Buddy Holly, Norman Petty and PAYOLA in The King of Clovis.

I recently finished a book about Buddy Holly and his one time manager Norman Petty called The King of Clovis by Frank Blanas.

I suppose most people, who like pop music, have heard of Buddy Holly but I'm not sure if they realise just how good he was at singing, playing the guitar and what a brilliant songwriter he was. 

If you listen to early Beatles stuff you will know just how influential he was and still is.

I have almost every track he ever recorded and then some; I don't have access to them all the time as some of the stuff is on vinyl but I find new sessions all the time as he filled in some of the time in Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, NM.

It is said that he was a session guitarist there but no – he was world famous when he played on a few sessions as a favour.

I have always known about Norman Petty and what he did with Buddy Holly – he was his producer and a great producer he was; maybe the best.

Among the titles I have are recordings of That'll Be The Day and Maybe Baby, both recorded before Buddy Holly met Norman Petty. 

The songs were written by Buddy; he used a few names to credit his writing – Charles Hardin Holly was his full name and he used variations of those names but one name he never used as a songwriter was Norman Petty.

But when he re-recorded the two songs mentioned above at Norman's recording studio in Clovis, NM, there was another writer added to Buddy's name and that was Norman Petty.

Like every other Buddy Holly fan I thought Petty ripped Buddy Holly off by putting his name on the record as one of the songwriters and in a way that's what he did.

But in another way he gave Buddy and The Crickets free studio time – also to lots of other acts, groups of bands.

Acts usually have to pay for studio time for their recordings; there is no fairy godmother who pays for it and what usually happens (or should I say happened back then) is that the act is given studio credit, then an advance and then maybe salary which usually meant that they were so confused that they didn't know who owned what, how much they were worth or even where they were in the world – or where they were on the planet, as people say now.

I have always known about producers adding their name to get song writing royalties as I remember someone being interviewed on the radio taking a song to the band leader Billy Cotton and when it was published the sheet music had Billy Cotton's name on it too.

When the songwriter asked about this Cotton replied 'that's show business, son.'

One time Elvis Presley let the cat out of the bag when his name was added as a songwriter to the great song Don't Be Cruel. He was asked, when being interviewed, how he'd written the song and he revealed that he didn't write it at all. So his name was never put on a song he didn't write again.

Another thing Buddy Holly fans knew he was almost broke when he died in the plane crash and only toured to pay the rent. 

We were told, and it was confirmed by his Widowed Bride** that Petty wouldn't let them have any money even though Buddy had begged him and was in tears well . . . you have to be careful who you believe.

I have heard Buddy's widow say that but it wasn't in the book.

There were other reasons Petty didn't pay Buddy and that was that he, Petty, hadn't been paid by the record company in the first place.

In the fifties there was such a thing called PAYOLA; this was a bribe to a deejay by record companies, managers and the rest of them. It was a huge business and trailblazers and pioneers of rock'n'roll, such as Alan Freed, went to gaol for it.

Norman Petty wouldn't pay PAYOLA and that is why Buddy didn't have any real big hits in that last year of his life – nobody was playing his records.

PAYLOLA didn't really catch on in the UK to the same extent but the mob didn't operate here as they did in America.

Another thing happened in Buddy's life when he went to New York – staying in the Edison Hotel, which I stayed on one day – he asked a girl at the record company for a date; by the time the date was over Buddy had proposed and been accepted.

This woman was the first member of the Yoko Ono, Linda (I bagged a Beatle) Eastman trio who broke up great groups; she was the one who came between Buddy and Norman Petty and Buddy and The Crickets. And that is the full story.

A lot of this is my speculation of course but it's all there in this book. All 534 pages, 9 inches by 12 inches and weighing in at about 8 pound and almost impossible to read in bed.

A must for a real Buddy Holly and The Crickets fan but also to anybody who is a fan of pop music.

** I can't remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride

But something touched me deep inside

The day the music died.

Don McLean - American Pie.