Buddy Holly and the Crickets played on Ed Sullivan’s variety show twice, but their second appearance led to a disagreement with Sullivan.
On their second and final appearance on the Ed Sullivan show on January 26, 1958, Buddy Holly and the Crickets were scheduled to perform their new hit “Oh, Boy!,” but Sullivan instructed them to substitute it with another song because he felt it was too raucous. Holly told him he couldn’t replace the song because he had already told his hometown friends that they were performing that song on the show. Sullivan wasn’t happy.
During a last-minute rehearsal the afternoon of the show, Sullivan noticed only Holly was present but not The Crickets. When Sullivan asked where the other members of the band were, Holly replied, “I don’t know. No telling.” Sullivan said, “Well, I guess The Crickets are not too excited to be on The Ed Sullivan Show,” to which Holly replied, “I hope they’re damn more excited than I am.” By that time Sullivan was completely steamed.
Sullivan decided to cut the Crickets’ act from two songs to one, and he also mispronounced Holly’s name when he introduced them as “Buddy Hollet and his Crickets.” The line feed for Holly’s electric guitar was also turned off, so he tried to compensate by singing as loudly as he could while frequently trying to turn up the volume on his guitar. Holly finally unleashed a sensational solo during the instrumental break to make it clear to the audience that the technical fault wasn’t his.
Sullivan’s plans for sabotage failed, in fact, the crowd loved the performance so much that Sullivan was forced to invite the band back for a third visit. However, Holly refused.
“Buddy told Sullivan’s people to forget it. The Lubbock boys didn’t need him anymore,” Robert Draper wrote in Texas Monthly.