Music Archive: Buddy Holly on Ed Sullivan

Buddy Holly’s first and less controversial appearance on Ed Sullivan

Unlike pretty-boy Elvis Presley who was more style over substance, fellow pioneering rock and roller Buddy Holly actually wrote, played lead guitar and in many cases produced his own records, all of which influenced the music of The Beatles and countless other pop musicians in the early 60′s. Holly was also the second musician to fall victim to Ed Sullivan’s infamous temper (following Bo Diddley in 1955). The legend goes like this:

“On January 26, 1958, for their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Buddy Holly and the Crickets were scheduled to perform two songs. Sullivan wanted the band to substitute a different song for their record hit ‘Oh, Boy!’, which he felt was too raucous. Holly had already told his hometown friends in Texas that he would be singing ‘Oh, Boy!’ for them, and told Sullivan as much. During the afternoon the Crickets were summoned to rehearsal at short notice, but only Holly was in their dressing room. When asked where the others were, Holly replied, ‘I don’t know. No telling.’ Sullivan then turned to Holly and said ‘I guess The Crickets are not too excited to be on The Ed Sullivan Show’ to which Holly caustically replied, ‘I hope they’re damn more excited than I am.’ Sullivan, already bothered by the choice of songs, was now even angrier. He cut the Crickets’ act from two songs to one, and when introducing them mispronounced Holly’s name, so it came out vaguely as ‘Hollered’ or ‘Holland.’ In addition, Sullivan saw to it that the microphone for Holly’s electric guitar was turned off. Holly tried to compensate by singing as loudly as he could, and repeatedly trying to turn up the volume on his guitar. For the instrumental break he cut loose with a dramatic solo, making clear to the audience that the technical fault wasn’t his. The band was received so well that Sullivan was forced to invite them back for a third appearance. Holly’s response was that Sullivan didn’t have enough money” (Wikipedia).

Buddy Holly tragically died in a plane crash on February 23, 1959 at the age of 22, which Don McLean would later immortalize as the “the day the music died” in his hit “American Pie.”

posted by: Harold Johns III