Surely there are better songs than "American Pie"?
January 30, 2015 10:08 AM   Subscribe

To observe the anniversary of The Day The Music Died, can you recommend songs about Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens or the Big Bopper?

I'm DJing a 3 hour radio show on Tuesday to commemorate the event, but even with the required talking I'm hoping to not make it too repetitive. I will probably play "American Pie" (and even Madonna cover if I'm desperate enough), and of course Bobby Vee's "Buddy's Song" and Eddie Cochran's "Three Stars".

Can you recommend songs about this event or the stars? Or perhaps covers off the beaten path. (I have the two recent Buddy Holly tribute comps lined up.) I'm especially interested in stuff about J.P. Richardson since he seems to be the most over looked.

(And for extra bonus if you can recommend any Joe Meek related covers/song, that would be great. I'm going to end the show with a tribute to him since it's also the day he killed his landlady and then himself. I will definitely play Wreckless Eric's "Joe Meek".)
posted by kendrak to Media & Arts (11 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Moorhead by my old band. It's a series of one-note jokes comparing the Minnesota town to oral sex, but does contain the following line:

We'll make like Buddy Holly did when headed into town
Take a look at the Big Bopper and get ready to go down.


I wrote that. If there was a word for being both proud and deeply ashamed of something at the same time, that would describe my feelings about this.
posted by maxsparber at 10:20 AM on January 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


Weezer has a song called "Buddy Holly"
posted by soelo at 10:35 AM on January 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


Best answer: If you are willing to go a less tasteful direction, there's always "Aircrash Museum" by The Dead Milkmen.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 11:16 AM on January 30, 2015


Best answer: Not a whole song, but if you are just looking for references:

In A Brand New Book by Graham Parker:
I read that book for an hour or two and then I looked up at the night sky
I saw the big dipper and then the Big Bopper and I realized how much time had gone by

posted by mikepop at 11:21 AM on January 30, 2015


Weezer, obvs.

The intersection of Joe Meek and Buddy Holly is "Tribute to Buddy Holly" by Mike Berry. It's about as poor as 3 stars, to be honest.

Alvin Stardust - I Feel Like Buddy Holly. You know, you might as well throw the Madonna in, this is going to be a bad show.

I can't prove that The Meteors' Go Buddy Go is about him, but... who's gonna know, right?

Related, can I suggest Buddy's cover of Smokey Joe's Cafe from the apartment tapes? It's rather beautiful and most people haven't heard it.

Maybe something by Waylon Jennings?
posted by Leon at 11:45 AM on January 30, 2015


Could you also play some songs BY Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and/or the Big Bopper?
posted by randomkeystrike at 12:12 PM on January 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I'm definitely playing music by the artists, but their catalogs aren't that deep. I'm trying to balance obvious with the obscure. (I mean that's what college radio is all about, right?)

Thanks for the suggestions so far!
posted by kendrak at 1:26 PM on January 30, 2015


Chad Allen and the Reflections - Tribute to Buddy Holly
posted by LynnDee at 2:55 PM on January 30, 2015


Have you got the answer song for Chantilly Lace on the list? And Midnight Shift, wherein Buddy gets away with a song about prostitution?

Buddy sings backing vocals on Jerry Allison's Real Wild Child - there's plenty of covers of that out there. And if we're expanding to The Crickets, we get I Fought The Law, which gets us to The Clash's cover...
Buddy Holly's funeral [...] Buddy's favourite gospel record, "I'll Be Alright" by the Angelic Gospel Singers, was played. Very few of the congregation would have heard "True Love Ways" and wouldn't connect the two songs, but Holly had borrowed its opening notes. [...] and he was one of Ian Dury's reasons to be cheerful.
More tenuous now, but The Beatles' name was inspired by The Crickets, and The Raveonettes by "Rave On".
posted by Leon at 3:31 PM on January 30, 2015


Maybe something from the Six String Samurai soundtrack. And... woah. Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede might be getting a movie.
posted by Leon at 5:51 PM on January 30, 2015


Waylon Jennings' Old Friend. Particularly poignant since he was there. Jennings was a member of Buddy Holly's band, and survived only because he gave up his seat to the Bopper.

Was it really years ago?
It seems like only yesterday
The last time that I saw
You laugh at me and fly away

I remember all of the good times
And the songs we used to sing
Old friend, we sure have missed you
But you ain't missed a thing
posted by yclipse at 6:03 PM on January 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


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