Interview With Freeman Hover

Albany Hotel, Denver, Colorado

On Tour With "The Biggest Show Of Stars 1957"

Recorded For Radio KCSR, Chadron, Nebraska

Saturday November 2, 1957 - 3:00 a.m

Freeman Hover: And right on either side of me now here at the, in the room, are a couple of members of The Crickets, and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and then I've got to say something, really it's something. Go ahead. Here's the first one.

Buddy Holly: Over here's Buddy Holly

Jerry Allison: And over here, Jerry Allison.

Freeman Hover: Jerry and Buddy, I just wrote a letter down to Norm Petty, our friend Norm Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, about two days ago, asking if there'd be any chance that The Crickets could do some station breaks for us. I haven't had a letter back yet but here we are in Denver, Colorado, with The Crickets, or at least a couple of them sitting right at my side. So, this is really something we hadn't expected at all. We want to say that your song, up there in the big Top 40 chart is doing a mighty terrific job, and the expression, "That'll be the day", is practically the word around the Chadron area now…

Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison: [Laugh]

Freeman Hover: …I don't know. No matter where you're going, a telephone conversation, no matter what it is, "That'll be the day". And that's kind of a good plug, isn't it Buddy?

Buddy Holly: [Laughs] It sure is, Free.

Freeman Hover: Could you tell us how you fellas kinda got together. Who's going to start it here? [Laughs]

Jerry Allison: Well it's all hard to say. Buddy and I have been together for about five years, playing around Lubbock, there, we went to school together and high school. And the other two boys, I don't know about them, how we got with them, but they just seem to be with us somehow or the other!

Freeman Hover: [Laughs] They're just kinda along for the ride, huh?

Jerry Allison: It seems like it.

Freeman Hover: It makes a mighty good-sounding ride altogether.

All: [Laughter]

Freeman Hover: Now the name Crickets. I mean, you don't go "Kreek, kreek, kreek," on your records, or at least I never heard it. It's a pretty good sound. Where does this Crickets thing come in?

Jerry Allison: Well, we were trying to think of some name that, ah, hadn't been used before, and so we came up with Crickets, and sure enough it had been used before!

Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

Freeman Hover: Well, very, very good. We had one the other day, The Brother Sisters, that was pretty novel. Of course they're doing pretty well too on a label, but The Crickets, that's very good. How did you happen to tie in with Norm Petty?

Buddy Holly: Well, we've known Norm for quite some time, down there in Clovis, New Mexico, and we used to go over and make a few dubs now and then to, you know, see what we sounded like and everything. So the last time, oh, let's see, it was in January, I believe, wasn't it Jerry?

Jerry Allison: Yeah.

Buddy Holly: We went over there and were making a dub to send in to various companies and see if we could possibly do anything in the line of the music business, and Norm asked us if we'd like representing in to Brunswick Records in New York. And so we told him, "Yeah, go ahead, we can't lose!"

All: [Laugh]

Buddy Holly: We're as far behind as you could get already! So, ah, he sent it in and Bob Theile, the A & R man for Brunswick okayed it and put it out, and the kids all over the United States did the rest.

Freeman Hover: Well, that's terrific. Now you've got a new one out called?

Buddy Holly: "Oh, Boy!"

Freeman Hover: "Oh, Boy!" I wish we could get that record. You got a copy in your room we could get?

Buddy Holly: No, sir, we don't. Ah, to tell the truth, Norm can't even get one of those things either. I talked to him while I got on the telephone and he said that he was wanting some off a bet but he couldn't get a hold of any.

Freeman Hover: Doggone, I just, er, in this letter I asked him for it too because we are waiting for it. We've got it on our chart as a pick for future popularity and we know it's going to arrive very soon and hopefully we can get that. Norm's a fine lad we had the privilege of meeting him about a year ago when we were down in Clovis visiting a relative and visited his studios there and had a wonderful time and he did some fine work for us too, and also an Air Force program that he had done some time ago that we programmed for 13 weeks. Wonderful music and he's doing real fine on commercial records now too, isn't he?

Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he sure is.

Freeman Hover: Do they plan to stay in Clovis, or…?

Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, he's, er, got quite a set-up there and I imagine it'd be, ah, quite a bit of trouble to move it. [Laughs]

Freeman Hover: Do they still have a little puppy that I saw down there?

Buddy Holly: Yeah.

Freeman Hover: He's the pride of the family.

