haven't formulated it in… put it together in my own mind. What I want to say is a man who creates songs, performs them, has a great deal to do with the activities of our music world, and he's still a very young man and a successful one at that. A Coral recording star whom you met last Saturday singing "Heartbeat". Ladies and gentlemen, Mister Buddy Holly!

0:27 Audience: [Cheers and applause]

0:30 Dick Clark: Buddy…

0:31 Buddy Holly: Dick…

0:31 Dick Clark: Nice to see you again. You know actually I think we're going to get more time to talk today than we got last Saturday.

0:36 Buddy Holly: Well, that'll be fine.

0:37 Dick Clark: It was kind of a screaming day.

0:38 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

0:38 Dick Clark: You know I got tangled up in my, in my introduction to you because I know of some of the things you've done but I don't know all of your activities. How many songs have you written?

0:45 Buddy Holly: Ohh, I couldn't hardly say that here, Dick, it'd take me a few minutes to think back and think of how many there were, but, I guess altogether it's been about 15 or 20.

0:54 Dick Clark: Really? That many. How old are you, Buddy?

0:56 Buddy Holly: Twenty-two.

0:57 Dick Clark: That's a lot of writing in a short length of time.

0:58 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh.

0:59 Dick Clark: Tell me about the formation of The Crickets. Let's bring The Crickets on, the fellows who work with you.

1:03 Buddy Holly: Okey dokey. Well, uh…

1:04 Dick Clark: Ladies and gentlemen, the rest of the group. Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

1:08 Buddy Holly: The first one here is Jerry Allison.

1:10 Dick Clark: Jerry, nice to see you.

1:12 Buddy Holly: And, uh, he's the drummer for The Crickets, and then Joe Mauldin, the bass player.

1:15 Dick Clark: Hullo Joe, nice to see you. How long's this operation been going on?

1:19 Buddy Holly: About a year and a half - nearly close to two years now.

1:21 Dick Clark: You know, I remember very well the… I, I would say the first thing, it was the first thing I knew about that you did - "That'll Be the Day". Was it the first record you ever made?

1:30 Buddy Holly: Well, actually it was as the group The Crickets, it was our first one.

1:33 Dick Clark: This is highly unusual. Did any of you have a hand in the writing?

1:36 Jerry Allison: I did, Dick, ah...

1:38 Dick Clark: What did you write - all of it, or part of it?

1:40 Jerry Allison: No, just half of it. Buddy wrote half and I wrote half.

1:42 Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

1:43 Dick Clark: All righty, that's fair enough. Gee, I'd love to do that with you some day, but you've got such a great new side that let's keep up with the times and do the thing called, "It's So Easy", okay?

1:51 Buddy Holly: Fine.

1:51 Dick Clark: Ladies and gentlemen, Buddy Holly and The Crickets - "It's So Easy."

[Music break]

1:52 Dick Clark: Are you going back to Lubbock, Texas, or where's home now?

1:54 Joe B. Mauldin: Well, home is in Lubbock, Texas, and I'll be going back just as soon as I can get a plane out of New York.

1:59 Jerry Allison: [Laughs]

2:00 Dick Clark: Does that hold true of everybody, Buddy?

2:01 Buddy Holly: No, I've got my car up here Dick, and I'm gonna have to take about a three-day journey getting there.

2:05 Dick Clark: And youse two?

2:06 Jerry Allison: I don't know…

2:07 Dick Clark: He's got a thumb!

2:08 Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison and Joe B. Mauldin: [All laugh]

2:08 Joe B. Mauldin: No, he's going by air!

2:09 Dick Clark: Now does this happen very often, do you not always travel together?

2:12 Buddy Holly: Well, it's just according to the circumstances. We've just got off of a 17-day tour and, uh, I had my car on the tour and the boys had a station wagon that some of the other group went home in, and so naturally they're having to fly again 'cos I won't let them ride with me!

2:25 Jerry Allison and Joe B. Mauldin: [Laugh]

2:26 Dick Clark: I figure, alright? Gentlemen, the autograph table is over there if we can join you there, okay? Thank you so much. The Crickets and Buddy Holly - Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

2:34 Buddy Holly: See you, Dick.

2:35 Dick Clark: Thank you so much. They'll be at the autograph table if you'd like to stop over.

2:38 End.

Transcribed by Doug Bennett
June-July 2003 - July 2007

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New! - Freeman Hover - 2 November 1957 - ...with Eddie Cochran

