Buddy Holly - Biography - IMDb Buddy Holly Biography Showing all 42 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trade Mark (2) | Trivia (32) | Personal Quotes (2) Overview (4) 5' 11½" (1.82 m) Mini Bio (1) Buddy Holly was born on September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas, USA as Charles Hardin Holley. He was married to Maria Elena Santiago. He died on February 3, 1959 in Clear Lake, Iowa, USA. Spouse (1) Wore horn rimmed black glasses Fender Stratocaster Trivia (32) Died when his chartered plane (N 3794 N) crashed. Also on board and killed in the crash were Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). An investigation determined the cause of the crash was "pilot error"; the pilot was not qualified to fly by instruments, and the plane took off in a snowstorm. Despite later urban legends, the plane was not named the "American Pie"; it had no name.

His date of death (February 3, 1959) was forever immortalized as "The Day the Music Died" in the song "American Pie" by Don McLean . Many, including Holly's father and his manager, were against Buddy's marriage to Maria Elena Santiago, a young Puerto Rican girl he met in New York months before his death. Waylon Jennings was part of Buddy's backup group and was supposed to be on the fateful flight but, instead, allowed The Big Bopper , who was sick, to take his place. Buddy's group was The Crickets and they stayed together after his death. Had a cat named Booker T. and a dog named Alonzo. Attended and graduated from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas (1955). Had two brothers: Larry Holley (born 1925), Travis Holley (born 1927), and one sister: Patricia Lou Holley (1929-2008). Pictured on one of four 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, issued in booklet form 16 June 1993.

This Rock & Roll/Rhythm & Blues set of stamps also honored Otis Redding , Dinah Washington and Elvis Presley . He was voted the 13th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone. His wife was pregnant at the time of his death, but later suffered a miscarriage. Following his untimely death, he was interred at City of Lubbock Cemetery in Lubbock, Texas. Holly was a member of an independent Baptist church in Lubbock called Tabernacle Baptist Church; his funeral was conducted there. His brother is still a member. Actual Crickets (the ones that chirp) got into the recording studio and are heard in the fade out of the single "Listen to Me". Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (charter member) (1986), the American Songwriters Hall of Fame (1986), and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1994). Although he used the last name "Holly" as a professional recording artist (it was an uncorrected mistake on his first recording contract; he liked the spelling and kept it), his gravestone gives the correct spelling of his name which is Holley.

In recognition for his achievements, the city of Lubbock erected a life-size statue of Holly next to the convention center. The statue shows Holly strumming his Fender Stratocaster guitar and tapping his heel (he tapped his heel instead of his toe) which also serves as a monument to the West Texas Hall of Fame. At the base of Holly's feet, there are plaques with the names of famous Texans. The Beatles took their name in tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets . John Lennon and Paul McCartney were both inspired to write their own songs after learning that Holly wrote (or co-wrote) many of his own songs. In the period of 1958 to 1960, the band had been using many different names, most prominently "The Quarrymen" (after the school they attended) and "Johnny and the Moondogs". According to some stories, it was Stuart Sutcliffe (the famed "fifth Beatle") who suggested the name "The Beetles" and that John changed the spelling to give the name a double meaning. In 1959, The Crickets ' recorded a tribute to Buddy written by member Sonny Curtis , "(I Love You) More Than I Can Say".

It was later a charted hit for Bobby Vee in 1961 (#61) and Leo Sayer in 1980 (#02). Buddy Holly and The Crickets' first million seller for Brunswick Records in 1957, "That'll Be the Day", was a reworking of an earlier solo version by Buddy for Decca Records, the parent company. In order not to confuse the record-buying public, "The Crickets" were printed on the Brunswick label as the groups's full name. On Coral Records they were only listed as Buddy Holly. Subsequently, the group would continue to issue two singles at a time, instead of the usual one, one on Coral ("Peggy Sue") and the other on Brunswick ("Oh Boy"). This arrangement remained in effect for the rest of Buddy's recording career. A net result of 11 singles from 1957-58. Holly's longtime manager was independent studio owner and producer Norman Petty ; he eventually split with Petty because Petty insisted on a co-credit for the songs he recorded with Holly and the Crickets (entitling Petty to a share of the royalties).

Petty withheld royalty money owed to Holly, after the split and Holly's move to New York. Financial reasons forced Holly to go on his final tour, the Winter Dance Party. He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1750 North Vine Street in Hollywood, California on what would have been his 75th birthday [September 7, 2011]. Buddy and his friends went to see The Searchers (1956) starring John Wayne . Several times throughout the film, Wayne says "That'll be the day". The repeated phrase stuck with Holly and he wrote the song that would become his first #1 hit. Buddy Holly had written a song for his niece called "Cindy Lou". It was a slow ballad. But then his bandmate, Jerry Allison, asked Buddy to change the title to "Peggy Sue" after his girlfriend. They had been fighting and he asked Holly to alter the song as a way of making up with her. Buddy's band was not originally called "The Crickets". The name came about after a recording of the song "I'm Gonna Love You Too".

At the end of the track is a real chirping cricket. The band took it's name from that point on. Every issue of that track on record, tape, and CD still includes the cricket at the end. The odd lyric "Drunk Man, Street Car, Foot Slipped, There You Are!" in the song "I'm Looking for Someone to Love" comes from an odd saying of Buddy's uncle. (According to family lore). The title of the song "Maybe, Baby" is derived from a saying of Buddy's mother. Before forming The Crickets, Buddy Holly performed country and western music with a singing partner, Bob Montgomery. The two of them recorded some songs together but never drew any attention until Buddy turned his attention to rock-n-roll. "Not Fade Away" a 1957 B-side to "Oh Boy" by Buddy Holly and The Crickets, written by Holly, is ranked #107 within "Rolling Stones' 500 Greatest Songs". Featuring a "Bo Diddley backbeat", it became The Rolling Stones' (group) first single in 1962.

