Buddy Holly 1936-1959

By Rivka Willick

Buddy Holly only performed nationally for about three years, but his sound and uncompromising style inspired generations of singers and became symbolic of the innocence captured in the beginnings of rock and roll.

Charles Hardin Holley was born in Lubbock, Texas, the youngest of four children.  His family called him Buddy as a young child and the nickname stuck.  He took to music as a kid, first learning piano and fiddle, then his brothers taught him guitar. 

He formed a country western band after he finished high school and got some radio time.  In 1955 Buddy opened for Elvis Presley when the ‘King’ played in Lubbock.  Elvis’s style immediately influenced him, and the band began playing rock and roll.  A record company liked the new sound and signed him.  During one of his early performances, his last name was misspelled on a program. From that point on he spelled his last name Holly.

He incorporated a basic 1-3-5 blues progression into the rock and roll-country western sound in 1956. Buddy Holly and the Crickets first major hit was “That’ll Be The Day.” He took the line from the John Wayne movie, The Searchers. He’d have six more top 40 singles in the next year. He performed for both white and black audiences and often played with black musicians, which broke with the cultural norms of the day.

Holly moved to NYC’s Greenwich Village in late 1958 but his band members stayed behind in Texas. Plagued with financial problems due to contractual issues, he signed up for the Winter Dance Party Tour with other top performers like Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson, Dion and the Belmonts, and Waylon Jennings. Performers rode on a bus with a broken heater and were miserable so Holly booked a private plane Jan 23, 1959. It crashed minutes after take-off killing Holly, Valens, and Richardson.

Holly was one of the first performers to write, perform, and produce his own music. He only had 3 albums before 1959, but his prolific recordings produced another ten albums after his death.

His style inspired many others including the Beatles who chose their name because of Buddy Holly’s Crickets. Bob Dylan reportedly saw Holly perform 2 days before his death and said the music profoundly affected him. Elton John began wearing his glasses as a tribute to Holly’s oversized frames. Holly is also credited with creating the standard four piece rock and roll band.