1. Red Robinson - Wednesday 23 October 1957 2. Freeman Hover - Saturday 2 November 1957 3. Dale Lowery - Tuesday 5 November 1957 4. Ed Sullivan - Sunday 1 December 1957 5. Pat Barton - Friday 31 January 1958 6. Bob Chesney - Monday 24 February 1958 7. Alan Freed - Tuesday 23 September 1958 8. Ronnie King - Friday 17 October 1958 9. Dick Clark - Tuesday 28 October 1958 Hear some of these interviews on Roller Coaster RECD 503 (2002) Saturday 2 November 1957 (Between midnight and 3 a.m.) Interview with Freeman Hover At the Albany Hotel, Denver, Colorado On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957" Recorded for Radio KCSR, Chadron, Nebraska Duration: 11:01 Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Guybo Smith, and Freeman Hover 0:00 Freeman Hover: Bandstanders, believe you me, we're having a real fiesta this evening in Eddie Cochran's suite at the Albany Hotel following the big rock 'n' roll show at the Denver Auditorium and Arena. Eddie sitting very comfortably in his chair now with a new pipe that - you picked that up here in Denver, didn't you, Eddie? [Eddie Cochran smoked pipes.] 0:18 Eddie Cochran: That's right, I just bought it tonight. 0:19 Freeman Hover: Real cool, alright… 0:21 Eddie Cochran: [Garbled] …it's a beauty. 0:23 Freeman Hover: Gotta see it! We have a man in Chadron that collects pipes - I'd like to get his opinion of that, but I think it looks real sharp on you. 0:30 Eddie Cochran: [Garbled] …looks sophisticated. 0:31 Freeman Hover: Yeah, sophisticated. And then, of course, you've heard the little bit of a chat here we've had with Jimmy Bowen, who has been next door picking on a ukelele, I think. No? Oh, downstair… Oh, sleeping! Well, it's only 2:30 in the morning. Mrs Chase, you didn't hear that! 0:51 Eddie Cochran: [Laughs] 0:52 Freeman Hover: And right on either side of me now here at the, in the room, are a couple of members of The Crickets, and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and then I've got to say something, really something. Go ahead. Here's the first one. 1:04 Buddy Holly: Over here's Buddy Holly 1:06 Jerry Allison: And over here, Jerry Allison. 1:07 Freeman Hover: Jerry and Buddy, I just wrote a letter down to Norm Petty, our friend Norm Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, about two days ago, asking if there'd be any chance that The Crickets could do some station breaks for us. I haven't had a letter back yet but here we are in Denver, Colorado, with The Crickets, or at least a couple of them sitting right at my side. So, this is really something we hadn't expected at all. We want to say that your song, up there in the big Top 40 chart is doing a mighty terrific job, and the expression, "That'll be the day", is practically the word around the Chadron area now… 1:41 Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison: [Laugh] 1:42 Freeman Hover: …I don't know. No matter where you're going, a telephone con¬versation, no matter what it is, "That'll be the day". And that's kind of a good plug, isn't it Buddy? 1:50 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] It sure is, Free. 1:52 Freeman Hover: Could you tell us how you fellas kinda got together. Who's going to start it here? [Laughs] 1:57 Jerry Allison: Well it's all hard to say. Buddy and I have been together for about five years, playing around Lubbock, there, we went to school together and high school. And the other two boys, I don't know about them, how we got with them, but they just seem to be with us somehow or the other! 2:13 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] They're just kinda along for the ride, huh? 2:14 Jerry Allison: It seems like it. 2:15 Freeman Hover: It makes a mighty good-sounding ride altogether. 2:17 All: [Laughter] 2:20 Freeman Hover: Now the name Crickets. I mean, you don't go "Kreek, kreek, kreek," on your records, or at least I never heard it. It's a pretty good sound. Where does this Crickets thing come in? 2:28 Jerry Allison: Well, we were trying to think of some name that, ah, hadn't been used before, and so we came up with Crickets, and sure enough it had been used before! 2:36 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 2:37 Freeman Hover: Well, very, very good. We had one the other day, The Brother Sisters, that was pretty novel. Of course they're doing pretty well too on a label, but The Crickets, that's very good. How did you happen to tie in with Norm Petty? 2:48 Buddy Holly: Well, we've known Norm for quite some time, down there in Clovis, New Mexico, and we used to go over and make a few dubs now and then to, you know, see what we sounded like and everything. So the last time, oh, let's see, it was in January, I believe, wasn't it Jerry? 3:03 Jerry Allison: Yeah. 3:04 Buddy Holly: We went over there and were making a dub to send in to various companies and see if we could possibly do anything in the line of the music business, and Norm asked us if we'd like representing in to Brunswick Records in New York. And so we told him, "Yeah, go ahead, we can't lose!" 3:24 All: [Laugh] 3:24 Buddy Holly: We're as far behind as you could get already! So, ah, he sent it in and Bob Theile, the A & R man for Brunswick okayed it and put it out, and the kids all over the United States did the rest. 3:38 Freeman Hover: Well, that's terrific. Now you've got a new one out called? 3:41 Buddy Holly: "Oh, Boy!" 3:42 Freeman Hover: "Oh, Boy!" I wish we could get that record. You got a copy in your room any place we could have? 3:45 Buddy Holly: No, sir, we don't. Ah, to tell the truth, Norm can't even get one of those things either. I talked to him while I got on the telephone and he said that he was wanting some off a bet but he couldn't get a hold of any. 3:53 Freeman Hover: Doggone, I just, er, in this letter I asked him for it too because we are waiting for it. We've got it on our chart as a pick for future popularity and we know it's going to arrive very soon and hopefully we can get that. Norm's a fine lad we had the privilege of meeting him about a year ago when we were down in Clovis visiting a relative and visited his studios there and had a wonderful time and he did some fine work for us too, and also an Air Force program that he had done some time ago that we programmed for 13 weeks. Wonderful music and he's doing real fine on commercial records now too, isn't he? 4:20 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he sure is. 4:21 Freeman Hover: Do they plan to stay in Clovis, or…? 4:23 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he's, er, got quite a set-up there and I imagine it'd be, ah, quite a bit of trouble to move it. [Laughs] 4:29 Freeman Hover: Do they still have a little puppy that I saw down there? 4:31 Buddy Holly: Yeah, his name is... 4:32 Freeman Hover: He's the pride of the family. 4:33 Buddy Holly: His name is Speedy, and a little Mexican chihuahua. 4:37 Freeman Hover: That's right, uh-huh. 4:37 Buddy Holly: And he's really something. 4:40 Freeman Hover: You'll be going down that way after the tour again? 4:42 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, as you probably know Lubbock and Clovis are about a hundred miles apart and when we are at home we spend most of our waking hours, you might say, over in Clovis. And we'll be going home around the second of December. That'll be after we do our Sullivan show, on the first. 5:01 Freeman Hover: You're all set for it. Well, wonderful. That's great, great. 5:04 Jerry Allison: It's not much to get plugging, man! [Laughs] 5:05 Freeman Hover: Why, sure. 5:06 Jerry Allison: Bug the mechanical monster! 