Click Here For Solution By Terry R. Shaw © 2002
Buddy Holly has been immortalized in song (“American Pie”), movies (“The Buddy Holly Story”, “La Bamba”), and on Broadway (“Buddy”). Both the movies and the musical incorrectly make us believe that Buddy’s group, the Crickets, sang background on his records. Actually it was singing groups who were usually dubbed in later. Some of the groups were the Picks (who sang on the most Buddy Holly songs) and the Roses who were all-male groups. Two groups, the Helen Way Singers and a group, comprised of Niki Sullivan, June Clark, and Gary and Ramona Tollett, were the only ones that had women in them. Only one time did Buddy, Jerry Allison and part-time Cricket Niki Sullivan sing background. Then producer Norman Petty overdubbed it a few days later with other singers, anyway. Most people don’t know that Buddy’s mother gave him a title to a hit song. This is one of the trivial facts I‘ve included in this puzzle. (One fact not included in the puzzle is that Buddy’s father suggested the song “Peggy Sue Got Married”.) Using the clues and solving grid provided, figure out when each Holly song was recorded (one song, in 1957, was recorded over two days, February 24th and 25th), who sang background on which recording, and what interesting, but trivial, fact goes with each song.
1. The Helen Way Singers sang background on a song written by Bobby Darin in 1958. Darin did not write “Think It Over” (which was also recorded in 1958). The two 1958 recording dates were February 14 and June 19.
2. “Not Fade Away” was recorded after, but not immediately after, the song that record producer Owen Bradley of Nashville said was “the worst song I ever heard”, but before 1958. “Early In The Morning” was not recorded “early in the year”, i.e. the earliest months of the year.
3. The Roses were only used once and sang background on a song that record producer Norman Petty’s wife, Vi, played piano lead on. The Picks, who continued to dub in vocals on Buddy’s songs even after Buddy’s death, dubbed their background singing onto “Maybe Baby”.
4. The song Buddy sang background on himself was recorded on May 27, 1957. (Norman Petty overdubbed him later with one of the groups in this puzzle.) Cricket drummer Jerry Allison played a cardboard box instead of drums on the same song.
5. Buddy’s mother, Ella, wrote the title for a song that Buddy recorded on March 12, 1957. An all-male group dubbed their background vocals onto the same song a few days later.
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