It was later reworked by The Who, in 1965, to form their signature standard "My Generation". On October 25, 1958, he appeared, for the only time, on The Dick Clark Show (1958). He performed "It's So Easy" with The Crickets. Later in the show, he performed "Heartbeat", solo, while standing on a makeshift bridge, with guitar in hand. "Peggy Sue Got Married/Crying, Waiting, Hoping" was a 2-sided single, released after his death, in the summer of 1959 on Coral. The songs were found on his tape recorder, performed by Buddy with an acoustic guitar. A weak background chorus was added to both songs, in the first release. The record didn't receive any degree of popularity at the time. "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" was later covered by The Beatles as well as other groups. "Peggy Sue Got Married" was later the title song of the 1986 film. There the original unedited version of the song was used and was well received.

He made his final television appearance on October 28, 1958 with The Crickets on New American Bandstand 1965 (1952), performing "It's So Easy". Personal Quotes (2) None of us could have made it without Elvis. Lyrics: That'll be the day when you say goodbye / That'll be the day when you made me cry / You say you're gonna leave, you know it's a lie 'cause / That'll be the day when I die. See also Buddy Holly Buddy Holly and the Crickets (l to r Jerry Allison, Joe Maudlin, and Buddy Holly) One of the two great singer-songwriter guitarists of the'50s ( the other being Chuck Berry), Buddy Holly was probably the first rock and roll artist to concern himself with virtually every aspect of his music including arranging and record production. Lawrence and Ella Holley Buddy at 2 1/2 with father Buddy at four Buddy at six Charles Hardin (Buddy) Holly was born September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas the fourth of four children born to Lawrence and Ella Holly.

In Texas most everyone had a nickname, and the family always called him "Buddy." The Holly's had a rich musical tradition. Older brothers, Larry and Travis, taught themselves how to play the guitar. Their sister Pat sang duets with her mother in the evening at the living room piano. Every Sunday found the Hollys attending services at the Baptist Church, singing hymns of praise and joy to God. Lubbock, Texas circa 1958 Lubbock "The City of Churches," was conservative and segregated. In his youth, Holly had little direct contact with blacks or their music, but like so many other young musicians, he was attracted to the rhythm and blues heard on distant radio stations. At age eleven Buddy began taking piano lessons, but soon switched to the steel guitar After 20 lessons he switched to acoustic guitar. Although his formal music education was short, Buddy was familiar with many kinds of music. Thoroughly imbued with the blues and country sounds he heard on the radio at a early age, Buddy won five dollars at age five singing "Down the River of Memories" at age five. Hutchinson Junior High In 1951 Buddy met Bob Montgomery, a fellow seventh-grader at Hutchinson Jr.

High, who also played guitar and sang country songs. Montgomery's taste in music ran to country music, especially Hank Williams, and Montgomery would be a major influence over Buddy's choice of music. Buddy and Bob circa 1954 From left to right - Buddy Holly, Larry Welborn and Bob Montgomery Billing themselves as "Buddy and Bob," they played junior high assemblies and local radio shows. Their sets were basically country, beefed up by harmonies and their own guitar accompaniment. Buddy and Bob became Lubbock's leading performers. They soon added Larry Welborn to play bass. In the early fifties with high school friends he played in a country oriented Western and Bop Band. Between 1950 and 1952, they performed at local clubs and high school talent shows, sometimes adding a bass and, less frequently, drums. Harmony duets still predominated their style, with Bob usually singing lead. When Buddy occasionally would sing lead, you'd hear a more upbeat tempo, a less country sound and another forecast of things to come.

Tom Lubbock High School Tom Lubbock High School 1955 Holly - Third row, Third from left By the time Buddy and Bob entered high school, they were widening their audience by appearing at youth clubs and centers as far away as Carlsbad, New Mexico and Amarillo, Texas. Lubbock's "Cotton Club" and "Bambaloo Club," the Union Hall in Carlsbad and Amarillo's "Clover Club" all featured "Buddy and Bob" performing music they now dubbed as "Western and Bop." Local radio stations also gave impetus to Buddy and Bob's career. KDAV, the nation's first all-country radio station, held a weekly "Sunday Party," patterned after the highly successful "National Dance Barn" show on Chicago's WLS. Buddy and Bob were frequent guests. In fact, their popularity grew so much they were given their own half-hour program each Sunday. Their repertoire remained basically country with Bob Montgomery still singing lead. But as 1954 progressed, Buddy began to sing more blues and "bop" numbers on the show. Although Montgomery was the principal composer during their partnership, Buddy also began to write.

Two of these three songs were "Heartbeat" and "Love's Made a Fool of You," both recorded several years later. But it wasn't a keen-eared record company that brought Buddy his first real break. It was that good old local radio station, KDAV. In addition to airing the "Sunday Party," KDAV also sponsored live country and early rock 'n' roll concerts in Lubbock. The station often chose the "western and bop" duo to open the shows, which headlined stars like Ferlin Husky, Marty Robbins, Porter Wagoner...even Elvis. And Buddy met them all. One of these performances played a crucial role in the advancement of Buddy's career. photo courtesy Buddy Holly Memorabilia That October the group added Jerry Allison on the drums. October 14, 1955, Bill Haley and the Comets starred in a show at the Fair Park Auditorium with Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Snow and "Lubbock's own Buddy, Bob, and Larry." Eddie" Crandall, Marty Robbins' manager, booked the show. The show's promoter Eddie Crandall was impressed by Buddy's performance and told Holly he would attempt to get them a recording contract.