5:07 All: [Laughter] 5:09 Freeman Hover: Ah, this is really, really trite, but I'm going to say great having you fellas here and we do look forward to having more of your disks. You have something planned after… "Oh, Boy!", of course, is on the way up now but have you got something in mind to be putting on disk very, very soon or in the near future, we'll say? 5:26 Jerry Allison: Ah, no, for The Crickets we don't have anything. I don't know if Buddy's modest or anything but he's got two records out of his own now, "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday", that are doing a little bit of good, I think. I hope they are. 5:37 Freeman Hover: Oh, great. What's that? "Peggy Sue" on the Brunswick label… 5:40 Jerry Allison: On Coral. 5:40 Freeman Hover: Coral. 5:41 Jerry Allison: Yes, sir. 5:41 Freeman Hover: Good. We'll check on that as soon as we get back. Right. Band¬standers, you're having a wonderful treat this afternoon hearing all of your great Top 40 stars and Bandstand stars as we promised you and even more in the bargain, and we feel it is a great privilege to bring them out your way. [Pause] I wanted to say to you fellas that we certainly enjoyed your stint here in Denver, this evening, and say that you did a grand job on this, on those songs. 6:08 Buddy Holly: Well, Free, we're, ah, certainly tickled to be here in Denver. It's the first time we've played here and we've been looking forward to it for quite some time now ever since the tour started, and we knew we were gonna be here, and, ah, we'd like to also mention that we would like to thank you for plugging our records and we'd like to thank everyone around here for listening to them and buying them. 6:28 Freeman Hover: Good. And we do thank you for that. Now, is there any chance of anything in the way of pictures or are you going to stick strictly to records, and anything? Nothing that would be… not letting the cat out of the bag. 6:40 Buddy Holly: Well, I might stick a little bit of a plug in here for Eddie Cochran, sitting over there, so contented like. [Laughs] 6:47 Freeman Hover: With that pipe! 6:49 Buddy Holly: He's starring in a picture that'll be out pretty soon, I don't know exactly when it will be out, but he said that he could arrange it for The Crickets to appear in that picture singing a song or something. 7:00 Freeman Hover: Great! 7:01 Buddy Holly: And so we've been buddying up to him… 7:03 Jerry Allison: Getting in as good as we can! 7:05 All: [Laughter] 7:06 Freeman Hover: Well, that'll be the day, won't it? 7:08 All: [Laughter] 7:10 Freeman Hover: Ah, well. Well, well, well. We're so enthused about being able to talk to you and bring these interviews to our Bandstanders this Monday afternoon. As we mentioned, it's a weird hour, but maybe not for you guys - it is for us. 7:22 All: [Laughter] 7:24 Buddy Holly: Considering we have to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and get on a plane. 7:27 All: [Laughter] 7:32 Freeman Hover: Well, this is a great country around here and we want to invite all of you fellas. We've been trying to get Eddie over here to Chadron, Nebraska, for I don't know how long now, twisting his arm pretty bad - if you notice it's misshapen. It's not from holding… 7:43 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 7:43 Freeman Hover: …holding that guitar or anything like that - we've been twisting it. And we'd like to have you fellas if you ever get a chance to come out and visit us. And we've already got him set to run a combine during wheat harvest season… 7:54 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 7:54 Freeman Hover: …and so, we can probably, er, we can always use some announcers or anybody you know, er, anything around the station, if you guys do drop in. 8:01 Buddy Holly: Well, do you pay all the records you need? [Laughs] 8:06 Freeman Hover: [Pause] You got me! Start of the week! 8:08 All: [Laughter] 8:10 Freeman Hover: We got, we got records - oh man, we got records! Well, again, fellas, Crickets, we've got some more over here, haven't we, or have we? No. Well… 8:21 Eddie Cochran: That's my bass player 8:22 Freeman Hover: That's your what? 8:23 Eddie Cochran: My bass player. 8:23 Freeman Hover: Oh, your bass player. Well can't we talk to him? 8:25 Eddie Cochran: Guybo Smith. 8:27 Freeman Hover: Well, let's just bring him over here. This is fabulous, it's really wonderful. The name again? [Laughs] Sit right down, this is… We're going to have to start paying rent on the edge of your bed here, boy. [Laughs] Sure Bandstanders, here he is. And the name again? 8:40 Guybo Smith: Guybo. 8:41 Freeman Hover: [Pause] Say that again… 8:43 Guybo Smith: Guybo. 8:44 Freeman Hover: Okay, Guybo. And Smith? 8:45 Eddie Cochran: Guybo Smith. 8:46 Freeman Hover: Yeah, Smith. We've got that, right. And what are you to this lad over here, by the name of Cochran? 8:51 Guybo Smith: His bass player. 8:52 Freeman Hover: His bass player. Are you the fella that was standing kind of off the side there tonight? 8:55 Guybo Smith: Mmm. 8:56 Freeman Hover: Oh, wonderful. Couldn't get along without you, could he? 8:58 Guybo Smith: Mmm? 8:59 All in background: [Laughter at Smith's reticence.] 9:03 Eddie Cochran: He peddles tomatoes on the side too... 9:05 Freeman Hover: Oh, was he the fella I saw down here in [??] or some place tonight before the show with those tomatoes? 9:10 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] Yeah, he peddles tomatoes before the show and tells them to throw 'em at me. 9:14 Freeman Hover: Say that again. [Laughs] 9:15 Eddie Cochran: I say he peddles tomatoes before the show and tells 'em to throw it at me. 9:18 Freeman Hover: Ah, what's the urging [?] that? 9:20 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] No, I think he wants to get fired. 9:23 Freeman Hover: Well, if he drops off here in Denver we'll bring him up to Chadron… 9:26 Eddie Cochran: I would fire him, but I'm getting a cut off it! 9:29 All: [Lots of laughter] 9:31 Freeman Hover: Folks, we've got a great crew here this evening. [Laughs] We've got… [Laughs] Wow, well again… [Laughs] 9:39 Buddy Holly: [Garbled] …king for humour, that's 1A. 9:41 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] Dry humour. This portion of the Bandstand is brought to you by [lowers voice] everyone, folks. 9:47 All: [Laughter] 9:49 Freeman Hover: And if you haven't heard some of the songs you've heard some of the best in entertainment. You'll never hear anything like it, with Eddie Cochran and The Crickets, kreeking along here… 9:58 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 9:59 Freeman Hover: That slays me. [Laughs] Guybo Smith. Have I got it right, have I? Okay. [Laughs] And a wicked-looking pipe. It's been transferred from… or is that somebody else's pipe? No that's Eddie's. You're renting it out I suppose? You get a cut on that rental? 10:16 Eddie Cochran: I get [garbled]. 10:17 Freeman Hover: Wow! Jimmy's relaxing on the other… [Laughs] 10:23 Buddy Holly: [Garbled] 10:25 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] Well guys, it's been, it really has been wonderful and we appreciate your dropping in this afternoon at The Bandstand and letting some of our folks hear a very informal little chat with you. So, on with the music and you know what we're gonna do we're going to music right now by Eddie Cochran, by The Crickets, by Jimmy Bowen. Is Guybo Smith back in one of those records we played? 10:46 Eddie Cochran: Yeah, he's played behind all my records. 10:47 Freeman Hover: How far behind? 10:48 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] Just far enough back where you can just barely hear him. 10:52 Freeman Hover: [Dryly] Kind of picks up on the other side? 10:53 Eddie Cochran: [Dryly] Yeah, way back. Way back in the background. 