Joe Ely & Crickets - Well All Right & Not Fade Away (1988 PBS) PLUS Jerry Allison Interview

(Finally able to get a spare VCR to track the entire Joe Ely & The Crickets performance!) Joe Ely & The Crickets - Well All Right & Not Fade Away from the 1988 PBS “Buddy Holly & The Crickets - A Tribute”.
From my Sunday Night Hall of Fame Show tapes and my VHS Buddy Holly collection:
This video begins with a portion of my May 27, 1989 interview of The Crickets, when they appeared at the “Mayfair Festival” in Allentown, PA. At that time Cricket members included Buddy Holly’s original drummer Jerry Ivan Allison, AKA: “J.I.”, and bass player Joe B. Mauldin. Gordon Payne was the lead singer/guitarist and by 1989 had been a member of The Crickets for approximately (5) years.
During the interview I asked the group about a PBS special: “Buddy Holly and The Crickets - A Tribute” which had aired on most PBS stations during 1988. Drummer Allison talked about the group playing the Austin, TX area and meeting the producer of “Austin City Limits”, which led to the show being produced for PBS.
After the brief interview segment, it’s a performance from the PBS special: Legendary Texas-rocker Joe Ely with The Crickets singing two songs: “Well All Right” and one of the greatest versions of “Not Fade Away”…EVER!
Buddy Holly and the Crickets became one of my favorites in 1957 when I first heard “That’ll Be The Day” on my radio. I started writing, producing and hosting tributes to Buddy, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper as early as 1969 on WEEX - AM 1230 in Easton, Pa. That was the tenth anniversary of the plane crash and coincided with the Coral album release “Buddy Holly - Giant”. At first I called the special tribute show “Three Star Special”, as influenced by a 1959 hit song “The Three Stars” by Tommy Dee. After Don McLean’s dedication of “American Pie” to Buddy, I started calling the show “The Day the Music Died”. My tribute shows continued throughout my broadcast radio career in the Lehigh Valley, PA and Northwest New Jersey area. The last time my five-hour special aired was February 3, 1999 on WODE - Oldies 99.9.
To Recap: This video features a small portion of my 1989 interview with The Crickets and a portion of the 1988 PBS special: “Buddy Holly and The Crickets - A Tribute”. The video and audio tracks have been restored from a VHS tape that I recorded off the air in 1988 as broadcast by WLVT-TV, PBS Channel 39 of the Lehigh Valley, PA.
The Sunday Night Hall of Fame Show was broadcast from 1980 to 1992 on WAEB - AM 790 and WKAP - AM 1320. My show returned between 1999 and August 2001 on WODE “ Oldies 99.9”. All stations were located in the Allentown - Bethlehem - Easton, PA area, AKA: The Lehigh Valley.

[@dynjarren8355]

Two of my favorite Buddy Holly songs. It’s a revelation that Holly wrote such incredible music at his young age! He became a legendary star not because he died so young but because his songs were so good. The loss was immense! The same can be said for Ritchie Valens who was a Latino rocker and pioneer! Joe Ely does Holly proud! 😊

[@MarkFern-fc1eu]

These two songs by Joe Ely and the Crickets……they’d be candidates for sending into outer space as examples of rock and roll to whoever might find them a thousand years from now.

[@rodwolfeoldiesradiodj6545]

I couldn't agree more, and I've always wondered why Ely never had a wider audience. Simply put... one of the best!

[@user-hh5rn4jz6o]

Great comment

[@dakotafarm1]

Thanks! The Joe Ely & The Crickets performances on the 1988 special were my favorites on the program - great to see and hear them in decent quality again.

[@rodwolfeoldiesradiodj6545]

Glad you enjoyed the video

[@ricardomoreira8171]

From brazil He is the greatest Cool version One fender in the hands? Holly plays a fender. With the crickets a best version de ely. One the best country singer, he have a soul rock n roller

[@ricardomoreira8171]

Se não fosse de holly Not fade away Poderiamos dizer que foi feita por encomenda para joe ely.

[@ricardomoreira8171]

Ja pensaram eddie cochan e holly Compondo Aŕranjando Juntos???!! Cochan tocou em estudio com os crickets no final de 59