In January of 1956, Buddy was offered a contract from Decca Records. The only hitch was that they were interested in just Buddy. Montgomery insisted that Buddy go it alone, Welborn stayed in Lubbock to finish high school. Holly returned to Lubbock where he played locally with stars that came through the area. On June 3, 1955 Buddy and Bob opened for a young Elvis at Connelly's Pontiac Showroom, in a free show to attract customers. After that gone was the country music, replaced by pure rock and roll. Rehearsing in Lubbock, 1955 He signed a contract to record country music on the Decca label in 1956. The first session was in Nashville on January 26, 1956 and held at Owen Bradley's recording studio. Don Guess, another Lubbock boy, played bass and with Sonny Curtis on lead guitar. Drummer Allison, still in high school, sat in for only one session. Holly recorded a number of records that went nowhere. Among them was "That'll Be the Day" that in rock version would be a hit. At this time Holly began writing.

One of the songs "Cindy Lou" which was to be one of his biggest hits. It would later be renamed "Peggy Sue" at the suggestion of band member Jerry Allison. Peggy Sue Gueron was Allison's girlfriend future wife. Peggy Sue Gueron's high school yearbook picture Buddy wasn't allowed to play the guitar as Bradley thought it made the recordings to difficult. Among the four songs that were recorded was "Blue Days, Black Nights" which would be Holly's first single. On the label his name was spelled "Buddy Holly" for the first time. Reviewed favorably in the trade press, the record did not do well in the marketplace. The disc did not succeed partially because Holly and the Decca-selected backup group could not create the tightness inherent in the union of Holly's voice, his guitar and his own group of musicians. The Crickets (Top clockwise: Buddy Holly, Niki Sullivan, Jerry Allison and Joe B. Maudlin) February 25, 1957 Holly and the newly named Crickets recorded the rock version of "That Will Be the Day" at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. These tapes were sent to Roulette .

The company liked Holly's songs but not his group. They felt they didn't need another artist like their current rock 'n' roll stars, Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen. They were interested in Knox recording "That'll Be The Day," and Bowen cutting "Lookin' for Someone to Love." But Buddy Holly wanted to record his own songs with his own group, now called the Crickets. (unidentified man, Jerry Lee Lewis, Phil Everly and Buddy Holly) Petty suggested sending the demos to Peer-Southern, a New York publishing house where he'd placed some of his own compositions. Peer-Southern gave the demo to Bob Thiele at Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca. Thiele liked what he heard - so much that Brunswick decided to use it as a master. Because Decca had the original "That'll Be the Day" it was determined to be unwise to use Holly's name in the credits. Grabbing a dictionary they searched for an appropriate group name and decided to release the song as the Crickets. "That'll Be The Day," recorded by The Crickets, was released in June, 1957. Initially sales were slow but, by August they were increasing and it began to appear on the national charts.

A month later "That'll Be The Day" was one of the best selling records in both the rock and roll and R&B markets. Buddy Holly - Fact Sheet BUDDY HOLLY--A QUICK FACT SHEET The following was compiled by Bill Griggs of Lubbock, Texas REAL NAME: Charles Hardin Holley, named after his grandfathers. The family name is correctly spelled "Holley". When Buddy received his first recording contract from Decca Records in 1956, they inadvertently spelled his last name as "Holly". He kept it that way for the rest of his career. FAMILY: Buddy's parents were Lawrence Odell ("L.O.") and Ella Pauline Drake Holley. They had four children, Larry, Travis, Patricia, and Buddy. The family was deeply religious and all joined in on regular family singalongs with the exception of Mr. Holley. Travis has been credited with teaching Buddy his first guitar chords, and Larry once loaned Buddy a thousand dollars so he could buy a new Fender Stratocaster guitar and some stage clothes.

(Yes, he did pay his brother back!) VITAL STATISTICS: He was born on September 7, 1936 at 2:30 p.m. at the Holley home located at 1911 6th Street in Lubbock, Texas. (The house is no longer there.) It was a Monday, was Labor Day, and it was a leap year. During elementary school it was discovered that he needed glasses. Upon examination, his eyesight was determined to be 20/800. He unsuccessfully tried wearing contact lenses and then began wearing glasses, ultimately ending up with the very thick horn-rimmed frames which has now become his trademark. After having his teeth capped, he possessed a very captivating yet disarming smile which, at least in some photos, made him appear more like a concert pianist than a rock 'n' roll performer. As an adult, Buddy had dark brown hair, stood a half-inch shy of six feet and weighed about 145 pounds although this varied. PERSONAL LIKES: In school, Buddy had average grades.

he studied leatherworking and blueprint reading and was a member of the Vocational Industrial Club (VIC), as well as being a member of the school choir. His steady girlfriend all through high school was Echo McGuire, however, their paths slowly drifted apart after graduation as Buddy pursued his music career. He was fond of waterskiing, fishing, and played his guitar just about anywhere that people would listen to him. His favorite color was blue. He loved a thick steak, fried okra, pizza, and peanut butter sandwiches. His leatherworking skills were >quite evident from the guitar cover which he handcrafted and >painted for his Gibson acoustic, to the numerous wallets and belts he constructed for others. OTHER FACTS: Buddy failed his draft physical because of his poor eyesight but he also had a stomach ulcer. His favorite style of dress was tee shirt and jeans although as a professional he was never seen performing on stage without a suit and tie or, in some cases, a tuxedo. Buddy Holly was the mentor of a Lubbock disc jockey named Waylon Jennings and even produced Waylon's very first record and got his career started.

THE CRICKETS: Although Buddy performed before and after with some other musicians, he became most-famous with the Crickets. As many groups from the era had named themselves after insects, they did the same and choose "Crickets" as it was the only insect which made its own "music", by chirping. (They almost named themselves the Beetles!) Buddy was the lead guitarist and vocalist, the others were Niki Sullivan (rhythm guitar), Larry Welborn (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums). Immediately after recording "That'll Be The Day", Larry Welborn left and Joe B. Mauldin became their permanent bass player. "THAT'LL BE THE DAY": Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison had watched a John Wayne movie titled The Searchers. Each time that Wayne became disgruntled with something someone said, he'd mutter "That'll be the day". That catch phrase became the title of the first hit record by Buddy Holly and his group. The song was recorded on February 25, 1957 at the Clovis, New Mexico recording studio of Norman Petty and by September was one of the top songs in the country.