10:55 Freeman Hover: Okay, well, we've got the whole crew here. 10:57 Eddie Cochran: [Subtle laugh] 10:57 Freeman Hover: So, Bandstanders, that's it, and let's go on with the show. 11:01 End. Wednesday 23 October 1957 Interview with Red Robinson At the Georgia Auditorium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957" Duration: 3:05 Buddy Holly and Red Robinson 0:00 Red Robinson: Well, backstage here at the Georgia Auditorium for the Biggest Record Star Show for 1957, talking to Buddy Holly. 0:06 Buddy Holly: Hullo, Red. 0:07 Red Robinson: How are you? 0:07 Buddy Holly: Just fine 'n' dandy. 0:08 Red Robinson: Yeah, I missed that phone call we had from Toronto that day [14 September 1957]. 0:10 Buddy Holly: Yeah, ah, we couldn't get together on that, some way or another. 0:13 Red Robinson: I don't know, but I'd just like to tell you right now that your song "Peggy Sue" that you do on a solo there on Coral Records, is it Coral Records in the States too? 0:20 Buddy Holly: Ah, yes it is. 0:21 Red Robinson: Yeah, it's doing real well. It's number seven song here and that's lucky number seven, as we say over here. 0:25 Buddy Holly: Well, that's fine. [Laughs] 0:26 Red Robinson: Well, how long have you had The Crickets together, Buddy? 0:28 Buddy Holly: Since January. 0:29 Red Robinson: Since January. 0:30 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 0:31 Red Robinson: When did you decide to form a group up, was it at that time? 0:34 Buddy Holly: Well uh, we just uh… the drummer and myself have been playing together for about four years and we got the other two boys and asked them if they'd like to join us and form a group. 0:42 Red Robinson: You write your own material, is that right? 0:43 Buddy Holly: Yes, that's right. 0:44 Red Robinson: Who helped you with "That'll Be the Day"? 0:46 Buddy Holly: Jerry Allison, the drummer. 0:47 Red Robinson: He's the fellow that plays drums? 0:48 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 0:49 Red Robinson: Where are you all from - where's your home town? 0:50 Buddy Holly: Lubbock, Texas. 0:51 Red Robinson: Would you like to go back there? 0:52 Buddy Holly: Sure would! [Laughs] 0:53 Red Robinson: What's the weather like this time of year down there? 0:55 Buddy Holly: Oh, it's not quite this cool. 0:56 Red Robinson: It's not? 0:57 Buddy Holly: And its a little bit drier! 0:59 Red Robinson: Well, I'm going to put you on the spot and I said I - I asked you before and I didn't have a microphone with me - but I'm going to put you on the spot again. What do you think about Rock 'n' Roll music, do you think it is on the wane, or what? 1:09 Buddy Holly: I think it's, ah, going out quite a bit in the States. 1:12 Red Robinson: Down South? 1:13 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 1:14 Red Robinson: How far down? 1:15 Buddy Holly: Er… deep! [Both laugh] 1:16 Red Robinson: It is, but I mean, how long do you think it will last, another six months? Seven months? 1:21 Buddy Holly: Oh, possibly, yeah. 1:22 Red Robinson: Think after Christmas things may change a bit there? 1:24 Buddy Holly: Ah, they, they… it might pick back up, but I rather doubt it. 1:27 Red Robinson: Well, we'd like to congratulate you here because - in a special way - because the West Coast here is sort of responsible for "That'll Be the Day" to get its start. It started out here and it went well. 1:36 Buddy Holly: Yeah, that's what I heard. [Laughs] 1:38 Red Robinson: And, er, we're all real happy about it here. Phil Rose of Compo, of Coral Records and Impax [?] and Brunswick in Eastern Canada was trying to get through to us with you on the phone back there [on 14 September 1957]. How was your engagement in Toronto? 1:48 Buddy Holly: It was real fine. They received us real well there. 1:51 Red Robinson: What've you got coming up in the future for records? 1:53 Buddy Holly: Well, we've got one that was just released the other day by the Crickets, called "Oh, Boy!" 1:56 Red Robinson: "Oh, Boy!" 1:57 Buddy Holly: And you should be getting it just any day now. 1:58 Red Robinson: Well, that's terrific and we'll be playing it just like the other one. That'll mean that we've got three songs in our chart that come from Buddy! 2:03 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 2:04 Red Robinson: That'll be "Peggy Sue", "That'll Be the Day" and "Oh, Boy!" 2:07 Buddy Holly: Yeah? 2:08 Red Robinson: How do you think it compares with the others? 2:09 Buddy Holly: Well, I like "Oh, Boy!", better than "That'll Be the Day", really. 2:13 Red Robinson: You think it's better? 2:14 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. But, ah, of course I'm no judge. [Laughs] 2:17 Red Robinson: It's always the listeners that decide the fate of a record in the end. We'd like to congratulate you and I think you've got a good future in the business. One other question, Buddy. If trends change would you hop on the trend and go into the other, or would you just give up? 2:27 Buddy Holly: I'd hop on the trend. [Laughs] 2:29 Red Robinson: You would? 2:30 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh, because I'd prefer singing a little bit - something a little more quieter, anyhow. 2:33 Red Robinson: What are you like down in Texas where you come from? How far is that from a place like Dallas or Crystal City? I mean Texas is BIG, man! [Laughs] 2:39 Buddy Holly: Well, uh, our home town, Lubbock, is, uh, 280 miles straight west of Dallas. 2:45 Red Robinson: It is? 2:46 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 2:46 Red Robinson: Yeah, I'm going to hit Dallas right off! Wow! 2:47 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 2:49 Red Robinson: Well, it's been real wonderful talking to you backstage here, Buddy, and I guess your act goes on pretty soon, does it? 2:52 Buddy Holly: Yes it does. We go on right after Fats [Domino]. 2:54 Red Robinson: How many numbers? 2:54 Buddy Holly: We do three. 2:56 Red Robinson: You do three numbers. What are you going to do up there? 2:58 Buddy Holly: We'll do, ah, "Ready, Teddy", and our new one, "Oh, Boy!" and "That'll Be the Day". 3:02 Red Robinson: Well, gee, it's been a real pleasure talking to you backstage. Buddy Holly of the fabulous Crickets! 3:05 End. Saturday 2 November 1957 (3:00 A.M.) Interview with Freeman Hover At the Albany Hotel, Denver, Colorado On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957" Recorded for Radio KCSR, Chadron, Nebraska Duration: 7:28 Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison and Freeman Hover 0:00 Freeman Hover: And right on either side of me now here at the, in the room, are a couple of members of The Crickets, and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and then I've got to say something, really it's something. Go ahead. Here's the first one. 0:11 Buddy Holly: Over here's Buddy Holly 0:12 Jerry Allison: And over here, Jerry Allison. 0:14 Freeman Hover: Jerry and Buddy, I just wrote a letter down to Norm Petty, our friend Norm Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, about two days ago, asking if there'd be any chance that The Crickets could do some station breaks for us. I haven't had a letter back yet but here we are in Denver, Colorado, with The Crickets, or at least a couple of them sitting right at my side. So, this is really something we hadn't expected at all. We want to say that your song, up there in the big Top 40 chart is doing a mighty terrific job, and the expression, "That'll be the day", is practically the word around the Chadron area now… 0:45 Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison: [Laugh] 0:46 Freeman Hover: …I don't know. No matter where you're going, a telephone conversation, no matter what it is, "That'll be the day". And that's kind of a good plug, isn't it Buddy? 