Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly

by Philip Norman

Overview

Drawing on interviews with almost everyone who ever associated with Buddy Holly, including his widow, this biography creates a vivid picture of a young man who took the American music scene by storm and then died suddenly in a tragic plane crash.

Philip Norman is a journalist and a novelist who in 1968 was assigned to cover the Beatles’ own business utopia, Apple Corps, from the inside. He is the author of Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly and many other books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476779461
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	01/04/2014
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	677,663
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Philip Norman grew up on Ryde Pier, Isle of Wight. His bizarre childhood as the son of an unsuccessful seaside showman inspired his memoir Babycham Night. Norman went on to win the Young Writer of the Year Award contest organized by The Sunday Times Magazine (London), where he became a star interviewer, profiling celebrities ranging from Stevie Wonder to Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi. Norman’s early career as a rock critic led to his first biography, Shout!, which received critical acclaim and sold more than a million copies. He is the author of numerous highly praised works, including John Lennon: The Life; Paul McCartney: The Life; Slowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton; Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly; Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix; and a memoir of his Sunday Times years, We Danced on Our Desks.

Editorial Reviews

In the annals of rock and roll, singer and songwriter Buddy Holly remains an elusive legend. He died in a plane crash in 1959, at the age of 22, becoming one of the first rock stars to perish in a tragic, now romanticized, end. Though Holly inspired a Hollywood biopic in the late 1970s, in the prologue to this biography British writer Norman (Shout!) laments the general lack of knowledge about this influential Texas-born musician. Norman's attempt at setting the Holly story straight is a well-researched volume in which Holly comes across as a talented, fun-loving guy who carried the torch for a high-school sweetheart with strong religious convictions; who blindly signed over much of his future income to Norman Perry, his smarmy producer and manager; and who endured grueling concert tours of the U.S. and Britain. The text doubles as a solid history of the early days of rock, and it particularly sparkles when Norman recounts, from personal experience, the British perspective on American music of the 1950s. Despite the author's skill, however, Holly appears to have been too wholesome a character, with too attenuated a life, to keep the text consistently absorbing. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Buddy Holly is arguably the most influential figure in rock 'n' roll. His string of hits with the Crickets remains fresh after 40 years, and his bespectacled, nerdy appearance proved that you didn't need to be good-looking to rock. But his most lasting legacy was the effect his 1958 tour had on a generation of British musicians, who would recycle what they heard into a phenomenon that would change the entertainment industry and the world. Holly's tragically brief life has been chronicled in words, film, and song, but Norman (Elton John, LJ 2/1/92) does an excellent job of separating the man from the legend. All good legends need a villain, and manager/producer Norman Petty more than fits the bill. His withholding royalties and appropriate songwriting credits led to the financial woes that forced Holly on the "Winter Dance Party" tour that resulted in his death. Recommended for all public libraries.Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Fed., Curwensville, Pa.

Library Journal