![]() ![]() He's a geeky white kid in rock-and-roll heaven. ![]() Goode."Ĭhip Esten is a fine Buddy, with a vocal style that is near to the original's without being mere mimickry. ![]() Interestingly, the final song in the show is a ceiling-lifting version not of one of Holly's songs, but of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. It would have been nice to have Holly placed in context, though, particularly as regards his debt to black music. Janes seems to presuppose the audience's familiarity with the material. Holly came out of country music, and "Buddy" unfortunately doesn't show any of the musical influences on him, either white or black. And the first song the Rolling Stones recorded was by Holly: "Not Fade Away." In the squeaky clean 1950s, "Not Fade Away" contains one of rock's great double entendres: "My love is bigger than a Cadillac/I'll try to show you if you ride in back." (No one caught it when the Stones sang it either.) Holly and Elvis were the only white rock-and-rollers the Beatles took seriously their name was a takeoff on "Crickets," and you can hear Holly's influence in their early songs and in their harmonies throughout their career. People who heard Holly's music before they met him thought the Crickets were a "colored" group, although to our ears today Holly sounds as white as the Sunbeam Bread whose ad makes up part of "Buddy's" set. But the second act has its own show-stopper: a re-creation of the concert Holly, Valens and the Bopper gave the night before they died.Īct 1 also ends with a concert: Holly and the Crickets' successful performance at the Apollo Theatre, known then and now for its demanding audiences, and not accustomed, to put it gently, to white performers. Actually, Holly's great songs are pretty much his early ones, which means they all pretty much happen in the first act. Janes basically just touches the usual bases of musical-genius stories: the misunderstood beginnings the producer who understands the marriage and breakup with the old group the tragic death just as our hero is ready to try new directions in his music. 3, 1959, when he was killed in a plane crash, along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, at the age of 22. There's a book of sorts by Alan Janes, who was handicapped by the fact that Holly's career spanned only 18 months, ending on Feb. What more do you need to say about a musical like "Buddy" (which opened last night in the Opera House) that is only an excuse to present song after song of Buddy Holly's: "That'll Be the Day," "Peggy Sue," "Every Day," "Words of Love" and so on for nearly three quickly passing hours. Well, it's the first time I ever saw a Kennedy Center audience get up and dance in the aisles. ![]()
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