0:54 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] It sure is, Free. 0:56 Freeman Hover: Could you tell us how you fellas kinda got together. Who's going to start it here? [Laughs] 1:01 Jerry Allison: Well it's all hard to say. Buddy and I have been together for about five years, playing around Lubbock, there, we went to school together and high school. And the other two boys, I don't know about them, how we got with them, but they just seem to be with us somehow or the other! 1:16 Freeman Hover: [Laughs] They're just kinda along for the ride, huh? 1:17 Jerry Allison: It seems like it. 1:18 Freeman Hover: It makes a mighty good-sounding ride altogether. 1:20 All: [Laughter] 1:23 Freeman Hover: Now the name Crickets. I mean, you don't go "Kreek, kreek, kreek," on your records, or at least I never heard it. It's a pretty good sound. Where does this Crickets thing come in? 1:31 Jerry Allison: Well, we were trying to think of some name that, ah, hadn't been used before, and so we came up with Crickets, and sure enough it had been used before! 1:39 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 1:39 Freeman Hover: Well, very, very good. We had one the other day, The Brother Sisters, that was pretty novel. Of course they're doing pretty well too on a label, but The Crickets, that's very good. How did you happen to tie in with Norm Petty? 1:51 Buddy Holly: Well, we've known Norm for quite some time, down there in Clovis, New Mexico, and we used to go over and make a few dubs now and then to, you know, see what we sounded like and everything. So the last time, oh, let's see, it was in January, I believe, wasn't it Jerry? 2:04 Jerry Allison: Yeah. 2:05 Buddy Holly: We went over there and were making a dub to send in to various companies and see if we could possibly do anything in the line of the music business, and Norm asked us if we'd like representing in to Brunswick Records in New York. And so we told him, "Yeah, go ahead, we can't lose!" 2:25 All: [Laugh] 2:26 Buddy Holly: We're as far behind as you could get already! So, ah, he sent it in and Bob Theile, the A & R man for Brunswick okayed it and put it out, and the kids all over the United States did the rest. 2:38 Freeman Hover: Well, that's terrific. Now you've got a new one out called? 2:41 Buddy Holly: "Oh, Boy!" 2:42 Freeman Hover: "Oh, Boy!" I wish we could get that record. You got a copy in your room we could get? 2:45 Buddy Holly: No, sir, we don't. Ah, to tell the truth, Norm can't even get one of those things either. I talked to him while I got on the telephone and he said that he was wanting some off a bet but he couldn't get a hold of any. 2:53 Freeman Hover: Doggone, I just, er, in this letter I asked him for it too because we are waiting for it. We've got it on our chart as a pick for future popularity and we know it's going to arrive very soon and hopefully we can get that. Norm's a fine lad we had the privilege of meeting him about a year ago when we were down in Clovis visiting a relative and visited his studios there and had a wonderful time and he did some fine work for us too, and also an Air Force program that he had done some time ago that we programmed for 13 weeks. Wonderful music and he's doing real fine on commercial records now too, isn't he? 3:20 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he sure is. 3:21 Freeman Hover: Do they plan to stay in Clovis, or…? 3:23 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he's, er, got quite a set-up there and I imagine it'd be, ah, quite a bit of trouble to move it. [Laughs] 3:28 Freeman Hover: Do they still have a little puppy that I saw down there? 3:30 Buddy Holly: Yeah. 3:31 Freeman Hover: He's the pride of the family. 3:32 Buddy Holly: His name is Speedy, and a little Mexican chihuahua. 3:36 Freeman Hover: That's right, uh-huh. 3:37 Buddy Holly: And he's really something. 3:39 Freeman Hover: You'll be going down that way after the tour again? 3:41 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, as you probably know Lubbock and Clovis are about a hundred miles apart and when we are at home we spend most of our waking hours, you might say, over in Clovis. And we'll be going home around the second of December. That'll be after we do our Sullivan show, on the first. 3:59 Freeman Hover: You're all set for it. Well, wonderful. That's great, great. 4:02 Jerry Allison: It's not much to get plugging, man! [Laughs] 4:04 Buddy Holly: Why, sure. 4:05 Jerry Allison: Bug the mechanical monster! 4:08 Freeman Hover: Ah, this is really, really trite, but I'm going to say great having you fellas here and we do look forward to having more of your disks. You have something planned after… "Oh, Boy!", of course, is on the way up now but have you got something in mind to be putting on disk very, very soon or in the near future, we'll say? 4:25 Jerry Allison: Ah, no, for The Crickets we don't have anything. I don't know if Buddy's modest or anything but he's got two records out of his own now, "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday", that are doing a little bit of good, I think. I hope they are. 4:35 Freeman Hover: Oh, great. What's that? "Peggy Sue" on the Brunswick label… 4:05 Jerry Allison: On Coral. 4:37 Freeman Hover: Coral. 4:37 Jerry Allison: Yes, sir. 4:38 Freeman Hover: Good. We'll check on that as soon as we get back. Right. Bandstanders, you're having a wonderful treat this afternoon hearing all of your great Top 40 stars and Bandstand stars as we promised you and even more in the bargain, and we feel it is a great privilege to bring them out your way. I wanted to say to you fellas that we certainly enjoyed your stint here in Denver, this evening, and say that you did a grand job on this, on those songs. 5:04 Buddy Holly: Well, Free, we're, ah, certainly tickled to be here in Denver. It's the first time we've played here and we've been looking forward to it for quite some time now ever since the tour started, and we knew we were gonna be here, and, ah, we'd like to also mention that we would like to thank you for plugging our records and we'd like to thank everyone around here for listening to them and buying them. 5:22 Freeman Hover: Good. And we do thank you for that. Now, is there any chance of anything in the way of pictures or are you going to stick strictly to records, and anything? Nothing that would be… not letting the cat out of the bag. 5:34 Buddy Holly: Well, I might stick a little bit of a plug in here for Eddie Cochran, sitting over there, so contented like. [Laughs] 5:42 Freeman Hover: With that pipe! [Eddie Cochran smoked a pipe] 5:43 Buddy Holly: He's staring in a picture that'll be out pretty soon, I don't know exactly when it will be out, but he said that he could arrange it for The Crickets to appear in that picture singing a song or something. 5:54 Freeman Hover: Great! 5:55 Buddy Holly: And so we've been buddying up to him… 5:58 Jerry Allison: Getting in as good as we can! 5:59 All: [Laughter] 6:00 Freeman Hover: Well, that'll be the day, won't it? 6:01 All: [Laughter] 6:04 Freeman Hover: Ah, well. Well, well, well. We're so enthused about being able to talk to you and bring these interviews to our Bandstanders this Monday afternoon. As we mentioned, it's a weird hour, but maybe not for you guys - it is for us. 6:16 All: [Laughter] 6:17 Buddy Holly: Considering we have to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and get on a plane. 