Who Was Buddy Holly?

Buddy Holly was born on September 7, 1936 and his birth name was Charles Hardin Holley. He was an American singer and songwriter back in the 1950s. He is considered to be one of the greatest pioneers of rock and roll.

He decided to change his name from Holley to Holly because of a mistake that was made on his first musical contract. They accidentally spelled his name Holly instead of Holly and he liked it so much that he decided to keep the name Holly. Buddy was his nick name, so he used the name Buddy Holly as his musical stage name.

Buddy Holly died on February 2, 1959 in a plane crash that was believed to be caused by pilot error. His tombstone was engraved with the name Buddy Holley.

In 2004, the Rolling Stone Magazine considered him to be one of the top one hundred most influential musicians of all times.

Buddy Holly's influence continues to be felt, even though his recording career only last three years.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets was the model for the modern conception of the rock band:  two guitars, bass, drums. (This was the same line-up of the Beatles.)  Buddy also forged the idea of a band with at least one in-house songwriter and so would create its own material and not just cover material written by other people.

Holly has influenced Texas songwriters such as Rodney Crowell, Joe Ely, Jimmy  Dale Gilmore and Nanci Griffith.

Hope this helps!