CPT Spirits in the Sky - Buddy Holly, The Day the Music Died

If February 3, 1959 was the day the music died when Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash in Iowa, then September 7, 1936 was when the music came alive at his birth.  What a decade preceded the birth of Buddy Holly, especially when it came to American icons.

Marilyn Monroe was born June 1, 1926, James Dean February 8, 1931, Elvis Presley January 8, 1935 and Buddy Holly September 7, 1936.  All would grow to dominate the entertainment industry and all would die way too early in life.  Their respective ages were Buddy Holly 23, James dean 24, Marilyn Monroe 36 and Elvis 42.

Buddy Holly was popular for all of two years while alive, 1957 - 1959 and during that time he created a remarkable body of work so extensive that new Buddy Holly albums were released until ten years after his death, in 1969.

Among entertainers citing Buddy Holly as a major influence on their careers were the Beatles, Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.  Rolling Stone magazine ranked Buddy number 13 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.  He was one of few white entertainers to ever appear at the Apollo Theater in New York City performing shows August 16-22, 1957.

In perhaps an indication of his awareness that he had little time on Earth not only did he stockpile a wealth of recordings but he met his wife to be, Maria Elena Santiago in NYC and proposed on the first date, married her two months later, and died six months later.  She had just discovered she was pregnant and canceled touring with him.  Within 24 hours of hearing of his fatal plane crash on the news she had a miscarriage and lost their child.

Buddy, parents and wife Maria Elena

The following is an article written by Alan Hanson comparing the careers of Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley.

Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley Comparisons

by Alan Hanson

“Buddy Holly could have been a country singer, or pop crooner, could have and probably would have fitted his talent to whatever music was happening when he came along. It happened to be rock ’n ’roll. But it only fully became rock ’n’ roll the day Buddy Holly started singing it.” —Paul Williams in his book, “Rock ’n’ Roll: The 100 Best Singles”.

Elvis center Buddy far right

Paul Williams may have been over stating things a bit, but Buddy Holly certainly earned his currently accepted status as one of rock ’n’ roll’s founding fathers in the late fifties. In 1986, Buddy and Elvis Presley were both named charter members of the newly established Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The two men had many other things in common. Both were born in the deep south and raised in poverty. Early contact with country music and rhythm and blues stimulated their youthful, creative musical spirits. There were obvious differences, as well. Buddy looked like the typical boy next door, while Elvis’s smoldering looks oozed sexiness. Holly was an accomplished guitar player and songwriter; Elvis was neither. On stage, Presley’s voice and energy were boundless, while Buddy depended more on instrumentation and his unique “hiccup” vocal style.

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Buddy Holly was born a year and a half later on September 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas. Coincidentally, the currently accepted definitive biographies of both men were published a year apart—Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis in 1994 and Ellis Amburn’s Buddy Holly: A Biography in 1995. Most of the following references to Holly’s life and career come from the Amburn volume.

• Family backgrounds were important

Growing up in the late and post-Depression years, both Buddy and Elvis were “mama’s boys,” due to weak father figures. According to Amburn, “The situation would have far-reaching consequences for Buddy, who would make the mistake of relying on stronger personalities who were not always trustworthy.” Elvis had the same weakness, but fortunately for him the man in whom he put his trust, Colonel Parker, brought Elvis incredible fame and wealth, while Buddy’s manager held him back and stole a fortune from him.

An advantage that the young Buddy had that Elvis lacked was a trusted sibling. The youngest of four children, Buddy found in his eldest brother, Larry, a confidant he would cling to for the rest of his life.

When his other brother, Travis, came home from the war in 1945, he taught Buddy how play the guitar. Around the same time, about 900 miles to the east, Elvis Presley received a guitar for his eleventh birthday and began learning how to play it with help from his uncle and church pastor. A natural affinity for the instrument allowed Buddy’s guitar playing to progress at a rate that amazed his family.

Hank Williams, Sr., was Buddy’s first musical idol. According to Amburn, though, when Buddy first heard Fats Domino sing on the radio, he saw his future. “It was as if the heavens had opened,” Amburn explained. “But it was more than just the music. From that moment on, Buddy identified closely with blacks.” Meanwhile, an adolescent Elvis was experiencing a similar epiphany in Memphis, to where his family had moved in 1948.

