Angry Holly Family OKs CD Set, 50 Years Later

A new CD set of Buddy Holly songs, including ones he recorded at 14, was released last week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the singer's death, Reuters reports. Holly's family put decades of legal wrangling with Universal Music on hold to approve the collection. "They've cheated us," Holly's older brother Larry said. The family is appealing a case against Universal over unpaid royalties.

Some of the Holleys—Buddy dropped the "e" for his stage name—are also angry at producer Norman Petty for refusing to pay Buddy royalties in the 1950s. To make ends meet, Holly reluctantly toured small Midwest towns in winter, and died when his flight home crashed in a blizzard. "Man, that guy," Larry said of Petty, who died in 1984. "I hope he's in hell right now."
(More Buddy Holly stories.)