The 1950s revival band Come Back Buddy will be performing at the Clarkdale Town Park on Saturday, Aug. 26, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. This will be the band’s sixth appearance in the Concerts in the Park series.
Mike Randall, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, grew up in Illinois, where he played in a band with his brothers. Their high school teachers likewise had a band that specialized in 1950s tunes, so the Randall boys started learning about oldies through them. Their school also hosted a sock hop, where Randall was told he looked just like Buddy Holly, whom he had never heard of until then.
Years later, Randall’s brother volunteered his services as a Buddy Holly impersonator for a birthday party in Scottsdale. Through the production company that put the party on, Randall met his wife, Janine, who now plays bass in the band. They started dating and 24 years ago, they decided to form their own group.
The group started playing Chamber of Commerce events around town and grand openings before graduating to resorts and happy hours, eventually landing regular gigs and touring nationwide. Most recently, they returned from Clear Lake, Iowa, the last place that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper performed before their fatal plane crash in 1959.
In 2019, the band was invited to play for a Mason City High School 60th anniversary class reunion. Many of the people in the class had attended Buddy Holly’s final performance at the Surf Ballroom.
“We know people who actually were there at the last show, which is pretty special,” Randall said.
Randall and his wife are inspired by all sorts of 1950s music, with Randall remarking that they are as much Elvis fans as they are of any other music that they play. They often play the work of other stars as well, including Chuck Berry and Roy Orbison.
“It feels like there’s an infinite amount of music to choose from from the 1950s,” Randall said.
The band is used to seeing an audience of all ages and the whole crowd dancing. Randall commented that the music from the 1950s was couples’ dancing music, which went away in the 1960s and didn’t really return until disco. He said that many young people who want to learn swing dance come out to their shows and he often sees about a dozen couples dancing at a time while they play.
“A lot of the young people hear it as something new and different that they’re not used to,” Randall said. “It’s really all different ages and it’s family-type music. It’s very unique in that way.”
“The 50s generation is a special generation of people for music,” Randall continued, pointing out that the rock ‘n’ roll of the 1950s was the first time that a young generation had its own music. Prior to that, young people listened to the same music as everyone else. The spread of car ownership and radio technology allowed them to call the music their own and create a culture around it.
While the band doesn’t perform any originals, they have their own style of covering classics that the audience always seems to enjoy.
Looking back, Randall remembered that he realized while in his 20s that what he really wanted to do was to perform music, and that the music he most related to and wanted to perform was the music of the 1950s. He reminisced about playing this kind of music back when he was a teenager and how much fun it was.
“The people just had such a blast with that music and they were out on the dance floor right away,” Randall said. “We started thinking about trying to go back to something that was fun like that. It seems like the fun just stays there.”
During their shows, the band members have met many people who experienced rubbing shoulders with Elvis and other 1950s stars who shared their stories with the band. One lady they met won a dance contest in New Jersey in 1957 and was able to appear on “American Bandstand.” At the time she was on the show, The Diamonds performed their song “The Stroll,” which is one of the songs that Come Back Buddy includes in their repertoire.
“We’re looking forward to Clarkdale,” Randall said. “It’s always a lot of fun. We really have a good time when we’re out there. We’re looking forward to this one again.”