Although a year younger, Buddy Holly got started in professional music before Elvis. Around 1951, when Buddy was 15 years old, he started jamming with another Lubbock musician, Jack Neal. The two put together a country and western act and played live entertainment Saturday morning for youngsters at Lubbock movie theaters. In September 1953, “The Buddy and Jack Show” made its debut on KDAV radio. On November 10 that year, a station DJ recorded an acetate of the duo singing and playing. It was just a few months after Elvis had walked into Sam Phillips’s Memphis Recording Service to make an acetate of “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”

• Buddy the tortoise, Elvis the hare

As rock ’n’ roll became more prominent on the radio during Buddy’s senior year in high school, he and Jack began playing the new music at sock hops, store openings, and community shows. Meanwhile, things were happening much faster for Elvis in Memphis. By the time Buddy graduated from high school in 1955, Elvis already had four singles out on Sun Records and had worked the concert circuit across the south for a year and a half.

Everything changed for Buddy when Elvis came to Lubbock five different times in 1955. “What is certain beyond any doubt,” Amburn declared, “is that when Elvis Presley hit Lubbock in 1955, he transformed all the C&W pickers in Buddy’s circle into rockers. ‘Without Elvis,’ Buddy once said, ‘none of us could have made it.’ Though rock ’n’ roll had burst on the world of West Texas the previous year with Bill Haley’s ‘Shake, Rattle, and Roll,’ it was Elvis who whispered freedom into the ears of embattled Baptist boys like Buddy and unleashed a new generation of rockabillies.”

“Elvis changed Buddy,” singer Waylon Jennings, then another young West Texas musician, later told Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick. “It was the beginning of kids really starting to think for themselves, figuring things out, realizing things that they would never even have thought of before.”

Buddy’s brother Larry remembers when Elvis was late for one of his early 1955 appearances at Lubbock’s Fair Park Coliseum. “In Elvis’ absence, Buddy and his front band blew the roof off the coliseum, playing until Elvis came on,” Amburn reported. “Many people in the audience preferred Buddy to Elvis, Larry proudly recalled, although Buddy was still a beginner.”

On October 15, 1955, Elvis appeared at two venues in Lubbock. After finishing up at the coliseum, he gave another show at the Cotton Club, the city’s major dance hall. “We opened for Elvis,” recalled Sonny Curtis. “Bales of cotton were stacked around the stage to protect him from the audience. The most beautiful girls in Lubbock were trying to climb the bales to get at him. That’s what impressed us as much as his music. We’d been hillbillies but after the Cotton Club we were rockers like Elvis.”

• Buddy Holly knew Elvis “quite well”

The extent of Buddy’s personal relationship with Elvis in 1955 is unclear. “Buddy and Elvis got along pretty good,” Larry claimed. “When Elvis came to town, Buddy found him a girl. She was not anyone you’d find on this side of town.” As for Buddy, during his Australian tour in 1958, he told a DJ that he’d once known Elvis “quite well.”

Back in Lubbock in 1955, though, Elvis was clearly Buddy Holly’s idol. Buddy even made a leather guitar case for his J-45 that matched the one Elvis used to carry his Martin D-28. “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” Elvis’s Sun record that topped Billboard’s C&W chart in late 1955, was Buddy’s favorite Presley song. Late in the year, Buddy and his band performed on "The Big D Jamboree," Dallas’s Saturday night country and western radio show. Sid King, another musician on the show that night, described Buddy as “virtually a carbon copy of Elvis.”

According to Amburn, in 1955 there was another Lubbock visitor who would play an important role in the careers of both Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Colonel Tom Parker came to town looking for a talent to manage. Amburn says that both Elvis and Buddy “intrigued” the Colonel, who decided to focus on Elvis. He thought enough of Buddy, though, to recommend him to Nashville talent agent Eddie Crandall.

That led to Buddy’s first big break in show business. When he and his band opened for Bill Haley and the Comets at Fair Park Coliseum in October 1955, Crandall was there to see Buddy. On December 2, Buddy signed an exclusive management contract with Crandall. That was less than two weeks after Elvis left Sun Records and signed a contract to record for RCA. Soon Crandall got Buddy a record deal with Decca.

As 1956 dawned, it looked like both singers’s dreams of fame and fortune were about to come true. Both Elvis and Buddy had January dates in Nashville for their first recording sessions for their new labels. While 1956 would turn out to be a spectacular breakout year for Elvis, for Buddy it was a year of failure and exploitation that would test his resolve to make it as a professional entertainer. In RCA’s Nashville studio on January 10, Elvis recorded “Heartbreak Hotel,” which would reach the top of Billboard’s pop chart in May, launching Presley’s fabulous run through the end of the decade. Meanwhile, Buddy’s Nashville Decca session on January 26 was a disaster that led to nowhere.

