'It took me back to those days'

UTICA — He was almost 50 years late, but Buddy Holly finally kept his date with his fans in the Illinois Valley.

On Friday, the “Winter Dance Party” finally took place at Celebrations 150 in Utica, although 49 years and 364 days late, to the enthusiastic welcome of more than 600 fans.

Tribute performers John Mueller, who portrayed Holly, Ray Anthony as Ritchie Valens and Jay P. Richardson Jr. as J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson played all the crowd’s favorites, and the fact that none of them were the real thing didn’t really seem to matter.

The original trio had been scheduled to play at Spring Valley’s Les-Buzz Ballroom as part of the “Winter Dance Party” on Feb. 7, 1959. They never made it, as four days earlier, an airplane carrying the three men crashed shortly after take-off in Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all three.

On Friday, the audience was probably a little bit older than what might have greeted the three men in 1959, but the spirit had to be about the same. There were leather jackets and high school letter jackets on the dance floor, and plenty of rolled up jeans and slicked back hair in the seats. Dozens of couples continually crowded the dance floor, while many more shoulder-bopped in their seats or tapped their toes to the music.

Dick Verucchi, whose father owned the Les-Buzz, started the evening by reminiscing about the time he did meet Holly. It was 1958, and Verucchi had just turned 12 when Holly first played the Les-Buzz. Holly was changing clothes, and Verucchi had the chance to hand a cold drink to the singer. Unfortunately, it was the only change Verucchi had to meet him.

The first performer was “The Big Bopper,” who was portrayed by his son Jay, tragically born three months after his father died. Resplendent in a leopard-print smoking jacket, Richardson sang several of the audience’s favorites, including “Someone Watching Over You,” which Richardson said felt like his father wrote it just for him.

When it came time for his last number, Richardson asked the audience for suggestions, and a woman yelled “Chantilly Lace” from the back. A telephone on the stage started to ring, and Richardson picked it up, saying it was the same phone his father used for the song.

“Hello, baby,” he crooned into the receiver, while hundreds of voices in the room sang along.

Anthony portrayed the 17-year-old Valens with enthusiasm, bringing a Latin touch to the evening. He led the audience in a mass sing-a-long to his hit “Donna” and had most of the audience on their feet for his biggest hit, “La Bamba.” Anthony worked the crowd into a call and response that had the room rocking with shouts of “La Bamba.”

But it was Mueller as Holly who was clearly the star of the show. Introduced by Richardson as the “best Buddy Holly this side of heaven,” Mueller gave a fitting tribute to the singer from Texas, from his horned rimmed glasses to his way of delivering a song. From “Peggy Sue” to “Everyday”, the audience was his, and when Mueller sang “That’ll Be the Day,” men on the far-side of 60 throughout the room were on their feet, leading their eager dance partners onto the floor, one more time.

Just for the night, it was 1959 all over again.

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Friday’s concert was sponsored by the St. Margaret’s Hospital Foundation and raised almost $20,000 for a telemetry unit for the hospital, which will allow for continuous monitoring of heart patients. Linda Burt, vice president of marketing and community service, said she could have sold another 100 tickets for the sold-out concert, and that the event drew in fans from all over northern Illinois.

Once the Foundation agreed on the idea of bringing the Winter Dance Party to the Illinois Valley, Burt said the rest of the evening fell into place, including the introductions by Dick Verucchi, and the food brought in from Peru’s Igloo restaurant.

“Back then, teenagers went to Les-Buzz, and then went to the Igloo on a Saturday night,” Burt said. “We really dug deep into the history of Spring Valley.”

Burt said the comments about the evening have been all positive, ranging from “I haven’t had this much fun in years” to “It took me back to those days.”

Burt said another event will definitely be planned for next year, probably for the first weekend in February.