Buddy Holly Songs

I anticipated just dedicating two weeks to covering Buddy Holly, but I can tell that it is going to take me longer to work through his biography and music. I wanted to jot down, though, that I already knew several Buddy Holly songs before I started this project -- I just didn't know that he wrote them or popularized them. Really, before this project, my main musical associations with Buddy Holly were Don McLean's "The Day the Music Died (American Pie)" and Weezer's "Buddy Holly." These are the Buddy Holly songs that I realized that already knew:

• "It's So Easy"
• "Maybe Baby"
• "Peggy Sue"
• "That'll Be the Day" (which I knew through the Beatles' version)
• "True Love Ways"
• "Everyday"

This month I have been listening to The Buddy Holly Memorial Collection. As I've worked through the songs, I have been struck by a few things: Buddy Holly's voice is compelling and also irritating to me. He has some interesting things that he does with the timbre of his voice, but the repeated vowels in words (like "gur-ur-ur-ur-lll") starts to get annoying after a while. Sometimes he sounds very juvenile and whiny to me, like a lovesick puppy. But other times, his voice is really interesting to me and I'm impressed with the little hiccupy sounds and inflections that he makes.

Overall, though, I wouldn't say that his music is stuff that I would listen to on a regular basis. I tend to like his songs that are really danceable or remind me of early Beatles music. Here are a few Buddy Holly songs that I have discovered and enjoy:

• "Down the Line (Undubbed)" - The opening riffs for this song remind me of early Beatles music (perhaps a similar chord progression to the opening of "Anna"?).
• "Midnight Shift"
• "Blue Days, Black Nights"
• "Love Me"

It's been interesting to listen to Holly's music and read about his life, knowing that he died when he was just about the age of most of the college students that are in my classes. I've thought a few times about the music majors who sing in choir with me, and wondering what it would be like if they were superstar recording artists at their age.