Not Fade Away.

May 30, 2010 at 3:52 pm (Clip of the Day, Jmarsh) (Buddy Holly, Not Fade Away, rock)

I often wonder what music would sound like had Buddy Holly not put his own vocal hiccup on the world.

Here’s the album cut of Not Fade Away, which was, inronically enough, the last song Buddy Holly ever played live.

Holly and “Crickets” drummer Jerry Allison were famous for innovating percussion sounds to get a different feel in their songs. On the track Peggy Sue, Allison plays a nearly constant paradiddle on the toms, in Everyday, he plays a percussion beat with his hands and pant legs, here in Not Fade Away, Allison is actually drumming on a cardboard box.

This song was penned in the “hambone” rhythm that Bo Diddley had made famous. It also features Holly’s patented vocal hiccup, that Elvis would eventually borrow and make famous in his own way.