Maury Dean, a Patchogue resident and

longtime professor of English at Suffolk

Community College, has written what

many may view as the definitive biography

and appreciation of musical legend

Buddy Holly.

  The book is titled This’ll Be the Day:

The Life and Legacy of Buddy Holly,

with a subtitle, The Day the Music

Rocked On!

  Dean’s first book in this area, The Rock

Revolution, published in 1966, was the

first rock history book and now reposes

in Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of

Fame. Another book, Rock ‘n’ Roll Gold

Rush, an “un-encyclopedia,” is popular

in college classrooms.

  While at Michigan State, Dean played

in a rock band with, in his words, limited

success. He worked as a songwriter at

Motown Records and Big Mack Records.

However, he is most proud of his son

Jeremy’s success, whose band Nine

Days’ Summer 2000 smash hit, “Absolutely

(Story of a Girl)” hit Billboard’s

first place in Airplay, second in the Adult

Contemporary category, and number six

in the HOT 100 group.

  Dean is also proud of the fact that at

the age of 57, he is the oldest 5K winner

on Long Island.

  According to Dean, Buddy Holly was

by far the most versatile musical genius

in the ’50s, considered by many to be

the inventor of the modern-day rock ‘n’

roll band. Hitting the stage in America,

Great Britain, and Australia, Buddy Holly

introduced rock ‘n’ roll to the rest of the world,

and spearheaded a British invasion led by his Crickets proteges

The Beatles.

   This’ll Be the Day is exhaustive in its coverage of the life

and times of Buddy Holly, from his early years growing up

in Texas to the rise of his career, along with the fabled Crickets,

to his untimely death in 1959. However, Dean does not

dwell on the tragedy as much as take the reader to the heights of Holly’s

influence and legacy in the world of popular music

   According to Dean, we can still hear Buddy Holly when we listen to

the musical stars of today, from Beyonce to The Dixie Chicks and

Taylor Swift, a recent Country Music Award winner.

   When most Americans hear Don McLean’s “American Pie,”

one of America’s most beloved songs, half of them only know the tune as

“The Day the Music Died” as an elegy for Buddy Holly.

However, This’ll Be the Day tells the  whole story of Buddy Holly’s legend.

Don McLean claims the music died on Ground Hog Day night, Feb. 3, 1959, but

according to the Crickets Sonny Curtis, “the levee never dried, the music

never died,” because Buddy Holly lives every time we play and enjoy

rock and roll.

   For music lovers, This’ll Be the Day would make a great Christmas present.

Published by Maxwell Hunter Publishing, Blue Point, New York;

432 pp. with many photographs. Available for $19.95

at Amazon Books and the Suffolk Community College bookstore. ■

Reprinted from the Long Island Advance

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