• Decca a little bit country, RCA a little bit rock ’n’ roll

Amburn explained how differing philosophies at RCA and Decca dictated totally different outcomes for the two young singers. “In the growing conflict between C&W and rock ’n’ roll … country music would be split down the middle, RCA and at least half of the C&W establishment fleeing to rockabilly … and the other half remaining straight country singers.” Some at RCA may have had their doubts, but they allowed Presley to do his thing. “At Decca,” noted Amburn, “Buddy’s mentors would prove less amenable to the new music; in fact, they hated rock ’n’ roll.”

The result was that instead of viewing Buddy as a potential new rockabilly star, Decca tried to force him into the existing country music model. The result was predictable. After Buddy’s first single, “Blue Days, Black Nights” and “Love Me” was released on April 16, it sold only 19,000 copies. “It’s a wonder the world ever again heard of Buddy Holly,” Amburn noted. Buddy’s second release for Decca also failed miserably, and at year’s end the label declined to renew his contract. As 1957 dawned, Buddy was penniless, his career no further along than it had been 12 months before.

The one positive thing Buddy took from his failed year at Decca was some experience with songwriting. For his January 1956 Nashville session, the label asked Buddy to show up with four original songs. One of the songs Buddy wrote and recorded for Decca, “That’ll Be the Day,” came off poorly and was never released by the label.

In January 1957, without a manager, a band, or a recording contract, Buddy returned to Lubbock and considered quitting the music business. Deciding to give it one more try, he formed another band and drove ninety miles northwest of Lubbock to record at Norman Petty’s recording studio in Clovis, New Mexico. There, on February 24, 1957, Holly’s life changed when he recorded a rocking version of “That’ll Be the Day.”

Petty took the acetate to Nashville and got Buddy a one-record contract on the Brunswick label. Amburn called Brunswick, “a kind of trash-basket label in which Decca dumped its undesirables.” “That’ll Be the Day” by the Crickets, the name of Buddy’s new band, was released nationally on May 27, 1957. It spent 22 weeks on Billboard’s Top 100 pop chart, peaking at #3. It reached that same number on Cash Box magazine’s list of “Best Selling Singles.” Buddy Holly had finally hit the big time.

• Buddy Holly's career took off in ’57

He had a lot of catching up to do, however. By the time “That’ll Be the Day” became Buddy’s first hit record, Elvis already had five #1 singles and eight gold records. Holly had two more of his own compositions lined up to follow his first hit—“Peggy Sue” and “Oh Boy,” both recorded at Clovis in July 1957. Both charted in the top 10 late in the year.

Suddenly, Buddy Holly was in great demand. With the Crickets, he appeared three times on American Bandstand and twice on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Christmas time in 1957 Buddy co-starred with Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Everly Brothers on Holiday of Stars Twelve Days of Christmas Show in Times Square. As the new year began, Buddy Holly found himself Decca’s top recording artist.

Like Elvis had in 1956, Buddy Holly spent much of 1957 and 1958 on the road. Unlike Elvis, though, who headlined his own tours, tightly controlled by Colonel Parker, Buddy’s only option was to join the great rock ’n’ roll package tours, organized by promoters like Alan Freed and Dick Clark. “Planned and mounted like military campaigns, these all-star caravans swept across the country in buses,” Amburn explained, “playing as many as 70 cities in 80 nights.” Buddy toured the nation and Canada with other rock stars, such as Frankie Lymon, Gene Vincent, Paul Anka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran, The Everly Brothers, Connie Francis, The Drifters, Chuck Berry, Buddy Knox, and Danny and the Juniors.

Although Buddy never met Elvis again after their 1955 encounters in Lubbock, their paths almost crossed again in Vancouver, B.C., in the fall of 1957, when both were out on tour. Elvis was there on August 31 for his controversial show at Empire Stadium. Buddy came through eight weeks later with a package tour booked into the Georgia Auditorium. Hall of Fame DJ Red Robinson interviewed both stars prior to their shows. Buddy expressed a longing for a break in the grueling rock ’n’ roll grind. “Enervated from singing his guts out in nightly rock shows,” Amburn explained, “he longed for a radical change in musical trends, confessing that he’d rather sing songs that didn’t require him to scream and shout.”

