DESCRIPTION:
I found this recording on an old practically worn out cassette tape a few weeks back, so bare with me over the bad sound quality! Buddy Holly did have quite a few songs very suitable for 're-makes'...and very easy to record! No need to stamp on any extras to his songs, they are perfectly OK as they are without any added 'hocus pocus' in the shape of strings, choirs and what have you! ”Rave On” was in fact originally recorded by Sonny West in 1958 and also composed by him, Bill Tilgham and Norman Petty! I recorded this in the early '70s, together with ”That'll Be The Day”, but didn't like either of them so straight to the waste basket they went...after I'd been 'fortunate' enough to place them on cassettes! Bad sound or not, hope you like it...

TRIVIA:

Charles Hardin Holley, known professionally as Buddy Holly, was born on September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas, to Lawrence Odell Holley and Ella Pauline Drake. The youngest of three siblings, his older brothers Larry and Travis taught him to play a variety of instruments, including the guitar, four-string banjo and lap steel guitar. At the age of five, Holly's young voice and exuberance won him a talent contest singing a then-popular song, "Have You Ever Gone Sailing". In 1949, while still retaining his youthful soprano voice, he recorded a bluesy solo rendering of Hank Snow's "My Two Timin' Woman" on a wire recorder borrowed by a friend who worked in a music shop. In 1952, he met Bob Montgomery at Hutchinson Junior High School. They shared an interest in music, and teamed up as "Buddy and Bob". Initially influenced by bluegrass, they sang harmony duets at local clubs and high school talent shows. The duo performed on a local radio station KDAV Sunday broadcast that made them a top local act.
Holly saw Elvis Presley sing in Lubbock in 1955, and began to incorporate a rockabilly style, similar to the Sun Records sound, which had a strong rhythm acoustic and slap bass. On October 15, 1955, Holly, along with Bob Montgomery and Larry Welborn, opened the bill for Presley in Lubbock, catching the eye of a Nashville talent scout. Holly's transition to rock continued when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local show organized by Eddie Crandall, the manager for Marty Robbins. Decca Records signed him to a contract in February 1956, following this performance, misspelling his name as "Holly". He thereafter adopted the misspelled name for his professional career. Holly formed his own band, later to be called The Crickets, consisting of Holly (lead guitar and vocals), Niki Sullivan (guitar), Joe B. Mauldin (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums). They went to Nashville for three recording sessions with producer Owen Bradley. Holly, however, chafed under a restrictive atmosphere that allowed him little input during the sessions. Among the tracks he recorded was an early version of "That'll Be The Day", which took its title from a line delivered repeatedly by John Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, in the 1956 film 'The Searchers'. This initial version of the song was played slower and about four steps higher than the later hit version. Decca released two Holly singles, "Blue Days, Black Nights" and "Modern Don Juan", that failed to make an impression. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly his contract would not be renewed, insisting, however, that he could not record the same songs for anyone else for five years. Holly then hired Norman Petty as manager, and the band began recording at Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty contacted music publishers and labels, and Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca, signed the Crickets on March 19, 1957. Holly signed as a solo artist with another Decca subsidiary, Coral Records. This put him in the unusual position of having two recording contracts at the same time. On May 27, 1957, "That'll Be The Day" was released as a single, credited to the Crickets to try to bypass Decca's claimed legal rights. When the song became a hit, Decca decided not to press its claim. "That'll Be the Day" topped the Billboard US "Best Sellers in Stores" chart on September 23, and was No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in November. The rest is history...
EPILOGE:
Following a performance on the Winter Dance Party tour (a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959) at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him and two others from nearby Mason City to Moorhead, Minnesota, the next stop on the tour. The charter's pilot, Roger Peterson, took off in a snowstorm even though he was not qualified to fly by instruments only. Following take off in the early morning hours of February 3, Holly, along with Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson, and the pilot, were all killed when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.