More than fifty years ago on September 30, 1958, Buddy Holly produced a record in New York for an unknown singer named Lou Giordano, according to Larry Lehmer’s book The Day the Music Died (p. 41). The B-side of the record was a song written by Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers called “Don’t Cha Know.”
According to Roger White’s book on the Everly Brothers, Walk Right Back, during the recording, Everly and Holly sang backup. But they sang falsetto because they could not afford female singers. Also, because the two singers were under contract with another record company, they did not want anyone to recognize their voices.
Give it a listen. Can you recognize the voices of Buddy Holly and Phil Everly?
The A-side of the Giordano record was a song written by Holly called “Stay Close to Me.” Holly never recorded the song himself, and below is Giordano’s version on YouTube.
Also here is an interesting cover of “Stay Close to Me” by a guy named Ritchie Mars, who plays it a little like Holly might have. Check it out.
Lou Giordano (Lou Jordan)
Giordano had a modest hit with the Holly-produced single, but it did not launch a successful singing career for him. A few websites confuse Giordano with a younger music producer with the same name. The Lou Giordano that Buddy Holly produced changed his performing name to “Lou Jordan” after Holly died.
Giordano had a wonderful voice and the songs he recorded lead one to wonder why he did not become more popular than he did. In 1961, Giordano (as “Lou Jordan”) recorded the record “Paradise for Two / Close Your Eyes” backed by the doo wop group The Chaperones. In 1963, he released another single “Just to Look at You” with the B-side “My Baby.”[See comment below from Giordano’s nephew noting that Giordano passed away in December 1969.]
Giordano’s daughter noted in an article that Holly changed the singer’s life. Another website notes a mystery about the location of Beltone Studios, where the record was made.
Still, Giordano’s small body of recorded music gives us a little insight into another question. It tells us something about the work that Holly might have done as a producer of other artists were he still around today.
What do you think of Holly’s falsetto? Leave your two cents in the comments.
My Uncle Lou changed his stage name to “Lou Jordan” he passed away in December 1969.
Thanks for the additional information. It helped me track down a few more songs by him (if you have any additional information you’d like to share, we’d love to hear any stories). Sorry to hear he died at a young age. Take care.
Your Uncle was a great singer. I can see why Buddy liked this voice so much and tried to help him. If buddy had lived I bet they would have done more together.
I am very interested in your Uncle. I think that was a great record.
Hi, Ralph! First, thank you very much for your post! Have you ever considered starting a Facebook or even a Wikipedia page about your Uncle Louis Patsy Giordano? I was surprised at both how hard it was to find out very much about him online and the lack of a Wikipedia bio for him. That Lou Giordano changed his stage name to Lou Jordan after Buddy Holly’s death was also news to me, that I only discovered yesterday! “Paradise For Two” is a beautiful song! My only previous knowledge about your Uncle Lou was through the 6 record THE COMPLETE BUDDY HOLLY set that I long had which includes “Stay Close To Me” and “Don’t Cha Know,” but had to sell off a few years ago to help with our son’s moving expenses, such is life! Take care.
If you’re still around, you might find the following interesting regarding the above recording session:
I’ve listened closely, and frankly, NO, it doesn’t sound anything like Phil Everly nor Buddy Holly. Not to my ears, at least.
Of course I wasn’t content with just leaving it at that. Using a feature of VLC Media Player, I removed the audio stretch filter that maintains the same vocal pitch regardless of speed. Yes, I suspected the female sounding vocals were sped up, as this had been a very recently added innovation that was nevertheless in use by September 1958 when “Don’t Cha Know” was recorded, don’t cha know? Of course, it is fairly common knowledge that Buddy Holly was always up on the latest innovations, or at least he was certainly open to them!
Anyway, getting to my slow down experiment, while the slow down (fine) mode didn’t reveal much, the regular slow down mode revealed male sounding backup singers (On the other hand, what Lou Giordano sounded like in slow down mode was absolutely stress inducing!). However, to my ears, they still didn’t sound anything like Buddy Holly or Phil Everly. My theory is, assuming the backup singers were indeed recorded at a different speed to make them sound female, I can only presume they were whatever male session singers were on hand at the recording studio at the time of Lou Giordano’s “Don’t Cha Know” recording session.
Perhaps someday, the above mystery will be definitively solved? Or perhaps, not? Why not try what I did, or a similar slow down experiment, and hear for yourself?
I hope that you’re well “chimesfreedom,” wherever you are! CHEERS!
According to a passage on page 187 of “Buddy Holly: A Biography,” by Ellis Amburn (Copyright 1995), the background singers for Lou Giordano’s B side single “Don’t Cha Know” were the “larks” (source: Cash Box, who gave Giordano a “B-plus” on both sides, praising the larks for their effective…vocal bits). The “larks” were Buddy [Holly], Phil [Everly] and Joe Villa, warbling in soprano tones. They’d do “anything to make music,” Phil later remarked to interviewer Margaret McNie.
So there you have it. Lou Giordano’s nephew, Ralph Giordano (See top comment!) is listed as the source. Thank you, Ralph! CHEERS!