For Buddy Holly, Tinker Air Force Base Was A Studio
READ THE STORY
BY JOHN A. WILLIAMS
For years, record album liners noted Buddy Holly and The Crickets recorded four songs at the Officers Club at Tinker Air Force Base — including the hit single, "Maybe Baby” — during the wee hours of Sept. 29, 1957. However, no one at Tinker was able to verify this happened.
"We get several calls during the year about this,” said Tinker spokesman Ron Mullan. "Our historian has searched records and copies of our newsletter. But there is no proof this ever happened.”
Until now.
"I do remember recording those songs there,” said Jerry Allison, the Crickets’ original drummer, who lives in Nashville.
Crickets producer Norman Petty was booked Sept. 28 at the club with the Norman Petty Trio, Allison said.
"I think Norman had the same machine he had at the studio with him, a monaural Ampex machine,” he said. "He listened through headphones to get the mix.”
The Crickets were scheduled to perform at the Oklahoma City Municipal Auditorium on Sept. 29 as one of the acts with the Show of Stars ’57.
"They thought we were a black act when they first booked it. So it was perfect we were big fans of Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Drifters and Clyde McPhatter,” Allison said.
Buddy’s mom and dad were in the audience that night, the only time they ever saw Buddy perform outside his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.
"Jerry Allison and Nikki Sullivan have both verified to me that Norman met them at the airport and drove them to Tinker,” Pugh said. The group spent the night in guest quarters.
"They attended the closing night at the Oklahoma State Fair,” Pugh said. "Then they were taken back to the Officers Club for a late night recording session.”
Album liner notes show the Crickets recorded "Maybe Baby,” "You’ve Got Love,” "An Empty Cup” and "Rock Me My Baby” during an all-night session.
The next day, Holly and the Crickets were invited to Sunday dinner at the home of an Oklahoma City couple who lived near the Capitol, Pugh said.
After the recording session at Tinker, Petty took the tapes back to his studio in Clovis, N.M., to add background vocals.
"We never thought of ourselves as a vocal group. Still don’t. We’re a band,” Allison said. "Norman overdubbed the picks on the whole first ‘Chirping Crickets’ album. I wasn’t thrilled with it myself, and Buddy wasn’t crazy about it.”
In 1992, another Oklahoma Holly researcher, Kevin Terry, presented a plaque with an original 45 rpm record of "Maybe Baby” that was placed in the Officers Club at Tinker. But Pugh said a new club manager later ordered the plaque be removed. He said a worker at the club rescued the plaque from the trash and gave it to him for safe keeping.
"If they would like to have it back I would be happy to present it to them,” Pugh said.
Almost 17 months later, on Feb. 3, 1959 — the date known as "The Day the Music Died” — Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens were killed in a plane crash following a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa.
'Bouncy bouncy, bouncy bouncy'
