True Love Ways (1958) – Buddy Holly

Sometimes we’ll sigh…Sometimes we’ll cry…And we’ll know why…Just you and I…Know true love ways.

Since I was a youngen’, I always found True Love Ways to be such a tender and sweet song from Buddy. The orchestral sound was also quite a departure for him from his usual rocker numbers. What makes it all the more memorable and touching is that it was recorded just a few months prior to his death in that plane crash on February 3, 1959 – “the day the music died,” as it later became known.

This love song, True Love Ways, was also recorded in the presence of Buddy’s wife, Maria Elena Holly. The story goes that only hours after they met, Buddy proposed to Maria Elena Santiago at P.J. Clarke’s in New York on June 20, 1958. Holly’s widow later claimed that the song was written for her as a wedding gift.

His intonation and inflections of voice here are really interesting too – the way he elongates certain words, sometimes slightly off pitch, but in a way that feels natural and expressive. It still carries a hint of his usual vocal hiccups and stutters, though not as pronounced as on faster tempo songs like Rave On.

On 21st October, 1958, in his last ever recording session, Buddy worked with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra on the 4 songs: True Love Ways, It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, Moondreams, and Raining in My Heart. True Love Ways was first released on the posthumous album The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2 in March 1960. 

[Verse 1]
Just you know why
Why you and I
Will by and by
Know true love ways

[Chorus]
Sometimes we’ll sigh
Sometimes we’ll cry
And we’ll know why
Just you and I
Know true love ways

[Verse 2]
Throughout the days
Our true love ways
Will bring us joys to share
With those who really care

References:
1. True Love Ways – Wikipedia
2. True Love Ways – Vinyl Record Memories

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand