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February 4, 2008 [Monday]
Issue #460

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ALL THE NEWS THAT IS NEWS

THE MUSIC DIES ON FEBRUARY 3, 1959
Almost 50 years ago, a small airplane crashes near Clear Lake IA during a frigid winter storm. Avion impacts do happen but this bird ship carries three of America's hottest new recording stars: Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. The trio along with their pilot perish when the craft smashes into the icy ground below. Ironically, future Country music Superstar Waylon Jennings is supposed to be on that fateful flight but Buddy needs his shirts laundered. In 1969, Waylon sits to my right elbow at a special concert. Ask Jennings about that fateful day but he doesn't want to talk about it because the sad memory still lingers. We lose Waylon due to diabetes at 64 on Wednesday, February 13, 2002. Before the crash, Holly already has 7 Top 40 hits that include his #1 cracker Jack from fall 1957 That'll Be the Day. The Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson, has a #6 chart topper in fall 1958 with Chantilly Lace. Ritchie makes it to #2 with his ballad Donna in winter 1958. The flip side of the record, La Bamba, lands at #22. Many of us consider February 3, 1959 the day the music died because of Holly's death. Buddy moves to NY but his band, The Crickets, remains in Lubbock, TX. The movie, The Buddy Holly Story that stars Lubbock native Gary Busey, has Buddy's band as the back up singers on his hit recordings but it actually is The Picks, John & Bill Pickering, who add their harmony as finishing touches. In 1969 I add The Pickering Brothers' version of Proud Mary to KBUC FM-AM's playlist. We become good friends. Bill passes away years ago. John and his wife Vicky live here in Houston. We chat occasionally. Norman Petty's recording studio in Clovis, NM is where Holly's music comes to life on reel-to-reel tape. Due to contractural arrangements with parent company Decca, Buddy's Brunswick recordings list The Crickets as the hit makers but Holly moves it on over to sister label, Coral, and his name appears alone. Buddy is an innovator, too. Many if not all recording artists to this day copy Buddy's miking the guitar style of recording. Miking the guitar means an additional microphone is in front of the guitar as the picker strums the strings. This picks up the sound of the string strumming. Immediately after Holly dies, his record label, Coral, releases, It Doesn't Matter Anymore, a tune written by Paul Anka which lands on Billboard on February 23, 1959. Violins make magic with Buddy's song and the words make my heart sing. Love that tune so very much that I pluck down 89c to buy a copy. On the flip side, an equally mesmirizing tune, Raining In My Heart, hits Billboard on March 30, 1959. We Buddy Holly fans really do have rain in our hearts because his new music dies on February 3, 1959 but lives on in our blood pumpers for evermore.

BEAM UP THE BEATLES
The tune Let It Be by the Beatles is one of our fondest melodies. On February 4, 2008 NASA beams the song Across The Universe 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles into space. Can we count that high? NASA's target for the tune is Polaris which we know as The North Star. The voyage takes 431 years and arrives in the year 2439AD. That's before Zager & Evans' 1969 predictions in In the Year 2525. Paul McCartney, co-writer with John Lennon, of Let It Be, issues a statement Amazing! Well done NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul. Yoko Ono, Lennon's wife, seems excited. I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe. Springtime's Martin Lewis who organizes the venture into space proclaims February 4, 2008 Across The Universe Day. We can take a look at his website at www.acrosstheuniverseday.com.  

•KIRO-710 Bonneville Newsradio Seattle, WA weekenders Bryan Styble, David Goldstein & Carl Jeffers leave the building due to budgetary reasons. •PAUL ORR exits his PD spot at Cumulus Country KRMD FM (Continuous Country 101.1) Shreveport-Oil City, LA. Paul comes to KRMD in May 2007 from Cumulus Country KPLX FM (The Wolf 99.5) Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX. Contact Orr muy pronto at paulorr@aol.com.