What would happen to the Big Bopper? I can see him having a couple more novelty hits. After that, i see him becoming a Wolfman Jack-style DJ.
Entirely possible, especially if the plane still crashes, but all three survive, just with non-fatal, non-crippling injuries.
If he gets out then, with the notoriety he had when he died, and pitches a 'Big Bopper Radio Show' in one of the big markets, he might eventually end up with a radio show that's syndicated nationwide fairly quickly.
I like it. I
really like the idea of Buddy Holly recording it.
This is probably the biggest imponderable. What does it do for lesser-known artists who get Holley as producer? Or artists who OTL were unknowns? (Just think how much production mattered to The Beach Boys' sound. Or, much later, ABBA's.)
Depends on how good and creative a producer Holly becomes in some cases, who he records that didn't otherwise get recorded in others.
It's so unknowable, I won't even hazard a guess.
With Holley, & Valens (don't forget), alive, the Invasion faces stronger U.S. competition. Is there a chance it's less an invasion?
I still think it's a big wave (there were just so many bands and too many of them were too good for the public to ignore) but they don't fill a vacuum like they did OTL. They have competition, but they'll still get recognition for their talents.
Which makes their early music so different, it's about impossible to imagine, isn't it? Or can we extrapolate? TTL's The Beatles sounding more like Santana? Or The Fabulous Thunderbirds? Or Poco?
I think the Beatles still have enough influences that they end up a lot like they did, perhaps a little more likely to try the Southwest Style as they progress, but...I think their personalities also drive them in a similar direction they took from Sgt. Pepper on.
Now, whether that means they turn into a progressive rock band, rather than going heavily experimental (ala The White Album)...that's somewhat intriguing...
Whatever the sound, IMO it's likely their music is more mature...but maybe not, since they've still got to develop & grow as a band. They've still got to find their own internal center, just like, say, The Guess Who. So they might start out as a fancy cover band, & still need a couple of years to get it right.
True, BUT, it's the songs they're learning and covering that make the difference here as to what type of sound they develop when they finally start to catch the public eye.
If they're covering a more mature sounding Holly in the early '60s, that could make for a more mature sounding Beatles circa 1964. Perhaps not Rubber Soul/Revolver yet, but an album like Help! might be their first major exposure to American audiences.
Which means he'd have the mantle of "King of R&R", instead of Elvis. Which could do good things for Elvis' later career, if not for him immediately out of the Army.
That one could cut both ways; on the one hand, it feed Elvis' drive to make a strong comeback as a musician. On the other hand, if Holly seems unassailable at the top, it might lead Elvis not only into Hollywood for his 'Movie Period', but maybe Elvis never gets out of the more general 'Entertainer' role and...becomes a Vegas draw for people who grew up with his music and are a still too young to be followers of The Rat Pack.
With Valens alive, too, I wonder if it butterflies The Beach Boys or Jan & Dean or anybody entire... He was younger, so probably more inclined to the likes of "409" & "Fun Fun Fun" or "Hot Rod Lincoln"...
I think those acts would be in the same orbit as Valens, probably good friends with him to boot and, hey, if Richie takes a shine to surfing...like I said, the guy enjoyed a lot of different musical genres and wasn't afraid to try new things.
If he takes a liking to surfing (and surf rock) he might cut a few killer songs of that genre in the early to mid sixties.
Maybe even working with Dick Dale!
Do we? Allowing he doesn't stay in movies (& without being "King", he might have a harder time getting in to start with), with Holley dominating R&R, what's to say Elvis doesn't stay in gospel? He was already troubled by doing "the devil's music", & scored all his Grammys in gospel...
I think there's a possibility that not being 'The King' takes some pressure off him and allows him to explore more (provided he's out of Parker's grip) and record (maybe even write with) a lot of different artists.
Maybe he and Holly collaborate on some rock, maybe he and Johnny Cash do some country. Without movies eating up his time and limiting his range of musical styles, he might score some Grammys in other genres...or release albums of diverse material that really grab people and win Grammys in their own right.
Except, how many of them did he actually write himself? IIRC, he recorded mostly other people's songs...
I'd have to check, but if he's not doing the movies, I think he has to develop as a song writer, and working with other good song writers may very well help him in that regard.
Just got a flash of Elvis, trying his hand at folk music and recording John Denver's Leaving on a Jet Plane.