Elvis and Buddy both recorded their rock ’n’ roll versions of some R&B classics, including “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Ready Teddy,” “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” and “Rip It Up.” Although Elvis never recorded a Buddy Holly song, Buddy recorded one of Elvis's from the soundtrack of his 1957 film, Jailhouse Rock. According to Waylon Jennings, Buddy’s version of “(You’re So Square) I Don’t Care” is the best example of the “Buddy Holly sound.”

The package tour format allowed Buddy to perform overseas, something Elvis often expressed a desire to do but never did. In January 1958, Buddy, along with Anka and Jerry Lee, flew out of New York for a tour in Australia. They stopped in Hawaii along the way, where Buddy performed a free show for military personnel at Schofield Barracks, the same venue where two months earlier Elvis had given his final concert of the 1950s. While in Australia, a DJ asked Buddy if Elvis was his favorite singer. “I guess he’s one of them,” Buddy responded. Soon after returning from Australia, Buddy and the Crickets left for England, arriving on March 1, 1958, for a twenty-five-day British tour.

• Rock ’n’ roll’s first wave played itself out

While Buddy was still in abroad, cracks were beginning to appear in his career and in rock ’n’ roll music in general. Buddy’s record sales began to decline. His single releases of “Maybe Baby” and “Rave On,” both considered early rock classics today, stalled at #18 and #37 respectively on the Top 100. “It’s So Easy,” another Holly classic, didn’t chart at all in 1958. Neither of Buddy’s albums reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s album chart. When Alan Freed’s forty-four-day “Big Beat” package tour, which included Buddy, ended with a riot in Boston, it galvanized the societal enemies of rock ’n’ roll to mount an all out war against it. Elvis was taken away by the army, and Jerry Lee Lewis’s career never recovered after it was revealed he had married his 14-year-old cousin.

The only good news for Buddy Holly in the latter half of 1958 was his marriage to Maria Elena Santiago in August. That fall, however, Buddy and his wife left Lubbock and moved to New York City. Buddy had fired his manager, but it was too late. Much of the money he had earned through record royalties and touring was gone, spent or tied up by the man Buddy had trusted to handle his financial affairs. (Reading Ellis Amburn’s account of how Norman Petty mismanaged Buddy Holly’s career should make all Elvis fans say, “Thank God for Colonel Parker.”)

In early 1959, Buddy Holly, with a pregnant wife and living off the generosity of his wife’s aunt, did something he didn’t want to do—he signed on for still another all-star package tour. The “Winter Dance Party” was to be a twenty-four-day meander across the upper mid-West in a converted school bus in the dead of winter. His death at age 22 in an Iowa cornfield plane crash on February 3, 1959, abruptly ended the brief yet brilliant career of Buddy Holly.

According to Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen in their book, Elvis: Day by Day, Elvis learned of Holly’s death at his army posting in Germany on February 5. The authors state that Colonel Parker’s assistant, Tom Diskin, sent a telegram of condolences to Holly’s family on Elvis’s behalf.

• Death brought fame to Buddy Holly

Recognition as one of rock ’n’ roll’s pioneers, denied him in life, came to Buddy in many forms in death. In addition to being charter members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both Holly’s and Presley’s images appeared on U.S. Postal stamps in 1993. Buddy had five entries—“That’ll Be the Day,” “Not Fade Away,” “Rave On,” “Peggy Sue,” and “Everyday”—on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (Elvis had 11 on the list.) “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” are on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of songs that shaped rock ’n’ roll.

No Graceland exists for Buddy Holly pilgrims. His birthplace in Lubbock was demolished years ago, and in the 1990s, his family sold off their Buddy Holly keepsakes and memorabilia. In Lubbock there is the Buddy Holly Center, inside of which is The Buddy Holly Gallery, a permanent display featuring, according to the center’s web site, “Artifacts owned by the City of Lubbock, as well as other items that are on loan.” Included in the display are “Buddy Holly’s Fender Stratocaster, a songbook used by Holly and the Crickets, clothing, photographs, recording contracts, tour itineraries, Holly’s glasses, homework assignments, and report cards.”

