Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin ‘Buddy' Holley (the 'e' was dropped by the time his first record appeared) was born in Lubbock, Texas on 7th September 1936. His family lived on the edge of the desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest recording studio. He had poor complexion, bad teeth and glasses, and, when he sang, it was in a curiously high-pitched voice. He grew up listening to country music, and at eight he was studying piano and fiddle, but soon switched to acoustic guitar.

He was five years old when he won five dollars for singing at a local talent contest. By the time he was thirteen, he had formed the country-oriented Western & Bop band with two of his high school friends and was performing at the local radio station, KADV. It was Elvis Presley who had the most influence on Buddy's move to rock 'n' roll. Elvis played at Lubbock twice during 1955, and Buddy was in the audience. In the wake of those shows, Buddy started integrating more R&B into his style, and checking out the black radio stations. 

The group's reputation on the Southwestern country circuit led to a contract with Decca Records in Nashville. Early in 1956, he recorded several songs that when unnoticed. One of his last recordings for them was the original version of That’ll Be The Day. With little success, he was dropped at the end of his one-year contract. They returned to Lubbock where Holly worked as part of a duo at the Lubbock Youth Center. In February 1957, Holly and the newly named Crickets, drove ninety mile west  to producer  Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty landed a contract for Buddy and the Crickets with Coral Records, and a parallel deal with Brunswick for Buddy as a solo artist.

Ironically, both companies were New York subsidiaries of Decca, whose Nashville division had refused to renew Buddy's contract. Their first record covered by the deal, That'll Be The Day was a number one smash hit. They followed up with songs like Peggy Sue in September 1957, Oh, Boy! in October 1957, Maybe Baby in February 1958, Think It Over in May 1958, Early In The Morning in July 1958 and as a solo hit, Rave On in April 1958. After his marriage in October 1958 to his Puerto-Rican girlfriend, who he proposed to after their first date, Buddy left the Crickets and moved to Greenwich Village in New York.

He had hits with Heartbeat in November 1958 and the double-sided It Doesn’t Matter Anymore / Raining In My Heart in January 1959, before embarking on the fatal Winter Dance Party tour. Tired of riding on the bus, and in order to  get his laundry done, he chartered a private plane after their Clear Lake, Iowa show to take them to the next venue. On the 3rd February 1959, the plane took off from the Mason City, Iowa airport  and crashed a few minutes later, killing Holly, The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and the pilot.

Holly was a rock pioneer who wrote his own material and popularised the two-guitars, bass and drums line-up. He had packed a lifetime’s accomplishments into slightly less than two years. He left behind enough old demos and uncompleted recordings to fill several posthumous collections. His life story was told in the 1978 feature film The Buddy Holly Story and in 1989, Buddy, a musical show based on his music, was performed in both London (West End) and New York (Broadway). The Crickets continued to perform after his death.

Buddy Holly was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

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