"PEGGY SUE": Yes, she was an actual person and the song was named after her. Peggy Sue Gerron attended Lubbock High School and was the girlfriend and eventual wife of Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly's drummer. While the song was being recorded, engineer Norman Petty kept running the signal back and forth through his echo chamber, giving the impression that there was more than one drummer on the record. INNOVATIONS: During his eighteen-month career as an established artist, Buddy and his group were innovative in many respects pertaining to music. He and the Crickets were the first all- white group to perform at New York's famed Apollo Theater. The Crickets were the first self-contained band and what you heard on record is what you heard at live performances (The Beatles molded themselves after the Crickets). He was one of the first rock 'n' rollers to use overdubbing when one-track recording was the rule, and one of the first to use strings on a rock 'n' roll record. Buddy Holly was one of the few to write the majority of his own material and then perform it. He also made it okay to wear glasses while performing.

THE LAST TOUR: Buddy married on August 15, 1958 and was living in New York City at the time he signed to headline the Winter Dance Party tour. He had recently split (amicably) with the Crickets and, for this tour, formed a new band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums). Their tour busses kept breaking down and when they arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa to perform at the Surf Ballroom the evening of February 2, 1959, Buddy decided to charter a small plane to take he, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (the Big Bopper) to their next stop. The rest is history. Guide Profile: Buddy Holly Guide Profile: Buddy Holly September 7, 1936 (Lubbock, TX) Genres: Rock and roll, rockabilly, pop-rock, pop Instruments: "Peggy Sue," "Oh, Boy!" Biography: Buddy Holly is over 40 years in his grave at this writing.

Yet the familiar cry of "Buddy Holly Lives!" is still heard to this day, not only by those fortunate enough to have been alive during his existence, but from new fans who appreciate the guileless simplicity of his own particular brand of rock and roll. That version of rock was a major inspiration on generations of artists - he can arguably considered the Beatles' greatest influence - and that has as much to do with his image and history as it does the music he put down in those vinyl grooves way back in the Ike admninistration. For one thing, his (somewhat) nerdy apperance was a revelation to legions of gawky teenagers with dreams of their own: here was a rocker who didn't look like Elvis. continue reading below our video Top 5 Grossing Movies of All Time And he was rocking out in a completely unselfconscious way. It's a look that inspired countless geek rockers, from Elvis Costello to Rivers Cuomo, and yet it was utterly uncalculated. He also pioneered the idea of an artist with complete creative control, fighting for the right to produce his own records and write his own songs. The Crickets were rock and roll's first self-contained band, and that's Buddy's real legacy.

The music that band made is equally legendary, of course - a truly innocent and open-hearted (yet not naive) sound that was much more country-oriented than his peers (another nail in the coffin for the myth that rock was just white blues). It also employed non-rock instrumentation and production elements, further ensuring Buddy's status as a true innovator. Buddy released just about forty songs in 18 months before the infamous plane crash that took his life in 1959; the fact that his legacy and fame are the rival of folks like Elvis and Chuck Berry only proves just how powerful those songs were. And are. My love for Buddy Holly and how his death stopped us marrying - by the real Peggy Sue | Daily Mail Online My love for Buddy Holly and how his death stopped us marrying - by the real Peggy Sue By PETER SHERIDAN and ANTONIA HOYLE Last updated at 22:15 19 January 2008 As the sweetly optimistic love song that made a superstar of clean-cut Buddy Holly, Peggy Sue has long symbolised the innocent sincerity of the early days of rock 'n' roll.

But last week it was revealed that behind the classic lyrics lies a bitter love-triangle that, half a century on, is threatening to erupt into an explosive courtroom drama. Buddy's widow, Maria Elena, has taken legal action against the woman who inspired the song, claiming her new tell-all memoirs will damage the singer's image. Jerry Allison, the drummer in Buddy's backing group The Crickets, named the song after his teenage crush, Peggy Sue Gerron, in the hope the 17-year-old would be flattered into reciprocating his feelings. The lyrics – "If you knew, Peggy Sue / Then you know why I feel blue / Without Peggy, my Peggy Sue" – had the intended effect, and Allison went on to marry the object of his affection. But now Peggy Sue is claiming that the man she really loved was not Jerry, but Buddy Holly himself, and that she, rather than Maria Elena, was the love of his life. Her book, Whatever Happened To Peggy Sue?, claims that, far from being a wholesome all-American hero, the star was a smooth-talking Casanova, who even flirted with her on his honeymoon.

Peggy Sue also claims that on the night he died in a plane crash, aged just 22, Buddy was poised to divorce his wife so they could be together. Maria Elena, now 75 and owner of the rights to her husband's name and image, is understandably angry and has taken the legal action to halt the book's publication. "It's very interesting that this woman makes up all these stories," she says. "He never, never considered Peggy Sue a friend." Scroll down for more... Yet Peggy Sue, a brash, twice-divorced exhibitionist, remains defiant, bullish even. Her account, published in America this month, will, she says "correct untruth and rumour" and is something she has "every right to write". Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from her three-bedroom ranch home in Lubbock, Texas, the 67-year-old says: "Just before he died Buddy and I were riding an elevator from his room in a New York hotel when he reached over and stopped it between floors. "He said, 'I don't have much time. I may not have another chance to talk to you. I'm getting a divorce, and you should get a divorce too.