Like Elvis’s fans, the Buddy Holly faithful honor their rock idol by gathering each year on the anniversary of his death. Starting in February 1979, on the twentieth anniversary of his death, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Buddy gave his final show on February 2, 1959, has hosted an annual Buddy Holly tribute weekend. The 2013 event is being expanded to four days to accommodate the ever-increasing number of rock ’n’ roll fans who attend. It’s not quite the same as the candle-light vigil at Graceland during Elvis Week, but those who are moved to do so can trek through the snow to a nearby cornfield where a marker memorializes the lonely spot where “the music died” back in 1959. | Alan Hanson (October 2012)

By Alan Hanson - The Elvis History Blog

Holly is considered the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll. His works and innovations were copied by his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and Buddy exerted a profound influence on popular music. On April 15, 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Holly #13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Also on the private charter with Holly were the Big Bopper and Richie Valens. Holly's death was immortalized by the song The Day the Music Died.

I was a huge Buddy Holly fan while growing up in Iowa. One time I played Oh Boy, a Buddy Holly hit, 43 straight times on a jukebox to honor his death much to the chagrin of the country club members in the club Canteen who didn't like country music.



Buddy Holly belongs to the ages but his music belongs to us.

Buddy Holly True Love Ways

Peggy Sue

Buddy Holly – The Last Day

The Melchizedek Chronicles – America post Impeachment – The Biggest Loser – the News Media who Abandoned America!

Unbelievably, Speaker Pelosi and her posse are not the biggest loser in the Democrats three-year odyssey to deny the American voter their duly elected president.  While it is true the American Constitution was under the greatest assault in our history, in the end the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution withstood and defeated the attack.

But the news media, that is an entirely different matter.  You see, the Fourth Estate as they are known wandered far, far from the protection of the Constitution in their total breakdown of honor, fairness, logic, and honesty.

The members of what was once a highly honorable profession which used to claim to be the people’s watchdog over government sold its soul to the Devil when trapped in their obsession of destroying President Trump and their relentless efforts to undermine his presidency.

Unfortunately, the media mental meltdown also dragged several Democratic party officials and elitist federal bureaucrats with them into the abyss of endless lies, fake news, extreme bias, spewing hatred, and polarizing a nation.

Never in modern history have so many media people collectively demonstrated such a sorry lack of common sense, fairness, or any of the good qualities one might expect from the media.  Night after night the media happily crossed the line of fairness and honesty in reporting and the conflicts of interest in the media were rampant and sinister.

It seems as if the media empires dedicated themselves to hiring a cadre of news anchors and reporters who were basically soulless, without morality or ethics, historically dumb, and void of any good manners and decorum.  They single handed destroyed the once proud reputations of many a great journalism school.

I am not asking you to believe me, mind you, but look at the record.

Broadcast networks saw their precious Nielsen ratings crash before their very eyes.  The people of America cut the cord to broadcast media by the millions.  It was not just the news that people stopped watching but the seemingly endless sting of network awards shows from the Oscars to Grammys, the Emmys to Tony awards, even to the sporting world.

The radical liberal hatred of the news media penetrated speeches, themes, and actions by nominees and Oscar winners from the Red Carpet to the winner’s podium.  The more dominant the bias became over the years the faster the public pulled the plug on them as their ratings crashed as well.

It did not help that at the same time the entertainment idols of the political fundraising machines for the liberals were “exposed” in the sexual assault scandals by the lords of the industry like Harvey Weinstein, or the sex trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein.

Throughout the rapid descent of people like Weinstein and Epstein the media protected these criminals with false news, watered down coverage, or simply ignoring the story.   It was a case of liberals against liberals, power, and money, against the people as deep divides within the party surfaced.

From the day Trump took the presidency 93% of all news stories were negative toward the president.  During the last three months of the impeachment insanity almost 100% of the stories were negative.

Even that was not enough for the pack of rabid creatures in the news rooms as they reported fake fact checkers, created fake news, enticed the bureaucratic allies inside the government to help undermine the Administration, and created a dangerous bond with the Obama Administration top officials in the intelligence services including FBI and CIA, the national security officials, State Department, Justice Department, and perhaps the White House.

I say “perhaps” on the latter because people seem to have forgotten the Attorney General and his broad-reaching criminal investigation that could lead to the criminal indictment of many government officials and political hacks, only this time on the liberal side.  The AG will not be issuing subpoenas like the helpless House Democrats failed to do, but will issue criminal indictments.

Once threatened, our Constitution will take all necessary action to protect itself and the integrity of the people who elected the president, whether it be Trump or someone else.  The endless stream of lies, lies, and more lies from the Democrat leaders and news media are not without consequence.