6:20 All: [Laughter] 6:25 Freeman Hover: Well, this is a great country around here and we want to invite all of you fellas. We've been trying to get Eddie over here to Chadron, Nebraska, for I don't know how long now, twisting his arm pretty bad - if you notice it's misshapen. It's not from holding… 6:36 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 6:37 Freeman Hover: …holding that guitar or anything like that - we've been twisting it. And we'd like to have you fellas if you ever get a chance to come out and visit us. And we've already got him set to run a combine during wheat harvest season… 6:47 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 6:47 Freeman Hover: …and so, we can probably, er, we can always use some announcers or anybody you know, er, anything around the station, if you guys do drop in. 6:56 Buddy Holly: Well, do you pay all the records you need? [Laughs] 6:58 Freeman Hover: You got me! Start of the week! 7:00 All: [Laughter] 7:03 Freeman Hover: We got, we got records - oh man, we got records! Well, guys, it's been, it really has been wonderful and we appreciate your dropping in this afternoon at The Bandstand and letting some of our folks hear a very informal little chat with you. So, on with the music and you know what we're gonna do we're gonna music right now by Eddie Cochran, by The Crickets, by Jimmy Bourne. So, Bandstanders, that's it, and let's go on with the show. 7:28 End. Tuesday 5 November 1957 Interview with Dale Lowery At the Municipal Auditorium, Topeka, Kansas On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1957" Recorded for KTOP Radio, Topeka, Kansas Duration: 1:38 Buddy Holly and Dale Lowery 0:00 Dale Lowery: And we have here, right now, as guests at The KTOP Microphone, members of The Crickets. The Crickets, a quartet, and we have first, on my left, Buddy Holly. How are you this evening, Buddy? 0:13 Buddy Holly: Just fine, Dale, how are you? 0:14 Dale Lowery: Well, we're fine, and we hope you are too. Would you care to introduce for our listening audience the rest of The Crickets that we have here? 0:20 Buddy Holly: Well, here's Joe Mauldin, he plays bass, and Jerry Allison plays drums and the other one, Niki Sullivan, is not here right at the moment, he's out on the stage trying, doing something. And that's us. 0:33 Dale Lowery: Why don't you tell us a little about some of the recordings that you do have out right now? 0:37 Buddy Holly: Well, we have three records going right now and, of course, the first one was, "That'll Be the Day"… 0:44 Dale Lowery: Yeah, we all know that one. 0:44 Buddy Holly: …Our first release. And then we have a new one out by The Crickets, called "Oh, Boy!" and "Not Fade Away", and then there's one out, it's the same group but it's under my name - I don't know why they did it that way - but they put one out under my name called "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday". 1:02 Dale Lowery: How did you fellas happen to get the name Crickets? That's always intrigued me. 1:06 Buddy Holly: We had to think of some name that hadn't been used yet and Jerry came up with it. [Laughs] So sure enough, it had already been used, but it was a good while back so it didn't matter too much. 1:16 Dale Lowery: I guess that about winds up. That's all the time we have for this interview with The Crickets, and we want to thank The Crickets for taking time out of tonight's busy schedule for talking with us for just a few moments on The KTOP Microphone. 1:27 Buddy Holly: Well, we'd like to thank everyone that listens and everyone that requests and likes our records, and would like to thank you boys for playing them. 1:35. Dale Lowery: Thank you a whole lot… The Crickets. 1:37 Buddy Holly: Thank you very much, Dale. 1:38 End. Sunday 1 December 1957 Interview with Ed Sullivan At CBS Television Studios, Ed Sullivan Theatre, 1697 Broadway, New York, N.Y. Broadcast live on the Ed Sullivan TV Show, "Toast of the Town" Duration: 0:41 Buddy Holly and Ed Sullivan 0:05 Ed Sullivan: Buddy Holly! Buddy, Buddy, come back here, I want to ask you a question. How old are all of you fellas? 0:13 Buddy Holly: Well, there's two 18, one 20, and I'm 21. 0:16 Ed Sullivan: Where do you come from? Lubbock, Texas? 0:18 Buddy Holly: Lubbock, Texas, yes, sir. 0:19 Ed Sullivan: You go to school down there? 0:20 Buddy Holly: Well, we did, until, uh, we got out of high school, finally. 0:23 Ed Sullivan: Right after high school you started, ah, playing together? 0:25 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, that's right. 0:26 Ed Sullivan: You a big hit from the start, or has it been sort of a long…? 0:29 Buddy Holly: Well, ah, we've had a few rough times, I guess you'd say, but we've been real lucky, getting it this quick. 0:33 Ed Sullivan: Wow, with Texas… nice to have you up here. Let's have a very nice hand for these Texas men. 0:41 End. Friday 31 January 1958 Interview with Pat Barton At the Newcastle Stadium, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia On tour with "Lee Gordon's World Hit Parade" Broadcast on Radio Station 2KO, Newcastle Duration: 2:54 Buddy Holly and Pat Barton 0:01 Pat Barton: Ah Buddy, I'm going to start right in with a controversial one because I've just shown you a photo I don't believe you've seen before. How did you come to choose the name Crickets? 0:09 Buddy Holly: Ah, our drum player, Jerry Allison, thought of the name back last January when our group was formed and we didn't know that there was another group at that time by that name. 0:17 Pat Barton: You had to come to Australia to me to find that out, is that true? 0:19 Buddy Holly: Ah, we found out about it just right soon after we had thought of the name but we found out that the other group was non-existent any more and, ah, so nothing was heard. 0:29 Pat Barton: They were a quintet. I can't even remember any of their records being released in this country, but I thought it might have been of interest to you. You are the oldest member, aren't you, in the group? 0:37 Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, that's right. 0:38 Pat Barton: What's that, 21 or 22 or something? 0:40 Buddy Holly: Twenty-one. 0:40 Pat Barton: Twenty-one. Now how did this group get started? 0:42 Buddy Holly: Well, we're all from the same home town and ah… 0:46 Pat Barton: What's that? I'm not going to pronounce it. 0:48 Buddy Holly: Lubbock, Texas. 0:50 Pat Barton: Lubbock. 0:50 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 0:51 Pat Barton: Texas. 0:51 Buddy Holly: And we've known each other for quite some time and Jerry and myself - the drummer - have been playing together for about five years and then the other boy, Joe Mauldin, the bass player, he got with us last January. 1:03 Pat Barton: Is there another one, Niki Sullivan? Was he in it somewhere along the line? 1:06 Pat Barton: Buddy Holly: He was in the group for a while and then he decided to quit and go back to school. 1:09 Pat Barton: Back to school… uh-huh. You have two contracts, one as a soloist with Coral and then you have another one with the Crickets, don't you? 1:16 Buddy Holly: Yes, that's correct. It's ah, we're actually the same group on both records, but… 1:20 Pat Barton: That's right, it's a rather unusual ahh… 1:21 Buddy Holly: …a different name. 1:22 Pat Barton: Yes, it's rather unusual. Do you write songs yourself or do the rest of the boys write the songs? 1:27 Buddy Holly: All of us write songs. 1:28 Pat Barton: All of you write songs. 1:28 Buddy Holly: Mm-hh. 1:29 Pat Barton: And who's your favourite vocalist - not Elvis Presley I wouldn't suppose? 1:32 Buddy Holly: I guess he's one of 'em. 1:33 Pat Barton: He's one of them. I see. Have you seen him work at all? 1:36 Buddy Holly: Yes, I used to know Elvis quite well before he got as popular as he is now. 1:40 Pat Barton: Oh, I see, yeah. And, er, who gets the gold disk? One of you, or three of you, for "That'll Be the Day"? 1:46 Buddy Holly: We all three get one. 1:48 Pat Barton: One each, is that right? Yeah. Getting back to Lubbock, what is its' main source of income - not oil or Jayne Mansfield or something like that is it? 1:56 Buddy Holly: They had a little bit of oil around there but not too much. Mostly it's, ah, the growth of cotton. 2:01 Pat Barton: Cotton, is it? I see. Norman Petty. Now where does Norman fit into the picture? 