You are going to waste your life with Jerry, and I can't let that happen to you.' "I told him I couldn't get a divorce as I didn't have any money. "Buddy said, 'I'm going to take care of you.' He didn't ask me to marry him – you don't ask someone to marry you just when you're telling them you're getting a divorce. "But if Buddy Holly had lived, I know he would have divorced his wife, and I think there would have been something romantic between us. "Was I his great unrequited love? I think it's possible. "The fans are entitled to the truth after all these years. I've gone back to my original diaries to write this book, and my memories are as fresh as the day it all happened. "In reality he was no goody-two-shoes. Maria Elena has to let the truth be known. She has always been very protective of Buddy's estate. I think she's a bully, and bullies aren't nice." Scroll down for more...

Buddy Holly | Biography & History | AllMusic google+ Artist Biography by Bruce Eder Buddy Holly is perhaps the most anomalous legend of '50s rock & roll -- he had his share of hits, and he achieved major rock & roll stardom, but his importance transcends any sales figures or even the particulars of any one song (or group of songs) that he wrote or recorded. Holly was unique, his legendary status and his impact on popular music all the more extraordinary for having been achieved in barely 18 months. Among his rivals, Bill Haley was there first and established rock & roll music; Elvis Presley objectified the sexuality implicit in the music, selling hundreds of millions of records in the process, and defined one aspect of the youth and charisma needed for stardom; and Chuck Berry defined the music's roots in blues along with some of the finer points of its sexuality, and its youthful orientation (and, in the process, intermixed all of these elements). Holly 's influence was just as far-reaching as these others, if far more subtle and more distinctly musical in nature.

In a career lasting from the spring of 1957 until the winter of 1958-1959 -- less time than Elvis had at the top before the army took him (and less time, in fact, than Elvis spent in the army) -- Holly became the single most influential creative force in early rock & roll. Born in Lubbock, TX, on September 7, 1936, Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley (he later dropped the "e") was the youngest of four children. A natural musician from a musical family, he was proficient on guitar, banjo, and mandolin by age 15 and was working as part of a duo with his boyhood friend Bob Montgomery , with whom he had also started writing songs. By the mid-'50s, Buddy & Bob , as they billed themselves, were playing what they called "western and bop"; Holly , in particular, was listening to a lot of blues and R&B and finding it compatible with country music.

He was among those young Southern men who heard and saw Elvis perform in the days when the latter was signed to Sam Phillips ' Sun Records -- indeed, Buddy & Bob played as an opening act for Elvis when he played the area around Lubbock in early 1955, and Holly saw the future direction of his life and career. By mid-1955, Buddy & Bob , who already worked with an upright bass (played by Larry Welborn ), had added drummer Jerry Allison to their lineup. They'd also cut some sides that would have qualified as rock & roll, though no label was interested at that particular time. Eventually Montgomery , who leaned toward more of a traditional country sound, left the performing partnership, though they continued to compose songs together. Holly kept pushing his music toward a straight-ahead rock & roll sound, working with Allison , Welborn , and assorted other local musicians, including guitarist Sonny Curtis and bassist Don Guess . It was with the latter two that Holly cut his first official recording session in January of 1956 in Nashville for Decca Records.

They found out, however, that there was a lot more to playing and cutting rock & roll than met the eye; the results of this and a follow-up session in July were alternately either a little too tame and a little too far to the country side of the mix or were too raw. Some good music and a pair of near classics, "Midnight Shift" and "Rock Around With Ollie Vee," did come out of those Decca sessions, but nothing issued at the time went anywhere. At the time, it looked as though Holly had missed his shot at stardom. Fate intervened in the guise of Norman Petty , a musician-turned-producer based in Clovis, NM, who had an ear for the new music and what made it sound good, especially over the radio, to the kids. Petty had a studio where he charged by the song instead of by the hour, and Holly and company had already begun working there in the late spring of 1956.

After Decca's rejection, Holly and his band, which now included Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, threw themselves into what Petty regarded as the most promising songs they had, until they worked out a tight, tough version of one of the failed originals that Holly had cut in Nashville, entitled "That'll Be the Day." The title and lyrical phrase, lifted from a line that John Wayne was always quoting in the John Ford movie The Searchers, had staying power, and the group built on it. They got the song nailed and recorded, and with Petty 's help, got it picked up by Murray Deutsch, a publishing associate of Petty 's who, in turn, got it to Bob Thiele , an executive at Coral Records, who liked it. Ironically, Coral was a subsidiary of Decca, the same company to which Holly had previously been signed. Thiele saw the record as potential hit, but there were some major hurdles to overcome before it could actually get released. For starters, according to author Philip Norman in his book Rave On, Thiele would get only the most begrudging support from his record company.

Decca had lucked out in 1954 when, at Milt Gabler 's urging, they'd signed Bill Haley & His Comets and subsequently saw his "Rock Around the Clock" top the charts, but very few of those in charge at Decca had a real feel or appreciation for rock & roll or any sense of where it might be heading, or whether the label could (or should) follow it there. For another, although he had been dropped by Decca Records the previous year, the contract that Holly had signed prohibited him from re-recording anything that he had cut for Decca, regardless of whether it had been released or not, for five years; though Coral Records was a subsidiary of Decca, there was every chance that Decca's Nashville office could hold up the release and might even haul Holly into court. Amid all of these possibilities, good and bad, Welborn , who had played on "That'll Be the Day," was replaced on bass by Joe B. Mauldin . "That'll Be the Day" was issued in May of 1957 mostly as an indulgence to Thiele , to "humor" him, according to Norman.

