62 Facts About Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll.

Buddy Holly was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas, during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his two siblings.

In 1955, after opening once for Elvis Presley, Holly decided to pursue a career in music.

Buddy Holly played with Presley three times that year, and his band's style shifted from country and western to rock and roll.

Buddy Holly's recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley, who had become famous for producing orchestrated country hits for stars like Patsy Cline.

Unhappy with Bradley's musical style and control in the studio, Buddy Holly went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, and recorded a demo of "That'll Be the Day", among other songs.

Buddy Holly made his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1958 and soon after toured Australia and then the UK.

Buddy Holly is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums.

Buddy Holly was a major influence on later popular music artists, including Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Hollies, Elvis Costello and Elton John.

Buddy Holly was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986.

Buddy Holly was of mostly English and Welsh descent and had small amounts of Native American ancestry as well.

Buddy Holly was baptized a Baptist, and the family were members of the Tabernacle Baptist Church.

The elder Holley brothers performed in local talent shows; on one occasion, Buddy Holly joined them on violin.

At age 11, at his mother's urging, Buddy Holly took piano lessons but abandoned them after nine months.

Buddy Holly switched to the guitar after he saw a classmate playing and singing on the school bus.

Buddy Holly's parents bought him an acoustic guitar from a local pawnshop, and he learned how to play it from Travis.

At that time, Buddy Holly was influenced by late-night radio stations that played blues and rhythm and blues.

Buddy Holly would sit in his car with Curtis and tune to distant radio stations that could only be received at night, when local transmissions ceased.

Buddy Holly was further encouraged after seeing Elvis Presley perform live in Lubbock, whose act was booked by Pappy Dave Stone of KDAV.

On January 26,1956, Buddy Holly attended his first formal recording session, which was produced by Owen Bradley.

Buddy Holly attended two more sessions in Nashville, but with the producer selecting the session musicians and arrangements, Holly became increasingly frustrated by his lack of creative control.

Now playing lead guitar, Buddy Holly achieved the sound he desired.

Recordings credited to the Crickets would be released on Brunswick, while the recordings under Buddy Holly's name were released on another subsidiary label, Coral Records.

Buddy Holly booked them for appearances in Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New York City.

Three days prior, Coral released "Peggy Sue", backed with "Everyday", with Buddy Holly credited as the performer.

Buddy Holly was impressed by Allsup and invited him to join the Crickets.

Buddy Holly asked her out on their first meeting and proposed marriage to her on their first date.

Santiago later said that Buddy Holly was keen to learn fingerstyle flamenco guitar and that he would often visit her aunt's home to play the piano there.

Buddy Holly planned collaborations between soul singers and rock and roll.

Buddy Holly wanted to make an album with Ray Charles and Mahalia Jackson.

Buddy Holly had ambitions to work in film and registered for acting classes with Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio.

Buddy Holly took care of the laundry and equipment set-up and collected the concert revenues.

Buddy Holly planned to retrieve his royalties from Petty and later to fire him as manager and producer.

At the recommendation of the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly hired lawyer Harold Orenstein to negotiate his royalties.

Under New York law, because Buddy Holly's royalties originated in New York and were directed out of the state, the payments were frozen until the dispute was settled.

Buddy Holly produced the single "Jole Blon" and "When Sin Stops " for Jennings.

Buddy Holly became increasingly interested in the New York music, recording, and publishing scene.

The split was amicable and based on logistics: Buddy Holly had decided to settle permanently in New York, where the business and publishing offices were, and the Crickets preferred not to leave their home state.

Buddy Holly vacationed with his wife in Lubbock and visited Jennings's radio station in December 1958.

Buddy Holly's idea was to depart following the show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake and fly to their next venue, in Moorhead, Minnesota, via Fargo, North Dakota, allowing them time to rest and launder their clothes and avoid an arduous bus journey.

The report did not mention a gun belonging to Buddy Holly that was found by a farmer two months after the crash.

Buddy Holly's funeral was held on February 7,1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock.

Buddy Holly's body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery, in the eastern part of the city.

Buddy Holly's headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.

Buddy Holly married Maria Elena Santiago, a New York record company receptionist, on August 15,1958, at Tabernacle Baptist Church in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.

Peggy Sue Gerron was the inspiration behind Buddy Holly's hit song "Peggy Sue".

In late 1958, Buddy Holly had encouraged Gerron to divorce Allison over his drunken behavior, but she declined.

Buddy Holly's singing style was characterized by his vocal hiccups, a technique he acquired after hearing Elvis do it in 1955 on the Hayride show, and his alternation between his regular voice and falsetto.

Buddy Holly's "stuttering vocals" were complemented by his percussive guitar playing, solos, stops, bent notes, and rhythm and blues chord progressions.

Buddy Holly often strummed downstrokes that were accompanied by Allison's percussion.

Buddy Holly bought his first Fender Stratocaster, which became his signature guitar, at Harrod Music in Lubbock.

Buddy Holly's innovative playing style was characterized by its blending of chunky rhythm and high string lead work.

Buddy Holly played his first 1954 Stratocaster until it was stolen during a tour stop in Michigan in 1957.

The brothers advised Buddy Holly to replace his old-fashioned glasses with horn-rimmed glasses, which had been popularized by Steve Allen.

The new release was successful enough to warrant an album drawing upon the other Buddy Holly demos, using the same studio personnel, in January 1960.

Buddy Holly became "one of the most influential pioneers of rock and roll" who had a "lasting influence" on genre performers of the 1960s.

In 1980, Grant Speed sculpted a statue of Buddy Holly playing his Fender guitar.

Buddy Holly was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

The name of the British rock band the Hollies is often claimed as a tribute to Buddy Holly; according to the band, they admired Buddy Holly, but their name was mainly inspired by sprigs of holly in evidence around Christmas 1962.

Buddy Holly wore his stylized glasses and dressed like him.

Buddy Holly's follow up to the hit song "Peggy Sue" is featured in the 1986 Francis Ford Coppola film Peggy Sue Got Married, in which a 43-year-old mother and housewife facing divorce played by Kathleen Turner is thrust back in time and given the chance to change the course of her life.

Buddy Holly was depicted in a 1989 episode of the science-fiction television program Quantum Leap titled "How the Tess Was Won"; Buddy Holly's identity is only revealed at the end of the episode.