THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

264-Buddy Holly-True Love Ways.

1958-It was not released until 1960, when reaching Number 25.

Best Bit-At 0.01. True Love Ways was recorded at the last studio session by Buddy Holly, 105 days before ‘the music died.’

Buddy Holly (see also best songs 898) was born Charles Hardin Holley on September 7th, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, United States. In the early hours of February 3rd, 1959, a plane carrying Holly, along with fellow singers Ritchie Valens, (1941-1959) and The Big Bopper, (1930-1959) (see also best songs 1017) and the pilot Roger Peterson (1937-1959) crashed in inclement weather near Clear Lake, Iowa, United States, killing all four of them instantly shortly after take off. In his 1971 song ‘American Pie,’ (see also best songs 4) Don McLean referred to the event as ‘The day the music died.’

Buddy Holly is one of Pop Music’s most influential artists, Holly himself has said that his own early inspiration to follow a ‘Rock N’ Roll’ path was after watching Elvis Presley (1935-1977) (see also best songs 954-664-442 and 194) perform on television. In turn John Lennon (1940-1980) (see also best songs 927-473-456-168 and 20) and Paul McCartney (see also best songs 646 and 107) have said that it was after seeing Holly on television appearing on ‘Sunday Night at the London Paladium’ that inspired their performance and lyricism, they also partly chose the name the ‘Beatles,’ (see also best songs 599-319-238-218-141-80-51-10 and 5) after the Holly’s insect themed ‘Crickets.’ Although Buddy Holly was only 22 years old when he died he had already written a vast amount of songs, many not fully finished and left in the vaults. It was Holly’s producer Norman Petty (1927-1984) who overdubbed many of these songs, adding instrumentation, and sometimes backing vocals. During his lifetime Holly issued three studio Albums between 1957-1958, and 18 singles. Following his death a further 10 singles were released, and there have been 29 official posthumous compilation Albums issued between 1959-2018. Holly’s co-write of ‘That’ll Be the Day’ with fellow Cricket Jerry Allison was Number 1 in America and the UK in 1957, while ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ written by Paul Anka, gave Holly a posthumous UK Number 1 hit in 1959. For the discography of Buddy Holly see best songs 898.

‘True Love Ways’ was written by Buddy Holly, with additional melody and lyrics provided by Norman Petty (1927-1984.) The song was recorded along with three other tracks at Holly’s last recording session before his death. The melody borrows heavily from the Gospel song ‘I’ll Be All Right,’ which was a favourite of Holly’s, and was played at his funeral. According to Holly’s wife Marie Elena ‘True Love Ways’ was written for her as a wedding gift. The couple had met on June 20th, 1958, and married on August 15th, 1958, they were married for less than six months. ‘True Love Ways’ was the second of four singles released from ‘The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2,’ which was the second posthumous release for Buddy Holly, and his fifth Album release in total. The Album was the first of a series of Buddy Holly albums to feature overdubbing of unfinished tracks by Norman Petty, including Holly’s last original compositions. The Album also included production by the American orchestra conductor and composer Jack Hansen, but not on ‘True Love Ways. ‘The string arrangement on ‘True Love Ways’ was done by Dick Jacobs, (1918-1988) he was also the orchestral arranger on Holly’s 1959 posthumous UK Number 1 single ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.’

Norman Petty was born on May 25th, 1927, in Clovis, New Mexico, United States, he died on August 15th, 1984, of leukaemia, at the age of 57. Norman Petty was a musician, record producer, publisher, and radio station owner, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of early ‘Rock N’ Roll.’ In the early 1950’s Petty formed the ‘Norman Petty Trio,’ with his wife Vi Ann Petty, (1928-1992) and the guitarist Jack Vaughn, (-1984) due to the success of their recording of ‘Moon Indigo,’ (1954-Billboard Number 14) Petty was able to construct his own state of the art recording studio which he named ‘Clovis,’ after the city he was born, at a cost of around $100,000 (US$1,170,880 in 2024 dollars.) After Buddy Holly’s death, Norman Petty was put in charge of overdubbing unfinished Holly recordings and demos at the request of the Holly family. In 1999, Holly’s widow, Maria Elena, along with Holly’s siblings, filed a lawsuit against ‘MCA Inc.’ in which she alleged that Petty ‘Conspired with MCA to defraud the Holly heirs.’ It was eventually determined through extensive auditing that ‘MCA owed the Petty estate and the Holly heirs a combined $251,325 in additional royalties.’

‘True Love Ways’ was first recorded by Norman Petty’s wife Vi in June 1958, with initially, only limited promotional pressings made. In 1965 the British pop duo, Peter and Gordon, released their version which reached number 2 in the UK, and is the only version of the song to have made the Top 40 of the American Billboard Hot 100 singles charts, reaching number 14. In 1980 the American Country singer Mickey Gilley (1936-2022) took his version to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and in 1982 the British singer Cliff Richard’s recording of a live performance at the Royal Albert Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra reached Number. 8 on the UK Singles Chart.

María Elena the widow of Buddy Holly learnt of her husbands death from the reports on the television, at the time she was two weeks pregnant, she suffered a miscarriage shortly after, reportedly due to psychological trauma. Following the miscarriage, and because of the circumstances in which she was informed of his death, a policy was later adopted by authorities not to disclose victims names until after their families have been informed.

‘Sometimes we’ll sigh, sometimes we’ll cry, and we’ll know why just you and I know true love ways.