The record was put out on the Brunswick label, which was oriented more toward jazz and R&B, and credited to the Crickets , a group name picked as a dodge to prevent any of the powers-that-were at Decca -- and especially Decca's Nashville office -- from having too easy a time figuring out that the singer was the same artist that they'd dropped the year before. Petty also became the group's manager as well as their producer, signing the Crickets -- identified as Allison , Sullivan , and Mauldin -- to a contract. Holly wasn't listed as a member in the original document, in order to hide his involvement with "That'll Be the Day," but this omission would later become the source of serious legal and financial problems for him. When the smoke cleared, the song shot to the top spot on the national charts that summer. Of course, Decca knew Holly 's identity by then; with Thiele 's persuasion and the reality of a serious hit in their midst, the company agreed to release Holly from the five-year restriction on his old contract, leaving him free to sign any recording contract he wanted.

In the midst of sorting out the particulars of Holly 's legal situation, Thiele discovered that he had someone on his hands who was potentially a good deal more than a one-hit wonder -- there were potentially more and different kinds of potential hits to come from him. When all was said and done, Holly found himself with two recording contracts, one with Brunswick as a member of the Crickets and the other with Coral Records as Buddy Holly , which was part of Thiele 's strategy to get the most out of Holly 's talent. By releasing two separate bodies of work, he could keep the group intact while giving room for its obvious leader and "star" to break out on his own. There was actually little difference in the two sets of recordings for most of his career, in terms of how they were done or who played on them, except possibly that the harder, straight-ahead rock & roll songs, and the ones with backing vocals, tended to be credited to the Crickets . The confusion surrounding the Buddy Holly / Crickets dual identity was nothing, however, compared to the morass that constituted the songwriting credits on their work.

It's now clear that Petty , acting as their manager and producer, parceled out writing credits at random, gifting Niki Sullivan and Joe B. Mauldin (and himself) the co-authorship of "I'm Gonna Love You Too," while initially leaving Holly 's name off of "Peggy Sue." Petty usually added his name to the credit line as well, a common practice in the 1950s for managers and producers who wanted a bigger piece of the action. In fairness, it should be said that Petty did make suggestions, some of them key, in shaping certain of Holly 's songs, but he almost certainly didn't contribute to the extent that the shared credits would lead one to believe. Some of the public's confusion over songwriting was heightened by complications ensuing from another of the contracts that Holly had signed in 1956.

Petty had his own publishing company, Nor Va Jak Music, and had a contract with Holly to publish all of his new songs; but the prior year, Holly had signed an exclusive contract with another company -- eventually a settlement and release from the old contract might be sorted out, but in order to reduce his profile as a songwriter until that happened, and to convince the other publisher that they weren't losing too much in any settlement, he copyrighted many of his new songs under the pseudonym " Charles Hardin ." The dual recording contracts made it possible for Holly to record an extraordinary number of sides in the course of his 18 months of fame. Meanwhile, the group -- billed as Buddy Holly & the Crickets -- became one of the top attractions of rock & roll's classic years, putting on shows that were as exciting and well played as any in the business. Holly was the frontman, singing lead and playing lead guitar -- itself an unusual combination -- as well as writing or co-writing many of their songs. But the Crickets were also a totally enveloping performing unit, generating a big and exciting sound (which, apart from some live recordings from their 1958 British tour, is lost to history).

Allison was a very inventive drummer and contributed to the songwriting bit more often than his colleagues, and Joe B. Mauldin and Niki Sullivan provided a solid rhythm section. The fact that the group relied on originals for their singles made them unique and put them years ahead of their time. In 1957-1958, songwriting wasn't considered a skill essential to a career in rock & roll; the music business was still patterned along the lines that it had followed since the '20s, with songwriting a specialized profession organized on the publishing side of the industry, separate from performing and recording. Once in a while, a performer might write a song or, much more rarely, as in the case of a Duke Ellington , count composition among his key talents, but generally this was an activity left to the experts. Any rock & roller with the inclination to write songs would also have to get past the image of Elvis , who stood to become a millionaire at age 22 and never wrote songs (the few " Presley " songwriting credits were the result of business arrangements rather than any creative activity on his part).

Buddy Holly & the Crickets changed that in a serious way by hitting number one with a song that they'd written and then reaching the Top Ten with originals like "Oh, Boy" and "Peggy Sue," and regularly charging up the charts on behalf of their own songwriting. This attribute wasn't appreciated by the public at the time, and wouldn't be noticed widely until the 1970s, but thousands of aspiring musicians, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney , took note of the fact, and some of them decided to try and emulate Holly . Less obvious at the time, Holly and company also broke up the established record industry method of recording, which was to bring the artist into the label's own studio, working on a timetable dictated by corporate policy and union rules. If an artist were extremely successful -- à la Sinatra or Elvis , or later on, the Beatles -- they got a blank check in the studio and any union rules were smoothed over, but that was a rare privilege, available only to the most elite of musicians. Buddy Holly & the Crickets , by contrast, did their work, beginning with "That'll Be the Day," in Clovis, NM, at Petty 's studio.

They took their time, they experimented until they got the sound they wanted, and no union told them when to stop or start their work, and they delivered great records; what's more, they were records that didn't sound like anyone else's, anywhere. The results were particularly telling on the history of rock music. The group worked out a sound that gave shape to the next wave of rock & roll and, especially, to early British rock & roll and the subsequent British Invasion beat, with the lead and rhythm guitars closely interlocked to create a fuller, harder sound. On songs such as "Not Fade Away,""Everyday," "Listen to Me," "Oh Boy!," "Peggy Sue," "Maybe Baby,""Rave On," "Heartbeat," and "It's So Easy," Holly advanced rock & roll's range and sophistication without abandoning its fundamental joy and excitement.

