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Charles Hardin Holley (September 7,
1936–February 3, 1959), better known as
Buddy Holly, was an United States|American singer,
songwriter, and a pioneer of Rock and Roll.  The
change of spelling of Holley to Holly came about
because of an error in a contract he was asked to
sign, listing him as Buddy Holly.  That spelling
was then adopted for his professional career.

Holley was born in Lubbock, Texas|Lubbock, Texas.
The Holleys were a musical family  and as a young
boy Holley learned to play the violin, piano and
guitar. In the fall of 1949 he met Bob Montgomery
at Hutchison Jr. High School. They shared a common
interest in music, and soon teamed up to perform
as the duo "Buddy and Bob." Initially influenced
by bluegrass music, they sang harmony duets at
local clubs and high school talent shows. Holley's
big break came when they opened for Bill Haley and
his Comets at a local rock show organized by Eddie
Crandall who was also the manager for Marty
Robbins. As a result of this performance, Holley
was offered a contract with Decca Records to work
alone. However, early success as a solo artist
eluded him. 

Back in Lubbock, Holley formed his own band, "The
Crickets", and began making records at Norman
Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Among the
songs they recorded was "That'll Be The Day",
which takes its title from a phrase which John
Wayne's character says repeatedly in the movie,
The Searchers (movie)|The Searchers. Norman had
music industry contacts, and believing that
"That'll Be The Day" would be a hit single, he
contacted publishers and labels. Coral Records, a
subsidiary of Decca, signed Buddy Holly and The
Crickets. This put Buddy in the unusual position
of having two record contracts at the same time.
Before "That'll Be The Day" had its nationwide
release and became a smash hit, Holley played lead
guitar on the hit-single "Starlight", recorded in
April 1957, featuring Jack Huddle. 

Holly's music was sophisticated for its day,
including the use of musical
instrument|instruments considered novel for rock
and roll, such as the celesta (heard on
"Everyday"). Holly was an influential lead and
rhythm guitarist, notably on songs such as "Peggy
Sue" and "Not Fade Away (song)|Not Fade Away".
While Holly could pump out boy-loves-girl songs
with the best of his contemporaries, other songs
featured more sophisticated lyrics and more
complex harmonies and melodies than had been
previously shown in the genre.

Many of his songs feature a unique vocal "hiccup"
technique, a clipped "uh" sound used to emphasize
certain words in any given song, especially the
rockers. Example, the start of the raucous number
"Rave On":  "We-UH-ell, the little things you say
and do, make me want to be with you-UH-ou..."

Holly also managed to bridge some of the racial
divide that punctuated rock, notably winning over
an all-black audience when accidentally booked for
New York's Apollo Theater (though, unlike the
fictional portrayal in his movie biography, it
took several performances for audiences to be
convinced of his talents).

After the release of several highly successful
songs, in March of 1958, he and the Crickets
toured the United Kingdom. In the audience were
teenagers named John Lennon and Paul McCartney,
who later cited Holly as a primary influence (the
band's name, The Beatles, was later chosen partly
in homage to Holly's Crickets). The Beatles did a
cover version of "Words Of Love" that was an
almost perfect reproduction of Holly's version.
The Rolling Stones did a cover of "Not Fade Away."
The group, The Hollies were named in homage.

Holly's personal style, more controlled and
cerebral than Elvis Presley|Elvis's and more
youthful and innovative than the country and
western stars of his day, would have an influence
on youth culture on both sides of the Atlantic for
decades to come, reflected particularly in the New
Wave music|New Wave movement in artists such as
Elvis Costello and Marshall Crenshaw, and earlier
in folk rock bands like The Byrds and The Turtles.

He married Maria Elena Holly|Maria Elena Santiago
on August 15, 1958

In 1959, Holly split with the Crickets and began a
solo tour with other notable performers including
Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper|J.P. Richardson,
"The Big Bopper". One audience member at the tour
stop in Duluth, Minnesota was a young Bobby
Zimmerman who would later be known as Bob Dylan.

Following the February 2nd performance at the Surf
Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa|Clear Lake, Iowa, the
performers and their road crew drew straws to
decide who would fly in the airplane, and who
would ride in the unheated tour bus. The winners
were Holly, Valens and Richardson. The
four-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza took off into a
blinding snow storm and crashed into Albert Juhl's
corn field several miles after takeoff at 1.05
a.m. The crash killed Holly, Valens, Richardson,
and pilot Roger Peterson, leaving Holly's pregnant
bride, Maria Elena Holly, a widow. (She would
miscarry soon after.) Funeral services were held
at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock,
Texas|Lubbock, Texas, and Buddy Holly was interred
in the City of Lubbock Cemetery.

