Buddy Holly – Well… All Right

I’ve never heard a song by Buddy Holly that I didn’t like. Well…All Right was released just a couple of months before Buddy Holly died in that lonely Iowa cornfield. A while back I posted Blind Faith‘s cover of this song. The song is in my top 10 of Buddy Holly’s songs easily.

This song was somehow a B side. In the 50s and 60s many times a B side was a throwaway track. People started to flip the hit singles over and sometimes…sometimes find gold! He had a song called Heartbeat that he thought would be a big hit. I like Heartbeat a lot but I lean more toward Well…All Right. I think Heartbeat sounds like the 50s…but this song sounds fresher.

It’s a quiet song but Holly builds in dynamics for the chorus showing his strength and tenderness on this recording. The construction of the melody and lyrics are outstanding. Its simple instrumentation yet powerful push is what won me over.

Heartbeat only peaked at #82 on the Billboard 100 and #30 on the UK Charts. It’s the flipside that has been remembered. It was written by  Buddy Holly, Norman Petty, Jerry Allison, and Joe Mauldin.

What really hurts about Holly’s career is that he was just getting started. He had matured and was experimenting more than his rocking peers. Fortunately for all of us, he left behind a significant musical catalog that still influences new and old artists today.

Well…All Right

Well all right, so I’m being foolishWell all right let people knowAbout the dreams and wishes you wishIn the night when lights are low

Well all right, well all rightWe’ll live and love with all our mightWell all right, well all rightOur lifetime of love will be all right

Well, all right, so I’m going steadyIt’s all right when people sayThat those foolish kids can’t be readyFor the love that comes their way

Well all right, well all rightWe will live and love with all our mightWell all right, well all rightOur lifetime of love will be all right

Well all right, well all rightWe’ll live and love with all our mightWell all right, well all rightOur lifetime love will be all right

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, 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. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

48 thoughts on “Buddy Holly – Well… All Right”

  1. Max, I love this! Of course, I knew the song, but only the Blind Faith version. I had no idea the original was by Buddy Holly!

    It’s truly remarkable what great music Holly created during his short recording career. One can only imagine how many other great songs we would have heard from him, had his life not been tragically cut short by the plane crash.

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    1. I couldn’t believe I never posted this one before! I’ve gone through his catalog and this one one of the few I haven’t posted before. There are a few others I still can post…but I love this.

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      1. Not only was Buddy Holly a compelling performer, but it’s also pretty amazing how many great songs he has written!

        On a more inside baseball note, Holly was instrumental in popularizing the Fender Stratocaster in the US. If you’re interested, I did a dedicated post about the Stratocaster back in July 2017 – still relatively early days of the blog: https://christiansmusicmusings.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/the-hardware-fender-stratocaster/

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  4. Simple song, seems ‘all right’ but doesn’t win me over quite like his better known rock ones do. I wonder if there are any Buddy demos lying around that could get the ‘Now & Then’ treatment.

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    1. I’m totally floored Dave…not at you but….I guess it’s because I’ve known this song since I was 11-12…I thought it WAS a well known one lol. It was in the movie The Buddy Holly Story so that is where I heard it first. Most people haven’t known it…which yea it surprises me…well they know it but the Blind Faith version…which I love also. So I’ve heard it for over 40 years or so.

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    1. I’m just surprised at the comments…how many people didn’t know this song…or his version.
      I agree with you…his catalog is quality through and through….and he was just getting started.

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      1. Well, a lot of your readers probably weren’t born yet when Buddy Holly died (I was just a kid but I had older siblings who helped open my ears), so they had to rely on what the radio played. That’s what you’re here for! – to show us what we’ve missed.

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      2. You got me there! I naturally gravitated toward this older music because I liked it more than what was going on in my time.
        Thank you…and I love doing it.

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      2. Since I was way too late for him. When I saw the play “Buddy”…that is when I knew how powerful his music is/was. A trio played the music and they were spot on. It’s as if he wrote that music for live performances. Everyone was moved by it and the acoustics were great. The play was good…but the music is what made it.

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  7. Great song today Max and certainly high on my list off favorite Holly songs. I’m as big a Holly fan as the next person but I have to tell you there is at least one of his songs that’s tough to listen to, his version of “Ain’t Got No Home” as you no doubt know was from Clarence “Frogman” Henry.

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      2. Yea…I can see why he wanted to get anything that influenced him in.
        The thing that impresses me the most about him…what he did before he died is incredible at such an early age.

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      4. Out of all the 50s guys…he would have made his mark in the 60s because he was more forward thinking than Chuck or Fats…to me anyway.

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  10. Dirty rotten shame he was taken too soon. Had no idea Buddy and Friends wrote this tune. Had only heard the Blind Faith version before. I do love the structure of the song!

    I know he’s known for those thick black frames but underneath them he was a good-looking guy. Hurts to think of him dying in a cornfield 😦

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    1. Yes it breaks my heart knowing that he could have made such a huge mark…not that he didn’t already. Not to mention his poor wife was pregnant and lost her baby soon after he died.

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    2. Thanks! I remember it in the The Buddy Holly Story in 78 or so…after that I got one of his box sets so I had it after that.

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