Holly and the band weren't afraid to experiment even on their singles, so that "Peggy Sue" made use of the kind of changes in volume and timbre on the guitar that were usually reserved for instrumental records; similarly, "Words of Love" was one of the earliest successful examples of double-tracked vocals in rock & roll, which the Beatles , in particular, would embrace in the ensuing decade. Buddy Holly & the Crickets were very popular in America, but in England they were even bigger, their impact serious rivaling that of Elvis and, in some ways, even exceeding it. This was due, in part, to the fact that they actually toured England -- they spent a month there in 1958, playing a series of shows that were still being written about 30 years later -- which was something that Elvis never did. But it also had to do with their sound and Holly 's stage persona. The group's heavy use of rhythm guitar slotted right in with the sound of skiffle music, a mix of blues, folk, country, and jazz elements that constituted most of British youth's introduction to playing music and their way into rock & roll.

Additionally, although he cut an exciting figure on-stage, Holly looked a lot less likely a rock & roll star than Elvis -- tall, lanky, and bespectacled, he looked like an ordinary guy who simply played and sang well, and part of his appeal as a rock & roll star was rooted in how unlikely he looked in that role. He provided inspiration -- and a way into the music -- for tens of thousands of British teenagers who also couldn't imagine themselves rivals to Elvis or Gene Vincent in the dark and dangerous department. At least one star British guitarist of the late '50s, Hank Marvin of the Shadows , owed his look (and the fact that he wore his glasses proudly on stage) to Holly , and his look can be seen being propagated into the 1970s by Elvis Costello . Additionally, although he played several different kinds of guitar, Holly was specifically responsible for popularizing -- some would say elevating to mystical, even magical status -- the Fender Stratocaster, especially in England.

For a lot of would-be rock & rollers on the Sceptered Isle, Holly 's 1958 tour was the first chance they'd had to see or hear the instrument in action, and it quickly became the guitar of choice for anyone aspiring to stardom as an axeman in England. (Indeed, Marvin , inspired by Holly , later had what is reputed to be the first Stratocaster ever brought into England.) The Crickets were reduced to a trio with the departure of Sullivan in late 1957, following the group's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, but that was almost the least of the changes that would ensue over the following year. The group consolidated its success with the release of two LPs, The Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly , and did two very successful international tours as well as more performing in the United States. Holly had already developed aspirations and interests that diverged somewhat from those of Allison and Mauldin . The thought apparently had never occurred to either of them of giving up Texas as their home, and they continued to base their lives there, while Holly was increasingly drawn to New York, not just as a place to do business, but also to live.

His romance with and marriage to Maria Elena Santiago, a receptionist in Murray Deutsch's office, only made the decision to move to New York easier. By this time, Holly 's music had grown in sophistication and complexity to the point where he had relinquished the lead guitar duties in the studio to session player Tommy Alsup , and he had done a number of recordings in New York utilizing session musicians such as King Curtis . It was during this period that his and the group's sales had slackened somewhat. The singles such as "Heartbeat" didn't sell nearly as well as the 45s of 1957 had rolled out of stores. He might even have advanced farther than a big chunk of the group's audience was prepared to accept in late 1958. "Well...All Right," for example, was years ahead of its time as a song and a recording. Holly 's split with the group -- and Petty -- in the fall of 1958 left him free to pursue some of those newer sounds, but it also left him short of cash resources.

In the course of ending the association, it became clear to Holly and everyone else that Petty had manipulated the numbers and likely taken an enormous slice of the group's income for himself, though there was to prove almost no way of establishing this because he never seemed to finish his "accounting" of the moneys due to anyone, and his books were ultimately found to be in such disarray that when he came up with various low five-figure settlements to those involved, they were glad to get what they got. With a new wife -- who was pregnant -- and no settlement coming in from Petty , Holly decided to earn some quick money by signing to play the Winter Dance Party package tour of the Midwest. It was on that tour that Holly , Ritchie Valens , and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash, on February 3, 1959. The crash was considered a piece of grim but not terribly significant news at the time. Most news organizations, run by men who'd come of age in the 1930s or 1940s, didn't take rock & roll very seriously, except to the degree that it could be exploited to sell newspapers or build viewing audiences.

Holly 's clean-cut image and scandal-free life, coupled with the news of his recent marriage, did give the story more poignancy than it otherwise might have had and probably got him treated more respectfully than would have been the case with other music stars of the period. For teenagers of the period, it was the first public tragedy of its kind. No white rock & roller of any significance had ever died before, forget three of them, and the news was devastating. Radio station disc jockeys were also shaken -- for a lot of people involved in rock & roll music on any level, Holly 's death may well have been the first time that they woke up the next day wishing and hoping that the previous day's news had all been a dream. The suddenness and the whole accidental nature of the event, coupled with the ages of Holly and Valens -- 22 and 17, respectively -- made it even harder to take.

Hank Williams had died at 29, but with his drinking and drug use he had always seemed on the fast track to the grave to almost anyone who knew him and even to a lot of fans; Johnny Ace had died in 1954 backstage at a show, but that was also by his own hand, in a game of Russian roulette. The emotional resonances of this event was totally different in every way possible from those tragedies. A few careers were actually launched in the wake of the tragedy. Bobby Vee leaped to stardom when he and his band took over Holly 's spot on the tour. In America, however, something of a pall fell over rock & roll music -- its sound was muted by Holly 's death and Elvis ' military service, and this darkness didn't fully lift for years. In England, the reaction was much more concentrated and pronounced -- Holly 's final single, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," rose to number one on the British charts in the wake of his death, and it seemed as though the new generation of English rock & rollers and their audiences wouldn't let Holly 's music or spirit die.

Two years after the event, producer Joe Meek and singer Mike Berry combined to make "Tribute to Buddy Holly," a memorial single that sounded like the man himself reborn and still brings smiles and chills to listeners who know it; it is said that Meek never entirely got over Holly 's death, and he did kill himself on the anniversary. On the less extreme front, players from Lennon , McCartney , and Keith Richards on down all found themselves influenced by Holly 's music, songs, and playing. Groups like the Searchers -- taking their name from the same Wayne movie whence the phrase "that'll be the day" had been lifted -- sounded a lot like the Crickets and had a handful of his songs in their repertory when they cut their earliest sides, and it wasn't just the hits that they knew, but album cuts as well. Other bands, like a Manchester-spawned outfit fronted by Allan Clarke , Graham Nash , and Tony Hicks began a four-decade career by taking the name the Hollies .

