100 Records That Shook The World, #81

It Doesn't Matter Anymore

Buddy Holly

In the last instalment we talked about The Day The Music Died - February 3, 1959, when Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holly was killed in a plane crash along with The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. Just a month and a half later this song topped the UK charts, the first posthumous No.1 hit. It was a double-A side with "Raining In My Heart". The song had been recorded in New York City in late October of '58, and the story goes that Paul Anka had promised to write Buddy a song specifically for that session with orchestra leader Dick Jacobs. Anka had forgotten, and when Buddy called him and asked for the song, he banged it out in a matter of minutes. Buddy rushed into the session with the song three hours before they were due to start recording and Jacobs only had time to do a rushed arrangement, which is why most of the strings are pizzicato.
Buddy may have been the only man to ever sing the words "golly gee" and have them mean something so dark and fierce in this anthem to a lost love. "I've done everything and I'm sick of tryin'/I've thrown away my nights and wasted all my days over you".... Brilliant song, brilliant performer, and the record, even 51 years later, sounds as fresh as if it was recorded yesterday.

RIP, Buddy.