As a result, The Buddy Holly Story now stands as the official version of his life, but the movie does not seem to be about the real Buddy Holly.
E ven though Buddy Holly never had a Number One single in America, his legacy is immeasurable. Holly and the Crickets established the precedent for a self-contained rock & roll band, that is, one that wrote its own material and had enough studio freedom to do what it felt, in the process bridging country and rock.
The three major complaints concern the portrayal of Holly’s family, the treatment of the Crickets and the omission of Norman Petty, Holly’s producer. There have been numerous attempts to adapt Holly’s life story to the screen.
But what The Buddy Holly Story suggests is that Holly invented himself at a roller-rink show in Lubbock, Texas, and then was perfected by a woman he married five and one-half months before his death at age twenty-two on February 3rd, 1959.
T here’s one inaccuracy Holly probably wouldn’t have minded. Near the ending, he calls Maria from on the road to tell her that he was chartering a plane to fly ahead to the next date because the tour bus had broken down. That plane crashed, of course, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. The real reason Holly chartered that plane was to fly ahead to the next city so he could get his laundry done. Dirty clothes killed Buddy Holly.
The three major complaints concern the portrayal of Holly’s family, the treatment of the Crickets and the omission of Norman Petty, Holly’s producer. There have been numerous attempts to adapt Holly’s life story to the screen.
Holly and the Crickets actually had three producers. Owen Bradley produced three Nashville sessions in 1956 (and he doesn’t recall being punched out by Holly, as the movie depicts). Dick Jacobs produced six songs in two New York sessions in 1958.
Holly and the Crickets established the precedent for a self-contained rock & roll band, that is, one that wrote its own material and had enough studio freedom to do what it felt, in the process bridging country and rock.
Omitting Norman Petty greatly simplifies Holly’s career, rendering it inaccurate. (Why he was omitted remains unclear: the producers say he wanted script control; Petty says he asked only to be allowed to read the script.) In the movie, after an abortive Nashville session, a live tape of “That’ll Be the Day” is accidentally released and a mad disc jockey plays it nonstop. Instant stardom. The band moves to New York and Holly writes everything himself and produces himself.
They and Holly split up in October 1958, about three months before his death, but had planned to get back together. On Holly’s last tour, though, he recruited Waylon Jennings on bass, Tommy Allsup on guitar and drummer Charlie Bunch to tour with him — not a full orchestra with strings as the movie depicts.
It’s really a tinsel-town movie. Everybody thinks it’s true — that’s the shame. —Jerry Allison, Cricket. E ven though Buddy Holly never had a Number One single in America, his legacy is immeasurable. Holly and the Crickets established the precedent for a self-contained rock & roll band, that is, one that wrote its own material ...
In exchange for 50% of future royalties, Norman Petty offered Buddy Holly
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