Holly 's record label continued to release posthumous albums of his work for years after his death, beginning with The Buddy Holly Story in early 1959, and they even repackaged the 1956 Decca sides several times over under various titles (the mid-'70s British LP The Nashville Sessions is the best of the vinyl editions). The company also engaged Petty to take various Holly demos and early country-flavored sides done by Buddy & Bob and dub new instruments and backing voices, principally using a band called the Fireballs . Those releases, including the albums Reminiscing and Showcase , did moderately well in America, but in England they actually charted. New recordings of his music, including the Rolling Stones ' bone-shaking rendition of "Not Fade Away" -- taking it back to its Bo Diddley -inspired roots -- and the Beatles gorgeous rendition of "Words of Love" helped keep Holly 's name alive before a new generation of listeners. In America, it was more of an uphill struggle to spread the word -- rock & roll, like most American popular culture, was always regarded as more easily disposable, and as a new generation of teenagers and new musical phenomena came along, the public did gradually forget.

By the end of the 1960s, except among older fans (now in their twenties) and hardcore oldies listeners, Holly was a largely forgotten figure in his own country. The tide began to turn at the very tail-end of the 1960s, with the beginning of the oldies boom. Holly 's music figured in it, of course, and as people listened they also heard about the man behind it -- even Rolling Stone magazine, then the arbiter of taste for the counterculture, went out of its way to remind people of who Holly was. His image constituted a haunting figure, frozen forever in poses from 1957 and 1958, bespectacled, wearing a jacket and smiling; he looked like (and was) a figure from another age. The nature of his death, in an air crash, also set him apart from some of the then-recent deaths of contemporary rock stars such as Brian Jones , Jimi Hendrix , Janis Joplin , and Jim Morrison -- they'd all pushed life right to the edge, till it broke, where Holly stood there seemingly eternally innocent, both personally and in terms of the times in which he'd lived.

Then, in 1971, a little-known singer/songwriter named Don McLean , who counted himself a Holly fan, rose to international stardom behind a song called "American Pie," whose narrative structure was hooked around "the day the music died." After disposing of the erroneous notion that he was referring to President Kennedy, McLean made it clear that he meant February 3, 1959, and Holly . Coverage of "American Pie"'s popularity and lyrics as it soared to the top of the charts inevitably led to mentions of Holly , who was suddenly getting more exposure in the national press than he'd ever enjoyed in his lifetime. His music had never disappeared -- even the Grateful Dead performed "Not Fade Away" in concert -- and now there was a song that seemed to give millions of people a series of personal and musical reference points into which to place the man. Until "American Pie," most Americans equated November 22, 1963, the day of President Kennedy's murder, with the loss of national innocence and an opening of an era of shared grief.

McLean pushed the reference point back to February 3, 1959, on a purely personal basis, and an astonishingly large number of listeners accepted it. In 1975, McCartney 's MPL Communications bought Holly 's publishing catalog from a near-bankrupt Petty . To some, the sale was Petty 's final act of theft -- having robbed Holly and his widow blind in settling the account of what was owed him as a performer, he was profiting one last time from his perfidy. The truth is that it was a godsend to Maria Elena Holly and the Holly family in Lubbock; amid the events of the years and decades that followed, MPL was able to sell and exploit those songs in ways that Petty in Clovis, NM, never could have, and earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for them that Petty never would have. And with McCartney -- a Holly fan from the age of 15, and probably the most successful fan Holly ever had -- as publisher, they were paid every cent they had coming. Amid the growing interest in Holly 's music, the record industry was very slow to respond, at least in America.

At the end of the 1960s, there were exactly two Holly LPs available domestically, The Great Buddy Holly , consisting of the 1956 Decca sides, which hardly represented his best or most important work, and the even more dispensable Giant album, consisting of overdubbed demos and outtakes. British audiences got access to more and better parts of his catalog first, and a collection, 20 Golden Greats , actually topped the charts over there in 1978, in conjunction with the release of the movie The Buddy Holly Story, starring Gary Busey in the title role. It was a romanticized and very simplified account of the man's life and career, and slighted the contributions of the other members of the Crickets -- and never even mentioned Petty -- but it got some of the essentials right and made Busey into a star and Holly into a household name. In 1979, Holly became the first rock & roll star to be the subject of a career-spanning box set, ambitiously (and inaccurately) called The Complete Buddy Holly .

Initially released in England and Germany, it later appeared in America, but it only seemed to whet hardcore fans' appetites for more -- two or three Holly bootlegs were circulating in the early '80s, including one that offered a handful of songs from the group's 1958 British tour. In a rare bold move, mostly courtesy of producer Steve Hoffman , MCA Records in 1983 issued For the First Time Anywhere , a selection of raw, undubbed masters of original Holly recordings that had previously only been available with extra instruments added on -- it was followed by From the Original Master Tapes , the first attempt to put together a Holly compilation with upgraded sound quality. Those titles and The Great Buddy Holly were the earliest of Holly 's official CD releases, though they were soon followed by Buddy Holly and The Chirping Crickets . In 1986, the BBC aired The Real Buddy Holly Story, a documentary produced by McCartney as a counteractive to the Busey movie, which covered all of the areas ignored by the inaccuracies of the movie and responded to them.

There have followed stage musicals and plays, upgraded and audiophile reissues of his work, and tribute albums, all continuing to flow out at a steady pace more than 50 years after Holly 's death.

Question: What was Buddy Holly's real first name?
Answer: CHARLES (Hardin Holley)