![]() Thereafter American Bandstand showcased his talents and the Crickets appeared at the legendary Harlem Theatre in New York where they eventually won over the mostly black audience. The re-recorded faster version of “That’ll Be The Day” was a Billboard #1 and the Crickets wowed viewers when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show singing the hit and “Peggy Sue”. ![]() With new manager Norman Petty guiding him Holly shifted to Brunswick but was also savvy enough to sign a solo contract with Coral Records. Mauldin and Jerry Allison in tow, dates were pencilled in at Bradley’s Nashville studio where early versions of “That’ll Be The Day” (title borrowed from a John Wayne line in The Searchers) and two singles were laid down. After parting company with Montgomery, Buddy formed a band based around his own songs and called them The Crickets. Buddy’s contract misspelt his name as Holly but liked the faux pas and kept it for his stage name. ![]() Buddy and Bob would open for Elvis and also for Bill Haley & His Comets and signed to Decca Records in 1956. High school hops, talent contests and radio sessions followed and after seeing Elvis Presley perform in Lubbock in 1955 Holly began to integrate the Sun Records house style of rockabilly. In the late 1940s, he recorded a fine version of Hank Snow’s “My Two Timin’ Woman” and would soon pal up with Bob Montgomery with whom he formed the Buddy and Bob duo, singing clear harmonies and playing fast bluegrass. The youngest of three brothers it was his older siblings Larry and Travis who taught their kid bro to play a variety of instruments, including the guitar, banjo bass and lap steel. ![]() His friends and family always knew the Lubbock lad as Buddy. He is a famous son of Lubbock, Texas and we are proud to offer a selection of his groundbreaking rock and roll, rockabilly and pure country-pop. His posthumous star is on the Hollywood Hall of Fame (2011) and Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story has portrayed his life to good effect. His album output was necessarily limited to three discs in his lifetime but there are masses of compilations, some featuring alternative and unreleased tracks and a host of classic singles that are playing on a jukebox somewhere near you and certainly getting heavy rotation on the celestial Wurlitzer. His style has also impacted on everyone from Bob Dylan and Bob Weir to The Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello: it’s probably true to say that he influenced just about everyone who ever formed a group in the 1960s and the foundations he laid reverberate today. The Beatles were huge fans, Paul McCartney saw Holly and The Crickets play in London in 1958 and would later buy up his catalogue, while John Lennon wore his glasses with pride since Holly’s trademark black frames didn’t do him any harm. His trademark hiccup style of singing and his mastery of the studio allowed him to craft his songs while learning the techniques of recording with producers Norman Petty and Owen Bradley. Even so, Buddy Holly’s legacy is and was immediate. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens it’s safe to say that post that fateful day, February 3, 1959, his music would have evolved. His influence is vast considering that his successful time span lasted barely 18 months before his unfortunate death – the day the music died – and as he was only 22 years old when he perished in a plane crash while touring the Midwest (as did J.P. Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holley, the skinny kid with the glasses, began his musical career singing country and western songs but he would go down in history as one of the founding fathers or elders of roots rock and roll.
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