2:04 Buddy Holly: He's our manager and, ah, recording engineer and just about the whole works! [Laughs] 2:09 Pat Barton: The whole works you say. He's not in Australia with you? 2:12 Buddy Holly: Yes, he is. He's sitting right over there. 2:15 Pat Barton: Oh, is he?. Ah well… [To Norman Petty] Norman, is it? Would you like to come up and say a few words, Norman? [Back to Buddy] Umm, what's the picture regards Rock 'n' Roll, say with Presley in the army? Does that alter things, do you think? 2:27 Buddy Holly: Well, I don't think it alters anything real outstanding in the music business. Presley will probably be a little unpopular for a while, but I think he'll come back into his own after he gets out. 2:40 Pat Barton: You don't think somebody will step into his shoes, like, from the ranks… 2:43 Buddy Holly: No I don't think anybody will take his place. 2:44 Pat Barton: …like Buddy Holly or Jerry Lee Lewis? 2:47 Buddy Holly: No I don't think so. 2:47 Pat Barton: You don't think so. Good, anyway, thanks very much, Buddy, and I'll switch over to Norman now. 2:50 Buddy Holly: All right. 2:51 Pat Barton: Ah, thanks very much. 2:54 End. Monday 24 February 1958 Interview with Bob Chesney At the Dade County Auditorium, Miami, Florida On tour with "The Big Gold Record Stars" Duration: 1:29 Buddy Holly and Bob Chesney 0:01 Bob Chesney: This is Bob Chesney with Buddy Holly of the Chirping Crickets. Buddy, how do you prefer to work - alone or with the boys? 0:06 Buddy Holly: Well, I prefer it with them seeing as that's how about the only way I can do it. [Laughs] 0:09 Bob Chesney: How'd it happen - you split with them temporarily, Buddy. 0:11 Buddy Holly: Well, we didn't split, it's the same group on all the records. See, The Crickets are an instrumental group and one of them plays the drums, Jerry Allison, and Joe Mauldin plays bass. I play guitar and sing and that's The Crickets there. 0:25 Bob Chesney: Well, you boys got a fantastic story. I mean, remember that record "That'll Be the Day", you and The Ravens had it at the same time? 0:31 Buddy Holly: Yeah. 0:31 Bob Chesney: Suddenly The Ravens nothing and The Crickets, oh boy, man, to coin a phrase. 0:35 Buddy Holly: Well, it's usually not the record, doesn't seem like to me, that's the best that does it, seems like it's the first one out and ours was the first, seeing as we wrote the song and all, and usually it's the original recording that does it on that kind of a deal, seems like to me. 0:47 Bob Chesney: Well, how do you and the boys feel about "Maybe Baby"? 0:52 Buddy Holly: Well, we like the song, of course, and we hope that it does as good as the other songs out. 0:59 Bob Chesney: Buddy, how did you get into showbiz in the first place? 1:02 Buddy Holly: Well, it's just hard to say we just kept trying and trying and seeing different guys that might help us and finally we got a start. 1:10 Bob Chesney: How do you go about getting music for your various pieces? 1:14 Buddy Holly: We just play it ourselves, it's just all out of our head. 1:18 Bob Chesney: Play it and then when you get it down you write it down. 1:20 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. Usually someone performs a lead sheet on it and then they take the arrangements from there, after the record's already out. 1:26 Bob Chesney: Thank you very much, Buddy Holly. 1:29 End. Tuesday 23 September 1958 Interview with Alan Freed At WNEW TV Studio, 205 East 67th Street, New York, N.Y. Broadcast by WNEW-TV on 2 October 1958 Duration: 1:55 Buddy Holly and Alan Freed 0:01 Alan Freed: The one and only… Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly! Hey! 0:03 Audience: [Cheers and applause] 0:08 Alan Freed: Buddy Holly. Hey, Buddy. 0:10 Buddy Holly: How ya Alan? 0:11 Alan Freed: How are you? 0:12 Buddy Holly: Fine. 0:13 Alan Freed: Good to see you, old Buddy, again. Ahh, where are the other fellas? 0:17 Buddy Holly: They're running around somewhere, Alan. 0:18 Alan Freed: They are? 0:19 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 0:19 Alan Freed: Gee, last time I saw you, I guess I haven't seen you since our tour have I? ["Alan Freed's Big Beat Show" 28 March to 10 May 1958] 0:22 Buddy Holly: About, ahh, in April, wasn't it? 0:23 Alan Freed: I think somewhere around there. 0:24 Buddy Holly: A good while, uh-huh? 0:25 Alan Freed: Yes, it has been. What have you been doing and where have you been? 0:27 Buddy Holly: Well, we haven't been working all summer, Alan. We've just been kinda loafing and taking it easy and running around some. Enjoying the, uh, what we hadn't enjoyed for the whole year previous, you know, with all the work going on. 0:36 Alan Freed: Oh boy, you worked hard that year, Buddy. 0:38 Buddy Holly: So, uh, we're getting ready to start in with some new work now. 0:41 Alan Freed: You're going on tour again? 0:43 Buddy Holly: I think so, uh-huh. 0:44 Alan Freed: Buddy, we had a lot of fun. We did a lot of flying. 0:47 Buddy Holly: Yeah, we sure did. [Laughs] You know I was just into town the other day in Cincinnati. You remember when we landed there and, uh, the helicopter had crashed that day that we got in there? 0:55 Alan Freed: That's right. 0:56 Buddy Holly: And, uh, we took the ride in there from the airport. It reminded me of when we landed there. 1:00 Alan Freed: We… Buddy we played… I think we rode every kind of airplane there was imaginable. 1:04 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] Uh-huh, we sure did. 1:05 Alan Freed: Those DC3s were really something. 1:08 Buddy Holly: Ah, the one with the oomp-oomp! [Mimics racketing motion and laughs] 1:09 Alan Freed: Oh boy, oh boy. Without the seat belts we'd have been right through the top, that's for sure. 1:12 Buddy Holly: We sure would. 1:13 Alan Freed: Buddy, we've had a lot of fun together and I hope we're going to have a lot of fun together in the future too, because you're just a wonderful guy. And say hullo to Joe. 1:20 Buddy Holly: Okay. 1:21 Alan Freed: Joe Buy… is it Joe… 1:23 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] Joe Buy… 1:24 Alan Freed: Joe Buy-us! 1:24 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 1:24 Alan Freed: 'Cos he was always… 1:26 Buddy Holly: That jerk over there with Joe [garbled]… 1:26 Alan Freed: …No, Joe at the [garbled] as they call it with the bass fiddle. And we called him Joe Buy-us because he always was saying, "Buy us a Coke?" [Some words were garbled as Buddy and Alan spoke at the same time.] 1:33 Buddy Holly: Mm-hh. "Buy us something." 1:35 Alan Freed: "Buy us some… buy us a candy bar?" Well, we had a lot of fun together and, Buddy, let's get together soon, and thank you so much for being with us on WNEW. 1:41 Buddy Holly: Thank you, Alan, it's been my pleasure. Thank you. 1:43 Alan Freed: Thank you very much. 1:44 Audience: [Cheers and applause] 1:45. Alan Freed: Okay, Buddy Holly, and that's his brand new Brunswick record, "It's So Easy" and a wonderful record it is. Now it's time for station identification. We'll be back with part two, so you stick around. 1:55 End. Friday 17 October 1958 Interview with Ronnie King At Radio WGH, 739 Boush, Norfolk, Virginia On tour with "The Biggest Show of Stars for 1958 - Autumn Edition" Duration: 2:54 Buddy Holly and Ronnie King 0:01 [Advertisement] 0:26 Ronnie King: This is Ronnie King. At our WGH Teen Time Microphone we have with us Buddy Holly. Hi, Buddy 0:33 Buddy Holly: Hi Ronnie, how are you? 0:33 Ronnie King: Pretty good, thank you. Buddy, could you tell us some of the big records that you and your group have had? 0:38 Buddy Holly: Well, we've had "That'll Be the Day", which was our first one and then "Peggy Sue" followed it and along with "Oh, Boy!" and "Maybe Baby" and then "Early in the Morning", and then our latest one, "It's So Easy". 