The one issue Buddy Holly’s “widowed bride” had with ‘American Pie’
Buddy Holly’s death in 1959 remains one of the greatest tragedies ever to befall the rock and roll realm, but an aspect of that tragedy which is often overlooked is that Holly never got the chance to see and hear the colossal impact he had on the rock and roll landscape.
Given that Holly was only 22 years old when he perished in that horrific plane crash, he didn’t have an extensive family to carry on his legacy, either. Instead, the torch of his rock and roll revolution was carried on by a generation of artists and songwriters across the globe.
Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, and Jimmy Page, virtually every rock star that arrived in the 1960s and beyond, owed a core part of their existence to the inspiration of Buddy Holly, and one person who has never lost sight of his all-encompassing influence is Holly’s widow, María Elena Santiago.
Working as a receptionist at Peermusic, which published and distributed the various rock and roll anthems that Buddy Holly and The Crickets churned out, Santiago and Holly seemed to fall in love at first sight, back in 1957. “My life turned around when that young man came through those doors,” she once recalled, per Mass Live.
Despite a company rule that employees were forbidden from dating the artists, Holly and Santiago went on their first date that very evening and were married the following year. Inevitably, his death completely blindsided Santiago, who struggled to deal with the loss of her husband for many years. “I just could not accept it,” she admitted.
Eventually, though, the “widowed bride” that Don McLean detailed in his stunning ‘American Pie’ tribute to Buddy Holly, became a sort of guardian for her husband’s musical material. Over the decades, she has presided over his work and kept the spirit of Holly’s music alive.
“I knew fans wanted to know more about Buddy, what he had in mind, where he was going with his music and I realised I was the only person left in his life who would know all about that,” Santiago explained.
By extension, Santiago was also the only person properly qualified to give the seal of approval to the aforementioned ‘American Pie’, which dubbed the date of that tragic plane crash “the day the music died.”
While McLean’s touching tribute to Holly helped to reignite interest in the rock and roll pioneer’s work, as well as affording McLean his defining hit, Santiago takes issue with one particular line in the song. “Buddy may not be here, but the music has not died,” she declared. “It is still alive and well.”
It is difficult to dispute that claim, particularly since Buddy Holly’s influence over the rock and roll landscape is still so plain to see. He did, after all, pave the way for multiple generations of young, bespectacled kids from small towns across the world to pursue songwriting and rock and roll rebellion.
He wasn’t a ready-made star, he didn’t come from a dynasty of similarly successful songwriters, and he didn’t have the overt charisma of a Little Richard; he was just an ordinary teenager, and therein lies the revelation of Buddy Holly – a revelation which has never truly subsided, despite what Don McLean might suggest.
