Imagine: The Days the Music Lived

Imagine: Buddy Holly doesn't get on the plane in Iowa. The weather gets worse and the pilot refuses to take off.

The Winter Dance Tour collapses in near disaster. The next night, a small plane crashes near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four on board; it is the same plane the musicians had planned to ride.

Shaken by his escape from death, Buddy Holly is shuffled off to low-budget American pop-rock tours of Europe. Two years later in 1961 he is touring in Germany and looking for a new band to replace the Crickets (who had been spun off into a separate group in various legal battles with his record company).

In Hamburg he picks up an obscure band out of Liverpool as his backing group. Buddy enjoys the environment of England and elects to stay there. Buddy and The Beat Boys begin scoring hits. The lineup is, Buddy Holly, lead guitar, various instruments and lead vocals; John Lennon, rhythm guitar and backing vocals; Paul McCartney, piano-keyboards and backing vocals; George Harrison, guitar-vocals; Stu Sutcliffe, bass; Pete Best, drums.

Due to residual legal hassles between Holly and his U.S. record label, Decca, Decca turns down the group at audition. EMI signs them and assigns them to their Parlophone subsidiary. Parlophone producer George Martin is assigned to the group. Martin is aware of Holly's background and production experience and gives him wide authority over the recordings.

In 1962, after a name change to "Buddy and The Beatles," Buddy is dissatisfied with Sutcliffe and Best. Sutcliffe quits to attend art school in Germany and McCartney switches to bass; John, Paul and George recommend Liverpool mate Ringo Starr as Best's replacement on drums.

In 1963 Buddy's wife Maria Elena has a difficult pregnancy and Buddy has to take several months off from touring and recording before his son, John Paul Holley, is born. During this time EMI demands more songs out of the band. Buddy recommends John and Paul begin writing additional songs. In November 1963 the first Beatles album credited solely to the group, "I'll Tell You Something!," is released.

Track Listing:
1. I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Lennon-McCartney)
2. Raining In My Heart (Holly-McCartney)
3. Please Please Me (Lennon-McCartney)
4. Peggy Sue Got Married (Holly)
5. She Loves You (Lennon-McCartney)
6. True Love Ways (Holly)
7. Learning The Game (Holly-Lennon)
8. Ting-A-Ling (Ahmet Ertetgun; arr. Holly; Starr on lead vocals)
9. Love Is Strange (Micky and Sylvia)
10. You Can't Do That (Lennon-McCartney)
11. Slippin' And Slidin' (Little Richard; co-lead vocals, Holly and Lennon)
12. Cry For A Shadow (Lennon-Harrison)
13. It Doesn't Matter Anymore (Anka)
14. Socked In (Holly) This is an "extremely unusual" recording featuring surrealistic string arrangements and distorted tape effects. Holly's voice sounds like a distant foghorn across an ocean. Some distributors claim the song is "too weird" for their listeners and it is deleted from second pressings of the album.

(However, among the fans who do get one of the rare early pressings are Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson.)

EMI holds a top-level meeting with the Beatles, their managers and George Martin. They inform the group that despite the Billboard bombshells of the preceding year: 12 Beatles singles in the Top Ten and the album remaining Number One for four months, they cannot put up with such "crazy experimentalism."
"We could only allow you to do that if you have another sales year like you had this year."
Holly, Lennon and McCartney exchange raised eyebrows. "Okay," says Holly, and the five Beatles walk out the door.
 
Last edited:
Interesting. wonder what this does to Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper never mind that Waylon has a ton less survivors guilt in this timeline with no plane crash
 
I'm gonna knock off some additional chapters. I'm thinking Valens has a minor career as a Tex-Mex star in the 60s, then his career reignites big time in the 1970s as the outlaw-country movement gets big. The Big Bopper, I'm guessing, does mainly novelty hits, and becomes a TV show star.
 
I'm gonna knock off some additional chapters. I'm thinking Valens has a minor career as a Tex-Mex star in the 60s, then his career reignites big time in the 1970s as the outlaw-country movement gets big. The Big Bopper, I'm guessing, does mainly novelty hits, and becomes a TV show star.
Both sounds good..
 
Top