0:50 Ronnie King: You sold quite a bit. Do you know the total number of all your records - how much they've sold so far? 0:54 Buddy Holly: Ah, we don't have any idea, Ronnie, what so, but we figure somewhere around four or five million, somewhere along there. 0:59 Ronnie King: Four or five million - a tremendous volume of records. Ah, how many are in your group? 1:05 Buddy Holly: There's three of us. 1:07 Ronnie King: Ah, two of The Crickets and yourself. How did you happen to get started? 1:11 Buddy Holly: Well, we met in high school, I guess you'd say, in Lubbock, Texas. That's our home town and we all went to the same high school there and started playing together there. 1:20 Ronnie King: The Lone Star State. How old are you? 1:23 Buddy Holly: I'm twenty-two. 1:24 Ronnie King: And what about The Crickets? 1:27 Buddy Holly: Well, Jerry Allison, the drummer, is 19 and Joe Mauldin, the bass player, is 18. 1:33 Ronnie King: Eighteen. In listening to you, Buddy, it sounds like y'all could do something in jazz, have you ever tried anything along that line? 1:40 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] No we haven't. It's strange that you should say that because we've always made it a point to more or less not like jazz. Actually it's kind of in conjunction with Rock 'n' Roll in one way and then it's kind of against it in a way. 1:57 Ronnie King: Yeah, that's so true. I didn't mean to imply that your music you've played so far - although for some reason you sort of strike me as a jazz man for some reason. 2:04 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] Well, it's probably the glasses or something! [Laughs] 2:07 Ronnie King: Could be. Brubeck, man! [Laughs] Do you have any special plans for the future? 2:13 Buddy Holly: No, we don't. We don't… in the way of bookings we don't know what's coming up much after this tour. The last night of this tour is three nights from tonight and ah, in Richmond. And then we don't have anything in bookings there. And then our new release will be out in a few days - it's a Coral release entitled "Heartbeat" backed with "Well… All Right". 2:33 Ronnie King: "Heartbeat". That's a number we'll have to watch for. Finally, Buddy, you know there's many mediums that you can present yourself to the entertainment field such as the stage and the records, nightclubs. Which do you prefer the most? 2:47 Buddy Holly: I prefer the one-nighter tours such as we're on, the large rhythm and blues type package shows. 2:52 Ronnie King: Mm-hh. You feel that you can get the most out of your audience? 2:55 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. Yeah you can do your four or five songs and really, I mean it feels good to play to an audience that's watching instead of an audience that's either interested in something else like in nightclubs. You know there's a lot going on that sometimes they're interested in something besides the act on stage and then in your dances, well, they're more interested in their dancing, of course. 3:16 Ronnie King: Yes. You feel your audience a lot more. Well thank you, Buddy Holly and The Crickets. 3:20 End. Tuesday 28 October 1958 Interview with Dick Clark At WFIL-TV Studios, 46th & Market Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Broadcast on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" Duration: 2:38 Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, and Dick Clark 0:00 Dick Clark: Buddy Holly and The Crickets, America's very… how can I put it… you know, I haven't formulated it in… put it together in my own mind. What I want to say is a man who creates songs, performs them, has a great deal to do with the activities of our music world, and he's still a very young man and a successful one at that. A Coral recording star whom you met last Saturday singing "Heartbeat". Ladies and gentlemen, Mister Buddy Holly! 0:27 Audience: [Cheers and applause] 0:30 Dick Clark: Buddy… 0:31 Buddy Holly: Dick… 0:31 Dick Clark: Nice to see you again. You know actually I think we're going to get more time to talk today than we got last Saturday. 0:36 Buddy Holly: Well, that'll be fine. 0:37 Dick Clark: It was kind of a screaming day. 0:38 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 0:38 Dick Clark: You know I got tangled up in my, in my introduction to you because I know of some of the things you've done but I don't know all of your activities. How many songs have you written? 0:45 Buddy Holly: Ohh, I couldn't hardly say that here, Dick, it'd take me a few minutes to think back and think of how many there were, but, I guess altogether it's been about 15 or 20. 0:54 Dick Clark: Really? That many. How old are you, Buddy? 0:56 Buddy Holly: Twenty-two. 0:57 Dick Clark: That's a lot of writing in a short length of time. 0:58 Buddy Holly: Uh-huh. 0:59 Dick Clark: Tell me about the formation of The Crickets. Let's bring The Crickets on, the fellows who work with you. 1:03 Buddy Holly: Okey dokey. Well, uh… 1:04 Dick Clark: Ladies and gentlemen, the rest of the group. Buddy Holly and The Crickets. 1:08 Buddy Holly: The first one here is Jerry Allison. 1:10 Dick Clark: Jerry, nice to see you. 1:12 Buddy Holly: And, uh, he's the drummer for The Crickets, and then Joe Mauldin, the bass player. 1:15 Dick Clark: Hullo Joe, nice to see you. How long's this operation been going on? 1:19 Buddy Holly: About a year and a half - nearly close to two years now. 1:21 Dick Clark: You know, I remember very well the… I, I would say the first thing, it was the first thing I knew about that you did - "That'll Be the Day". Was it the first record you ever made? 1:30 Buddy Holly: Well, actually it was as the group The Crickets, it was our first one. 1:33 Dick Clark: This is highly unusual. Did any of you have a hand in the writing? 1:36 Jerry Allison: I did, Dick, ah... 1:38 Dick Clark: What did you write - all of it, or part of it? 1:40 Jerry Allison: No, just half of it. Buddy wrote half and I wrote half. 1:42 Buddy Holly: [Laughs] 1:43 Dick Clark: All righty, that's fair enough. Gee, I'd love to do that with you some day, but you've got such a great new side that let's keep up with the times and do the thing called, "It's So Easy", okay? 1:51 Buddy Holly: Fine. 1:51 Dick Clark: Ladies and gentlemen, Buddy Holly and The Crickets - "It's So Easy." [Music break] 1:52 Dick Clark: Are you going back to Lubbock, Texas, or where's home now? 1:54 Joe B. Mauldin: Well, home is in Lubbock, Texas, and I'll be going back just as soon as I can get a plane out of New York. 1:59 Jerry Allison: [Laughs] 2:00 Dick Clark: Does that hold true of everybody, Buddy? 2:01 Buddy Holly: No, I've got my car up here Dick, and I'm gonna have to take about a three-day journey getting there. 2:05 Dick Clark: And youse two? 2:06 Jerry Allison: I don't know… 2:07 Dick Clark: He's got a thumb! 2:08 Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison and Joe B. Mauldin: [All laugh] 2:08 Joe B. Mauldin: No, he's going by air! 2:09 Dick Clark: Now does this happen very often, do you not always travel together? 2:12 Buddy Holly: Well, it's just according to the circumstances. We've just got off of a 17-day tour and, uh, I had my car on the tour and the boys had a station wagon that some of the other group went home in, and so naturally they're having to fly again 'cos I won't let them ride with me! 2:25 Jerry Allison and Joe B. Mauldin: [Laugh] 2:26 Dick Clark: I figure, alright? Gentlemen, the autograph table is over there if we can join you there, okay? Thank you so much. The Crickets and Buddy Holly - Buddy Holly and The Crickets. 2:34 Buddy Holly: See you, Dick. 2:35 Dick Clark: Thank you so much. They'll be at the autograph table if you'd like to stop over. 2:38 End. Transcribed by Doug Bennett June-July 2003 - July 2007



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