Buddy Holly 1936 to 1959
Born in Lubbock Texas on September 7th, 1936 he was named Charles Harden Holley.
By the age of twelve years he had started guitar lessons; already having done piano lessons for over a year.
A trio he formed at junior high got a break and opened for local band, Bill Haley and The Comets. A Decca Records Agent who attended the concert and liked what he saw talked to Buddy and eventually "That'll Be The Day" was recorded on the 22nd July, 1956. However Decca thought the single no good and did not release it, his Decca contract expired in January 1957.
Buddy not to be disheartened, recorded "That'll Be The Day" as a demo track at Norman Petty's Studio in New Mexico on February 25th 1957. While four record companies turned down the single, Coral Brunswick Records recognised the potential of this single, they released the single as a Crickets version as Buddy Holly's version was still owned by Decca. By September 23rd 1957 the song went number one.
Over the next two years the Coral Label released Buddy Holly songs, while the Brunswick Label released songs by The Crickets, all releases in actual fact were done by Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
Some rock historians consider Buddy Holly and the Crickets to be the main pioneers of a new instrumentation format for rock (the use of drums, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and lead guitar), this eventually leading to the Rock n' Roll sound of the 60's. While this may be disputed by many the one thing no one can dispute is he was the first white rock star to rely exclusively on his own original material.
Buddy was 22 years of age when he died in a plane crash with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper on the 3rd February, 1959.
