True love has twists and turns, bumps and grinds

Charles Hardin Holley met Echo Elaine McGuire when they were classmates in the fourth grade in Lubbock, Texas. They stuck and became high school sweethearts, graduating from Lubbock High School in 1955. 

They were an interesting couple, noted William Kerns of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Holley stood a gawky 6-foot tall and was a so-so student. McGuire was a 5-foot tall dynamo and an “all-A” student. One of their favorite dating venues was the Hi-D-Ho Drive-In.

 

After graduation, Holley stayed in town, pursuing a career as a rock’n’roll artist. His stage name became Buddy Holly.

McGuire went off to college at Abilene Christian University, about 160 miles away from Lubbock. She and Buddy struggled to maintain a long-distance relationship. For her sophomore year, Echo McGuire transferred to York (Neb.) College, located about 665 miles north of Lubbock. 

The additional miles only magnified the challenge, but Holly continued to faithfully send her love letters, sealed with a kiss. 

But one day it happened. On the York campus, McGuire met fellow student Ron Griffith from Thayer, Mo. They began to see one another. McGuire said they “shared many ideas, goals and Christian interests.” She broke things off with Buddy Holly. 

McGuire said: “Buddy and I were headed in different directions.” 

Buddy Holly biographer Randy Steele of Fort Worth, Texas, commented: “Echo was devoted to the church and Christian causes. Buddy was into country and rock music.” 

Echo McGuire and Ron Griffith were married on Valentine’s Day in 1958. 

Nearly a year later, they were crushed to hear that Buddy Holly perished in a tragic airplane crash on Feb. 3, 1959, after a performance in Clear Lake, Iowa. 

Buddy Holly’s music really didn’t die that day.

 

Julian Lloyd Webber of The Daily Telegraph in London, England, said one of rock’n’roll’s “great discoveries” were the Buddy Holly “apartment tapes” that were made in New York City in December 1958, just prior to his departure on the fateful “Winter Dance Party” tour.

Most of the tracks are “themes of lost love” and “clearly reveal that Holly may have never lost his affection for Echo,” Webber wrote. 

There were six new songs on those tapes that were released in June 1959 by Coral Records. All could be attributed to a lovelorn songwriter. 

In 2024, we will observe the 65-year anniversary of those recordings.

 

In the song “Peggy Sue Got Married,” Holly reveals that the girl from his 1957 hit “Peggy Sue” has married someone else. It was one of the first sequels of the rock era. 

In “What to Do,” the break-up is haunting, and Holly knows his “heartache is showing.” The song “That Makes it Tough” reflects the challenges of carrying on and picking up the pieces “when you tell me you don’t love me.” 

Webber said: “The longing continues in ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’ that you’ll come back; you’re the one I love; and I think about you all the time.” (This song was covered by the Beatles in 1962 and represents one of George Harrison’s finest vocal performances.) 

The tune “That’s What They Say” refers to love that will come your way…but clearly, that’s not what was happening for Buddy Holly. 

Webber said: “The last tape, ‘Learning the Game,’ sees Buddy resigned to his fate: ‘Hearts that are broken; and love that’s untrue; these go with learning the game.’” 

Vicky Billington Pickering, a Lubbock classmate friend of Buddy and Echo, once commented: “It is interesting to read the lyrics to Buddy’s apartment songs and ponder to whom they might apply.”