Crying, Waiting, Hoping

The song was first recorded on December 14, 1958 by Holly (only himself with guitar) in apartment 4H of "The Brevoort", Fifth Avenue, Manhattan (many other sources say apartment 3B). After Holly's death on February 3, 1959, his home recordings of his last six compositions were turned over to record producer Jack Hansen. Hansen hired studio musicians and a backup vocal group, the Ray Charles Singers, to augment Holly's vocal and guitar. The idea was to match the established sound of Buddy Holly and the Crickets as closely as possible.

"Crying, Waiting, Hoping" is technically the most successful of the six overdubs; it turned out so well that it was originally intended as the "A" side of a 45-rpm single. Holly wrote and recorded the song with pauses ("Cryin' ... waitin' ... hopin' ... you'll come back"). Hansen ingeniously turned the solo into call-and-response verses, so the backup singers fill in the pauses with an "echo" of each word. (For a German reissue of this song, the producer took the "echo" idea literally, and played the Hansen recording in an echo chamber.)

Hansen's studio version of "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" was recorded on June 30, 1959, at Coral Records' Studio A, along with "Peggy Sue Got Married". Both sides were released as Buddy Holly's first posthumous single. (The remaining four tunes on Holly's tape were re-recorded by Hansen and company in 1960. All six were issued on an album, The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2.)

Holly's manager, Norman Petty, recorded his own versions of the last six Holly originals in 1964, using his own studio facilities and backup group, The Fireballs. Petty's versions differ from Hansen's versions in that there are no background vocals, and the melodies have new surf-guitar arrangements added to them.

The Beatles recorded the song live on August 6, 1963 for the Pop Go The Beatles radio show. The BBC recording features George Harrison on lead vocal and also features Harrison replicating studio guitarist Donald Arnone's instrumental bridge, note for note.

While the version on Live at the BBC is the only officially released version by the group, they also performed the song during their failed Decca audition on January 1, 1962.

American musician Marshall Crenshaw released a version of "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" for the 1987 film film La Bamba. Marshall Crenshaw portrayed Buddy Holly in the movie; he is featured singing the song on what is supposed to be February 2, 1959, Buddy's final show before dying in the plane crash in the early hours of February 3, "The Day the Music Died". Crenshaw has frequently been compared to Holly throughout his career.

Initially, Crenshaw was skeptical of accepting the role of Holly in the film, but was impressed by the script; he recalled, "I thought [the script] was fantastic, really. [I told producer Terry Hackford,] 'I'm still uneasy about this, but even if I don't do it, I hope it comes together for you.'"[2]

Crenshaw's version of "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" was produced by Garry Tallent. It was Tallent's idea to record the song. Crenshaw explained,

"It was never actually recorded by Buddy Holly. It was a demo he was working on in his apartment before he was killed in the same plane crash that took the life of the film's subject, Ritchie Valens. It was Garry's idea to do the song. I figured, 'Okay, why not? I'll do it just to humor him.' It was his studio, after all."[2]

• Wreckless Eric covered the song in 1978 for his second album, The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric.
• Rockabilly supergroup The Head Cat, formed by vocalist Lemmy (of Motörhead), drummer Slim Jim Phantom (of The Stray Cats) and guitarist Danny B. Harvey (of Lonesome Spurs and The Rockats) covered this song for their 2006 album Fool's Paradise.
• Chris Isaak contributed a cover version for the 2011 album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly.
• Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives played the song live in 2013 on RFD-TV's The Marty Stuart Show.[3]

• Amburn, Ellis (1996). Buddy Holly: A Biography. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-14557-6.
• Bustard, Anne (2005). Buddy: The Story of Buddy Holly. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4223-9302-4.
• Dawson, Jim; Leigh, Spencer (1996). Memories of Buddy Holly. Big Nickel Publications. ISBN 978-0-936433-20-2.
• Gerron, Peggy Sue (2008). Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue?. Togi Entertainment. ISBN 978-0-9800085-0-0.
• Goldrosen, John; Beecher, John (1996). Remembering Buddy: The Definitive Biography. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80715-7.
• Goldrosen, John (1975). Buddy Holly: His Life and Music. Popular Press. ISBN 0-85947-018-0
• Gribbin, John (2009). Not Fade Away: The Life and Music of Buddy Holly. London: Icon Books. ISBN 978-1-84831-034-6

• Buddy Holly—The Complete Works.
• Crying, Waiting, Hoping. The Beatles Bible.
• The Cover Song List.