BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS – “That’ll Be The Day”
The jangling intro and solos on “That’ll Be The Day” still sound gorgeous – assured and effortlessly pretty – but the rest of it hasn’t aged well. Liking Buddy Holly surely depends on liking that nervy gulping thing he does with his voice, and I don’t. It’s a good gimmick, it means you don’t forget the song in a hurry, but it’s a bastard to actually listen to. Aside from that the record is okay, a jaunty song sitting on a chugalug rhythm, less charismatic than most of the hits that surrounded it. Close listening shows up a load of fine band bits – the heavy dragging drums leading into the last chorus; lots of little guitar licks – but none of it really adds up to more than an honest, adequate pop record.
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Proof that pop music is changing fast. I seem to recall having seen and heard a Buddy Holly LP on Ace of Clubs issued from the time when he made his very first recordings, for American Decca. He didn’t stay with them long, but one of the tunes on that LP was this one. In its original form it was a bottom-heavy, echo-laden affair. It didn’t work, so Holly and Co went away, re-thought, and tried again. A year or so later this was the result – on a different label. Holly still had a way to go before he produced his best work (during the course of 1958 there were to be some gems, some of which barely dented the chart) but this, while not his best, certainly showed he was hitting his stride. The (very good) drummer on Crickets records was Jerry (“J.I.”) Allison, who went on to be a session drummer as well as featuring in later Crickets line-ups. He also made a solo record, ‘Real Wild Child’ under the name of Ivan (his middle name).
A final note on this group was that they came to this country in their original form in 1958, braving a ten-hour, prop-driven flight to land up in these chilly islands. They toured and appeared on TV and on one occasion young Alvin Stardust, then in a previous life, blagged his way backstage…