Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly (1936-1959), American rock-and-roll singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter, one of the first major performers of rock-and-roll music. He was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas. Holly began to sing in country groups while still in high school, and by the mid-1950s he was playing small clubs throughout the Southwest, singing and playing country music. Drawn increasingly to rock music as exemplified by Elvis Presley, Holly recorded both alone and as lead performer with the Crickets; for the latter he co-wrote the best-selling “That'll Be the Day” (1957), the same year his solo single “Peggy Sue” became a hit. Holly was immensely popular, rivaling Presley in audience appeal. Holly and the Crickets had a regular radio show (1955-1958) and toured all over the world. In the same period he was featured, with the Crickets or alone, on leading television variety shows, including the “Ed Sullivan Show” and Dick Clark's “American Bandstand.” Holly's phenomenal career was abruptly ended when he died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. Rock stars Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) also died in the crash. Holly's life and short career formed the basis of the motion picture The Buddy Holly Story (1978) and the stage musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (1990). He was also a character in La Bamba (1987), a movie on the life of Valens.