The punishment for this three-year fiasco will be handed out by the American voters in the election this fall.  Do not be surprised if Trump sweeps the Democrats out of office and regains the House, strengths his hold on the Senate, and runs away with his own re-election.

The fingerprints of evil are all over the actions of the House and News media.  People, by nature, do not embrace evil.  So, what explains the proliferation of bad people in politics and the news services?  When potentially good people do bad things, fear traps them and they madly strike out against all perceived villains.

Such fear is an open invitation to evil, an entity powered by the spiritual world and fallen angels.  They have a single purpose in their existence, to find weak and fearful people, to take possession of the person, and to destroy their soul.  If you take possession of people in high places all the better because then you can reach multiple weak souls through them and the platforms they occupy in politics or the media.

The good news, God is not about to let them win in the end.  God loves all creations and will never give up on them, even if contaminated by evil.  Are you willing to give up any chance for eternal Oneness with God, immortality, because you fail to seek and pursue the Truth?

All of you can play a key role in illuminating the darkness by exposing the Truth.  Demand Truth from those who influence you, especially from politicians and News media.  Truth and light are the enemies of evil.  Seek Truth and you will illuminate the darkness and end the dominance of evil in our lives.

America's Super Bowl - The most successful show in the history of Television - Kansas City Chiefs end 50 year drought

For those of you around the world not exposed to the Super Bowl in America, it is the only TV program that could possibly knock the Trump impeachment trial, Democratic Presidential primary, and those lying news media off the air for a day.

A lot of fun and fascinating facts follow but here are some teasers.  With a television audience between 100 million and 193 million, mostly Americans and American troops throughout the world, it is the biggest show in television history and this is the 54th year.  For the past five years it has pulled over 100 million viewers per year.

The Super Bowl halftime show is the largest live concert in the world and a gold mine for invited artists.  This year Shakira and Jennifer Lopez dazzled.

It was the favorite San Francisco 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs who have not won the Super Bowl in fifty long years.  The Chiefs were trailing 20-10 with about seven minutes left in the game when the Chiefs stunned the nation with 21 straight points in little over 5 minutes to win 31-20.

The fact the favorites and losers were from Nancy Pelosi's home in San Francisco, and the Chiefs are from the American heartland where Trump has substantial support, probably gives Trump more talking points.

The Senate impeachment trial of Trump drew about 7 million viewers on a good day so you can see how the Super Bowl, with at least 14 times more viewers, might explain why Trump will be acquitted this Wednesday, yet another a crushing defeat for the Democrats and news media.

Super Bowl 2020 Data. Some 193.8 million adults in the US plan to watch Super Bowl 54 per a survey of more than 7,200 US adults from NRF. That's upwards of 11 million more viewers than last year's projected viewership of 188.5 million.

Here is what the UK had to say about this amazing American spectacle.

UK View of Super Bowl

Cultura Colectiva

The Super Bowl In Numbers: Crazy Facts About The Big Game

By: Oliver G. Alvar

January 23, 2020

As one of the most-watched annual games in the world and a billion-dollar brand, the Super Bowl consistently gives us record-shattering numbers every year. Here are the craziest facts about The Big Game.

Who doesn’t love Super Bowl Sunday? The anticipation of a winning team rushing through the field after a victorious touchdown, the excitement of all those play-by-play analyses and strategies that could turn a close match into a steamrolling of epic proportions. Anything can happen, nothing is written—and we all love it.

So, the fact that The Big Game is such a commercially successful event comes as no surprise, does it? As a record-shattering event, the Super Bowl provides astonishing numbers every year, some of which might tell us more about American culture than we’re comfortable accepting. Indeed, Super Bowl Sunday is one of those days that provide a strong argument for the idea that Americans are the biggest consumerists in the world. That’s a double-edged sword.

Regardless of what it means, however, here’s how the Super Bowl looks—in numbers. Read on to find 7 crazy facts about the big game.

It's the second-largest day for food consumption in the US.

Think about all the beer, hot dogs, and hamburgers consumed during that Sunday. The Big Game accounts for most food-consumption in America during a single day, right behind Thanksgiving. That’s a ridiculous amount of food!

It's second only to the UEFA Champions League final as the most-watched annual sporting event worldwide.

And that’s even crazier when you consider the UEFA Champions League Final is watched by many countries worldwide, whereas the vast majority of the Super Bowl’s audience comes from a single nation. That’s a lot of Americans watching a single game!

