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"The metallic rhythm guitar break, a cold shower of spunky electricity, defines in one neat downpour what it feels like to be the leader of a teenage garage band, the peek-a-boo might of your emerging personality ricocheting off concrete walls, the entire neighborhood at your feet."
a Buddy Holly Sampler
That'll Be the Day
Peggy Sue
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Age of Innocence
Buddy Holly was born on September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas. He was exposed to music at a young age and learned to play the piano and violin. He took a liking to the guitar and at age 13, Buddy and his friend Bob Montgomery were playing in local clubs.
Growing up in Texas he was exposed to people like Hank Sams and Hank Williams who were bluegrass and western swing musicians. He was also influenced by Elvis. He was discovered after opening for Bill Haley and the Comets. Holly formed a band called Crickets with hit songs like "That'll Be The Day" and "Peggy Sue".
Early rock and roll was heavily influenced by rhythm and blues. Holly and his band were one of the "Pioneers of Rock and Roll" because they were one of the first white bands to use the R & B style. They also set the standard of instruments for a rock song--2 guitars, bass, and drums.
Holly's creativity and talent led him to become one of the first rock and roll musicians. Holly's music became an influenced to later musicians such as Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney of the Beatles.
Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959 while touring with Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson "The Big Bopper." Their plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. "Singer Don McLean immortalized the tragedy in his 1972 'American Pie' as 'the day the music died.' It was more accurately the death of innocence for rock and roll" [Rock Lives, p. 46]
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