Holly's headstone carries the correct spelling of
his name, Buddy Holley.  It also features a
carving of his favorite guitar.  Downtown Lubbock
has a "walk of fame" with plaques to various area
artists such as Mac Davis and Waylon Jennings,
with a life-size statue of a guitar playing Buddy
as its centerpiece.

The tragic plane crash inspired singer Don
McLean's popular 1971 ballad "American Pie
(song)|American Pie", and immortalized February
3rd as "The Day The Music Died". Contrary to
popular myth, "American Pie" was not the name of
the ill-fated airplane.

The Surf Ballroom, a popular and old-fashioned
dance hall that dates to the height of Big Band
Era, continues to put on shows, notably an annual
Buddy Holly tribute on the anniversary of his last
performances.

== Tributes ==



In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the '50s
era, erected a stainless steel monument depicting
a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing
the names of each of the three performers. It is
located on private farmland, about one quarter
mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and
Gull Avenue, approximately eight miles north of
Clear Lake. He also created a similar stainless
steel monument to the three musicians near the
Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin|Green
Bay, Wisconsin. That memorial was unveiled on July
17, 2003.

The dramatic arc of Holly's life story inspired a
Hollywood biography The Buddy Holly Story, for
which actor Gary Busey received a nomination for
Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of
Holly, as well as successful Broadway
theatre|Broadway and West End theatre|West End
musicals documenting his career. The West End
musical, Buddy, ran for seven years.

Buddy Holly is considered one of the founding
fathers of rock 'n roll and one of its most
influential. Although his career was cut short,
his body of work is considered some of the best in
rock music history and his music would influence
not only many of his recording contemporaries, but
also the future direction music would take. As one
of the capstones of Rock 'n' Roll, Buddy
influenced groups for decades.

The science fiction novel Buddy Holly Is Alive and
Well on Ganymede, by Bradley Denton (ISBN
0688108229 and ISBN 0380718766), begins when
television sets throughout the world suddenly
begin broadcasting a concert by an apparently
living Buddy Holly, who says he is on Ganymede
(moon)|Ganymede.

Terry Pratchett's novel Soul Music features a
protagonist whose name translates to "Bud Y
Holly".

"Oil", an episode of The Young Ones (TV
series)|The Young Ones features Mike (Christopher
Ryan) discovering Buddy Holly, alive and well and
tangled in parachutes, in the attic of a house in
London.  Holly comments that he loves "your
British beetles", as he has been eating them since
the plane crash.  Mike asks Holly if he has come
up with any new material, and Holly plays a brief
song about eating crickets when his parachute
strap breaks, slamming him into the floor and
killing him.  Mike later hands off a duffle bag
containing Holly's corpse to two minor characters,
asking them to "take care of my Buddy."

== Selected Discography ==
* "That'll Be The Day" – 1957
* "Peggy Sue" – 1957
* "Everyday" –  1957
* "Oh Boy!" –  1957
* "Not Fade Away (song)|Not Fade Away" –
1957
* "Maybe Baby" – 1958
* "Rave On" – 1958
* "Heartbeat" – 1958
* "Well All Right" – 1958
* "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" – 1959
* "Raining In My Heart" – 1959
* "Peggy Sue Got Married" – 1959
* "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" – 1959
* "True Love Ways" – 1960
* "Reminiscing" – 1962
* "Bo Diddley" – 1963
* "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" – 1963

----
Buddy Holly (song)|Buddy Holly was a hit song in
1994 for the indie rock band Weezer on their The
Blue Album (Weezer)|self-titled debut album. The
music video for the song was included with
Microsoft Windows 95.

== External links ==
* http://www.buddyholly.com/ Official Web Site
* http://www.famousfolk.com/holly/ Comprehensive
digital discography
* http://buddyhollygermany.homepage.t-online.de/
International Buddy Holly website
* http://www.fiftiesweb.com/crash.htm Day the
Music Died; Info on crash, Coroner's Report etc.
*
http://www.chez.com/gvignal/recording%20trip_1.htm
Pictures and background information on all the
places Buddy Holly ever made recordings.