#64 "Everyday" by Buddy Holly

It's funny to look at pictures of Buddy Holly and think about how cool he was back in the day. I've always thought he looked like such a big nerd with the goofy glasses, skinny ties, cheeky grin, and oddball singing. But you know what? His songs were great and his sound was massively influential. For the longest time I never knew that The Beatles' name was inspired by the insect-themed moniker for Holly's band: The Crickets. Name aside, however, Buddy Holly had tons of great songs in his brief career that was sadly cut short by the famous plane crash of The American Pie.

"Everyday" is a just a sweet little pop-song. It's from the days when popular music seemed to be about happier notions. Now you turn on the radio and hear songs about killing people or getting jacked up with ominous beats behind them. I'd much rather hear something from Holly's time, when guys were mostly content with singing about love.

"Everyday" will always be in my mind for two movies that it plays in. The first is the wonderful "Stand By Me," the film that introduced a young River Phoenix to the world as he and three friends went off in search of a dead body in this Rob Reiner classic. Though I can't imagine there are a whole lot of people my age who haven't seen that one, it's a must-see... a truly fantastic movie.

The other film that features "Everyday" on the soundtrack is "Mischief." This is one of those goofy coming-of-age films, but it takes place in the 50's and has lots of great music throughout . It's about this dorky kid who's basically trying to get laid in his last year of high school. It was entertaining when I saw it as a young man, but the best part about it was a young Kelly Preston (John Travolta's wife in the real world). She was the unattainable hot babe in the movie, and MAN... she was smokin' hot. That movie, which we somehow had a copy of, provided me with endless hours of inspirational material. Ah... youth.

"Everyday" can be found on the compilation "Not Fade Away: The Complete Studio Recordings and More." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.