Carl Perkins with Brian Setzer - Hits Medley from Buddy Holly Tribute (1988 PBS). From my Sunday Night Hall of Fame Show tapes and my VHS Buddy Holly collection:
This video features a performance by Carl Perkins that was taped for the 1988 PBS special: “Buddy Holly and The Crickets - A Tribute”
As always, Perkins looked and sounded fantastic on this show as he sings a couple of his legendary hits: “Matchbox” and then Brian Setzer joined him on stage for his classic “Blue Suede Shoes”.
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 segment from the 1988 PBS special: “Buddy Holly and The Crickets - A Tribute”. The video and audio track 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.