It's frequently the most-watched American television broadcast of the year.

The Super Bowl broke records in 2015 with an average TV-audience of 114.4 million viewers, and it hasn’t gone below the 100 million-viewers mark since 2009. 

Its commercial spots are among the most expensive in the world.

The 2017 Super Bowl had an advertising revenue of around 419 million dollars. An average 30-second ad-spot costs around 5 million dollars since 2016, and not less than 2 million since the turn of the century!

Each American spends over $80 during Super Bowl Sunday.

On average, each American consumer plans to spend around 82 dollars on snacks, drinks, television, team apparel, accessories, decorations, furniture, and any other number of things for Super Bowl Sunday. This average includes betting. In 2017, about 138 million dollars worth of bets were placed at casinos across Nevada.

All those crazy figures and record-shattering in spite of the Super Bowl being mainly for American audiences. After all, Super Bowl Sunday is so popular in the US, it’s basically become an unofficial national holiday, which just goes to show America is the most consumer-based society in the world. But hey, as long as it’s all about football, I guess it’s fine

BBC

The Super Bowl is back this weekend with all the razzmatazz, build-up and big money that goes with it. And that's before there's even been a touchdown!

This is the 54th edition of the Bowl, with Kansas City Chiefs taking on the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. The NFL's biggest event is being held Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.

The 65,326-capacity stadium will host the event for the sixth time in 31 years. That's some big numbers already... So here are some more!

San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan will lead his side in Miami on Sunday, hoping to reproduce the success of his dad, Mike.

Mike coached in four Super Bowls as an assistant, before leading the Denver Broncos to back-to-back titles over 20 years ago in the late 1990s.

No pressure, Kyle!

22.81 miles per hour

If you could make a noise for how fast Kansas City Chiefs player Tyreek Hill is, it would be "vroooom!" Luckily there are more scientific ways of measuring speed - the Chiefs receiver clocked in at 22.81mph in December against the Los Angeles Chargers. That's faster than the speed limit for some streets in the UK!

In the interest of fairness, in a close second, 21.87mph is the top speed of 49ers running back Raheem Mostert.

Happy 43rd birthday Shakira!

The Super Bowl halftime show is a big deal and this year Shakira will be performing on her 43rd birthday!

She'll be joined by Jennifer Lopez, as the other confirmed artist.

The halftime show attracts a huge TV audience, sometimes more people watch that than the game itself.

The most-watched halftime show was 2015 when Katy Perry's performance attracted 118.5 million viewers, while the game itself drew an average audience of 114.4 million viewers.

50 year wait

Kansas City Chiefs fans have waited a long time for this! It's 50 years since the Chiefs were last in the Super Bowl, that's before Shakira was born! At the time they beat the Minnesota Vikings in New Orleans.

Kansas also appeared in the first Super Bowl in 1967, losing to the Green Bay Packers.

$5.6 million

Half time is such a big deal at the Super Bowl and with millions of people watching, 30-second advert slots cost $5.6 (£4.2m) million, each! The cost of all the adverts put together is roughly $400 (£303) million!

Facebook and US president Donald Trump are among those expected to air commercials.

OVER ONE BILLION CHICKEN WINGS!

Yes, that's a lot of chicken!

Super Bowl fans are expected to eat 1.4 billion wings on Sunday.

To put that into perspective: The weight of those wings (75.4 million kilograms) is more than 300 times the combined weight of all 32 NFL teams.

More Super Bowl Facts

So you got this far but you're still confused about what the Super Bowl actually is, don't worry we have the answers.

If your mates are big American football fans, hopefully we can help you to at least understand some of what they're talking about on Monday morning.

And if you're new to American football or just want a reminder you can find all of the rules of the game here!

UK Halftime Show???

What is the Super Bowl?

It's the final game of the National Football League (NFL) season in the United States and is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.

The NFL is what all American football teams are part of.

The winners of the Super Bowl are crowned 'World Champions' and get to lift the Vince Lombardi trophy.

This year it's the 54th Super Bowl.

50 years ago Chiefs last won

How long does the game take?

The game is meant to last an hour with four 15 minute quarters.

It can take much longer though because of the half-time show and all the ad breaks.

This is why snacks are a big part of fans' Super Bowl parties!

Most people do not want to see the game, just highlights, but want to see the halftime show so here is the full performance by Shakira and Lopez.