Not fade away

Although Buddy Holly died tragically young, his memory still lives on thanks to a smash musical and the tireless work of his wife, Maria. She chats to Ed Reed about their brief life together.

With his thick horn-rimmed glasses and mop of black curls, Buddy Holly cut an unlikely figure as one of the greatest rock 'n' roll legends of all time. Just 22 when he died, he released hit after hit in his meteoric career that was measured in months rather than years and is considered one of the most influential fathers of popular music.

He inspired The Beatles (whose name was a homage to his backing band the Crickets) and the Rolling Stones thanks to a unique blend of Country and Western and Rhythm and Blues. His stellar success ended tragically young when he died in a plane crash in 1959 with Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (known as The Big Bopper), with whom he was on tour.

The group were travelling in buses which kept breaking down. After a concert in Iowa, they chartered a small plane to get to the next town with some extra time to rest. On the morning of February 3rd, the plane carrying Holly, Valens, and Richardson took off from Mason City, Iowa, and crashed shortly afterwards, killing everyone on board.

His legacy still lives on in hits like That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy!, It Doesn't Matter Anymore and True Love Ways. And a whole new generation has been able to experience something of his remarkable energy, life and times thanks to 'Buddy The Musical'. As well as that, Buddy's widow Maria Elena has made it her mission to travel the world speaking to fans and music-lovers about the man and his music has which forged the direction of rock 'n' roll over the past 40 years.

Maria Elena was six months pregnant when her husband died and miscarried after hearing news of the accident. Now living in Dallas, Texas, she has vivid memories of the man and times. With a unique charm that is both warm yet imperious, she is in the UK at the start of the 2006 nationwide tour of the musical 'Buddy' - which hits venues ranging from the Churchill Theatre, Bromley in Kent in mid-April to Bradford's Alhambra Theatre in September. She loves the show and believes it perfectly captures the charisma and vitality of her husband.

Buddy was a ball of energy fizzing with ideas and plans who achieved so much in his three-year career and who had the potential to accomplish a great deal more. "One thing I noticed about Buddy was, when he was talking to you, you could tell, or I could tell, something was going on in the back of his head. He was thinking something else. I knew he was getting involved in all facets of the industry. He was going to have a publishing company. He wanted to have a record company."

Even when asleep, inspiration seemed to come non-stop. "He didn't sleep," recalls Maria. "He would get up in the middle of the night and he'd get out of bed and I would say 'what's wrong?'. He would just get up and start writing. Then he would finish that and go get his guitar. Maybe he was dreaming to get inspiration."

Holly wrote 'True Love Ways' for Maria. "It's my favourite in the respect he wrote it for me and it's a beautiful song. A lot of people write to me and tell me that's the song they're going to play at their wedding."

Buddy loved England because of the way the fans reacted to his music. The Crickets were extremely successful in the UK. In March 1958, they toured Great Britain where they became more popular than in the U.S. It was later that year that Holly met Maria. She was working as a receptionist at a New York city music publishers. In common with the whirlwind way he lived his life, he proposed within five hours of their first meeting and the couple married within two weeks.

"I had never gone out with anybody," explains Maria. "He was my first and only date and I almost didn't make it." Maria's aunt happened to be an executive at Holly's record company and asked her niece to come in and cover for a receptionist who was ill. "My aunt said 'there are a lot of musicians that are going to pass through here and they're not all there. I want to warn you I don't want you to consider going out with any of them'." Maria laughs: "And look what happened!" Buddy walked through the lobby and was instantly smitten.

He then asked Maria out for a meal and they met that evening. "He gave me a rose and said 'will you marry me?' I thought 'my aunt was right, this guy IS crazy'. I got a bit sarcastic and said 'when do you want to get married - now or after dinner'?"

Holly's unique so-called 'excited' or hiccup style of singing made him and the Crickets a huge success. The style of rhythm and blues they played had been, up until then, the preserve of black artists. On one famous occasion Buddy Holly and the Crickets were booked mistakenly to perform at the Apollo theatre for a mostly black audience. Because of their sound, the booker thought the Crickets were a black group. Although, at first the band was booed, by their third night they had won the audience over.

After Holly's death, Maria fell into deep mourning but the huge outpouring of public love for Buddy helped her through those dark days and now, she in turn helps the fans remember how great he was. Now, she happily chats about Buddy to rapt fans. "Seven-24 it's Buddy. I'm in charge of everything to do with Buddy. Every day I answer letters and talk to fans that call me." She continues: "It's a one woman office, almost. I have people to help me file and put things away but the bulk of the work is little old me!"