Buddy Holly: His name is Speedy, and a little Mexican chihuahua.

Freeman Hover: That's right, uh-huh.

Buddy Holly: And he's really something.

Freeman Hover: You'll be going down that way after the tour again?

Buddy Holly: Yes, sir, as you probably know Lubbock and Clovis are about a hundred miles apart and when we are at home we spend most of our waking hours, you might say, over in Clovis. And we'll be going home around the second of December. That'll be after we do our Sullivan show, on the first.

Freeman Hover: You're all set for it. Well, wonderful. That's great, great.

Jerry Allison: It's not much to get plugging, man! [Laughs]

Buddy Holly: Why, sure.

Jerry Allison: Bug the mechanical monster!

Freeman Hover: Ah, this is really, really trite, but I'm going to say great having you fellas here and we do look forward to having more of your disks. You have something planned after… "Oh, Boy!", of course, is on the way up now but have you got something in mind to be putting on disk very, very soon or in the near future, we'll say?

Jerry Allison: Ah, no, for The Crickets we don't have anything. I don't know if Buddy's modest or anything but he's got two records out of his own now, "Peggy Sue" and "Everyday", that are doing a little bit of good, I think. I hope they are.

Freeman Hover: Oh, great. What's that? "Peggy Sue" on the Brunswick label…

Jerry Allison: On Coral.

Freeman Hover: Coral.

Jerry Allison: Yes, sir.

Freeman Hover: Good. We'll check on that as soon as we get back. Right. Bandstanders, you're having a wonderful treat this afternoon hearing all of your great Top 40 stars and Bandstand stars as we promised you and even more in the bargain, and we feel it is a great privilege to bring them out your way. I wanted to say to you fellas that we certainly enjoyed your stint here in Denver, this evening, and say that you did a grand job on this, on those songs.

Buddy Holly: Well, Free, we're, ah, certainly tickled to be here in Denver. It's the first time we've played here and we've been looking forward to it for quite some time now ever since the tour started, and we knew we were gonna be here, and, ah, we'd like to also mention that we would like to thank you for plugging our records and we'd like to thank everyone around here for listening to them and buying them.

Freeman Hover: Good. And we do thank you for that. Now, is there any chance of anything in the way of pictures or are you going to stick strictly to records, and anything? Nothing that would be… not letting the cat out of the bag.

Buddy Holly: Well, I might stick a little bit of a plug in here for Eddie Cochran, sitting over there, so contented like. [Laughs]

Freeman Hover: With that pipe! [Eddie Cochran smoked a pipe]

Buddy Holly: He's staring in a picture that'll be out pretty soon, I don't know exactly when it will be out, but he said that he could arrange it for The Crickets to appear in that picture singing a song or something.

Freeman Hover: Great!

Buddy Holly: And so we've been buddying up to him…

Jerry Allison: Getting in as good as we can!

All: [Laughter]

Freeman Hover: Well, that'll be the day, won't it?

All: [Laughter]

Freeman Hover: Ah, well. Well, well, well. We're so enthused about being able to talk to you and bring these interviews to our Bandstanders this Monday afternoon. As we mentioned, it's a weird hour, but maybe not for you guys - it is for us.

All: [Laughter]

Buddy Holly: Considering we have to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and get on a plane.

All: [Laughter]

Freeman Hover: Well, this is a great country around here and we want to invite all of you fellas. We've been trying to get Eddie over here to Chadron, Nebraska, for I don't know how long now, twisting his arm pretty bad - if you notice it's misshapen. It's not from holding…

Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

Freeman Hover: …holding that guitar or anything like that - we've been twisting it. And we'd like to have you fellas if you ever get a chance to come out and visit us. And we've already got him set to run a combine during wheat harvest season…

Buddy Holly: [Laughs]

Freeman Hover: …and so, we can probably, er, we can always use some announcers or anybody you know, er, anything around the station, if you guys do drop in.

Buddy Holly: Well, do you pay all the records you need? [Laughs]

Freeman Hover: You got me! Start of the week!

All: [Laughter]

Freeman Hover: We got, we got records - oh man, we got records! Well, guys, it's been, it really has been wonderful and we appreciate your dropping in this afternoon at The Bandstand and letting some of our folks hear a very informal little chat with you. So, on with the music and you know what we're gonna do we're gonna music right now by Eddie Cochran, by The Crickets, by Jimmy Bourne. So, Bandstanders, that's it, and let's go on with the show.

End Of Interview.

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