That might be pretty cool if he did it write, especially with that voice of his...
As for getting loose of Col Leech, if The Music lived, why can't butterflies make that happen?
That's the thing: If the Music Lives, I don't see rock losing steam in '59-'61, but still going strong when Elvis comes back from the Army. I think Elvis could come back, see where guys like Buddy and Richie and Eddie are at and want to get back into the music himself. Parker disagrees (more dollar signs on movies where Elvis has no competition from the young blood of the music industry) but Elvis says "No, I don't think so, Colonel. I think I'm gonna...get back in the studio an' write me some new songs. TCOB. Now pack yer bags, because I got a crown to win back. Hoo-wah!"

Unquestionably. IMO, country rock & outlaw country are bound to be a lot bigger & a lot sooner...
Bigger Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison!
Also, I'd suggest Holley wouldn't protest Vietnam. I'm seeing him writing songs more like "Still in Saigon" (more tribute to the vets), or "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (with a patriotic spin), or "One Tin Soldier" (without the criticism).
Depends.
I think, like a lot of folks, he'd support it so long as it seems like Washington isn't just throwing away American lives with no real plan.
The minute it becomes clear there IS NO PLAN...I think a guy like Holly would probably know a lot of guys either over there or KIA over there and, as a result, he'd turn on it too.
Big difference, I don't see him as the type of guy who'd rag on the troops or taunt them over it. I think he'd write songs like Fortunate Son that attack the establishment for being so careless with the lives and health of an entire generation of American boys. Perhaps, initially, his position would be "Are you in it to win or not?" and, when it becomes clear Washington just doesn't have the will to make the losses count for something, it's "Stop sending our boys over there to die for a lost cause."
I think his focus would be on 'Don't send our boys to die for no good reason or without a plan.' rather than the more general anti-war themes.
The again, he have thought the whole thing was a bad idea from the get go.
Who can say for sure?
And that's not counting the chances of Holley being influenced in his turn by Dylan & doing electric folk or proto-folk rock.
I totally see that happening.
I could see him working on some outlaw country with Johnny Cash and country ballads with Roy Orbison too.
Unfortunately also an age for believing you're indestructible, & susceptible to the temptations of drugs...

How square was he? I've had the impression he was pretty straight. Holley, too, for all that. Both might avoid the "curse of 27".
Always a possibility, but I don't think they'd get dragged into the drug culture like the people who followed them did. They're already on top; who do they need to impress? They don't need to come off as 'edgy' or 'avant garde'. They're Buddy and Richie.
They can be as 'square' as they want and their entourages will be just as 'square' to keep them happy.
Maybe not in rock, but in pop: "blanched" black music will still have a market for parents of the rockin' kids. Or in pure country.
Good point.
Amen. Good as the '60s were for R&R, they'd have been a bunch better, & stunningly different.
So different, it might just turn people on without the need for LSD.
The most notable thing that happens is that we lose a fantastic Don McLean song.
Otherwise rock history (and any other history) would have been essentially unchanged.
Valens, Bopper, and Holly were at their commercial peaks at that point. Though there's some limited hope that Holly could have had some years of good artistic product ahead of him, it's hard to think that these three wouldn't have shared the fate of virtually every other non-Elvis 50's rock star had they lived. That doesn't make their deaths less tragic, or soften the pain of their fans. It's just that it wasn't a history-changing event.
Big Bopper was never going to get bigger.
He was a DJ with a booming voice in his late 20's. He was never going to get bigger as a recording artist. Best bet for him, if he lives, is to get a nationally syndicated radio program playing lots of big hits from his former contemporaries and the young blood coming up.
Hell, he might end up a hell of an entertainer in general, possibly on TV.
But he really had reached his peak.
To say Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, two guys who played instruments, wrote their own material and sang (and did those things well) at the ages of 22 and 19 respectively, were 'at their commercial peaks' in 1959 is ridiculous.
Deaths like theirs are tragic, regardless.
What really grips people about it is just how much potential was lost when those two died.
Those two, with their talents, with a good head on their shoulders, could have been two of the biggest stars in rock history with influences that would still be seen today.
One of the things I'm most interested in: How do Buddy Holly's glasses change? Will we see Holly with late-60s Lennon glasses?
I think Buddy's glasses get thinner (in terms of frame width) but I think he'd have the long thin frames, more like Jerry Garcia would wear later on.
