Buddy Holly – Oh, Boy!

This was recorded June 29-July 1, 1957 at Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Oh Boy was written by Sunny West, Bill Tilghman, and Norman Petty. Norman was Holly’s producer and owned the studio where this was recorded.

This song played live is very powerful along with Buddy’s other songs. In the 90s I saw a musical play called Buddy that was touring the country. In the musical, there was just “Buddy”, a bass player and a drummer and the songs exploded off the stage. Buddy arranged these songs to sound so big with just a few instruments.

This rocker is a simple song but there is so much going on in the background. From the Crickets backups to the pounding drums of Jerry Allison. Buddy’s Strat comes through clear as he plays against the drums.

The song peaked at #19 in the US Hot 100 and #3 in the UK. This song was paired with the “b” side Not Fade Away…which later became very popular when the Rolling Stones covered it in 1964.

From Songfacts

Background vocals were added later by The Picks (Bill & John Pickering, Bob Lapham).

This was released as a single with “Not Fade Away” as the B-side. While this song did fade away, the B-side has become one of Holly’s well-known songs. It got a boost when it was covered by The Rolling Stones in 1964.

This was credited to The Crickets, who were Holly’s band.

Holly and The Crickets performed this on their second and final Ed Sullivan Show appearance on January 26, 1958. Sullivan was not happy with the song selection, as he considered it too raunchy, but Holly insisted on performing it. Possibly in retaliation, Sullivan introduced him as “Buddy Hollet,” and Holly can be seen trying to turn up his guitar, which had been set too low. While most musical guests were given 2 songs, Holly got just the one. 

Buick spun this into the jingle “Oh, Buick!” for a 1987 commercial.

Oh Boy

All of my love
All of my kissin’
You don’t know what you’ve been a-missin’
Oh boy, when you’re with me
Oh boy, the world can see
That you, were meant, for me

All of my life
I’ve been a-waitin’
Tonight there’ll be no, hesitatin’
Oh boy, when you’re with me
Oh boy, the world can see
That you, were meant, for me

Stars appear and shadows a-falling
You can hear my heart a-calling
A little bit a-lovin’ makes everything right
And I’m gonna see my baby tonight

All of my love
All of my kissin’
You don’t know what you’ve been a-missin’
Oh boy, when you’re with me
Oh boy, the world can see
That you, were meant, for me

All of my love
All of my kissin’
You don’t know what you’ve been a-missin’
Oh boy, when you’re with me
Oh boy, the world can see
That you, were meant, for me

All of my life
I’ve been a-waitin’
Tonight there’ll be no, hesitatin’
Oh boy, when you’re with me
Oh boy, the world can see
That you, were meant, for me

Stars appear and shadows a-falling
You can hear my heart a-calling
A little bit a-lovin’ makes everything right
I’m gonna see my baby tonight

All of my love
All of my kissin’
You don’t know what you’ve been a-missin’
Oh boy, when you’re with me
Oh boy, the world can see
That you, were meant, for me

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

20 thoughts on “Buddy Holly – Oh, Boy!”

      1. I think some of it was. Unfortunately the studio closed down. It was called 16 Tons studio. They had video of it on YouTube but I can’t find it now. The video must have been pulled down?

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  3. Man, I hadn’t heard this in aeons. Gotta love me some Buddy. You can tell why Dylan was so enamored by him. You’d be aware Dylan even wrote in his Nobel prize speech that he went to see him perform just before ‘The day the music died’. Buddy would have been HUGE!

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    1. Buddy is the one artist from the 50s that could have survived the Beatles because he is the father of powerpop.
      Dylan does a good version of Not Fade Away also…on a live album…I can’t remember which one. Though Dylan doesn’t do it much…he is a great speech writer. I’ve loved the few speeches I’ve heard…I had a transcript of one talking about his songwriting influences and those who he really didn’t like lol.

      Paul McCartney saw him live on a Buddy Holly tour of the UK. McCartney went on to buy his music catalog.

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      1. I like that description: ‘The father of Powerpop’.
        Yes, Dylan’s speeches are quite poignant especially the Nobel one. The Music-cares speech which I think you are referring too he seemed to lay out his song writing process and major influences. I loved his comments about Nina Simone.
        Dylan did a live show for just one fan who paid him a fortune. In that short performance he sung Holly’s ‘Heartbeat’ which I really love! Here it is:

        I didn’t know that about McCartney nor that Holly toured the UK. Fascinating.

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      2. That was incredible….thank you for sharing that. You know…lets you and I pay Dylan for a concert lol. How does 100 bucks sound Bob come on…a discount rate?
        I mean how much would it take? I can’t imagine.

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  5. I just have to wonder- what if Buddy had lived? He was so young- I think he would have been the most successful of the 50’s rock and roll performers into the future but who knows…

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    1. Yes I think so… I think he would have survived the Beatles coming because of the similarities and his sound was different than most of the rest… and he wrote… I could be wrong.
      You would have thought the Everly Brothers would have done better.

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      1. Don and Phil didn’t get along maybe that was one of the problems they had in the mid 60’s on ward. I know at one point they went years without talking.

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      2. Someone told me that they had a falling out with their manager also and lost the access to some of those songs they were getting. They had a sound that could have mixed in somewhat well.

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      4. Yes and I think that was a key ingredient. He just sounded fresh and modern…that is why I think he would have survived the British Invasion unlike some of his peers. Berry wrote his songs but they were not guitar driven pop like Holly’s.

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