Buddy Holly

Induction Year: 1994

Birth Name: Charles Hardin Holley

Birth Date: 09-07-1936

Place of Birth: Lubbock, Texas

Death Date: 02-03-1959

Place of Death: Mason City, Iowa

In his brief career, Buddy Holly racked up an impressive series of firsts. He was the first singer to double-track his voice. He was the first to use violins on a rock & roll record. And most importantly, he was one of the first rock & rollers to write his own songs.

And what songs. Perfectly formed three-chord miracles with open-hearted lyrics and unshakeable melodies, all wrapped in the restless energy of youth. Five decades on, Holly's best tunes still sound fresh and timeless.

Buddy was born Charles Hardin Holley (he dropped the "e" later) in Lubbock, Texas, the youngest of four children to strict Baptist parents. The Holley house buzzed with the sounds of hymns and country songs, and by age five Buddy was singing and playing the violin. By age nine, he'd taken up guitar, banjo and mandolin, and was enthusiastically imitating the songs of his idol, Hank Williams.

As a teenager, Holly gigged around Lubbock, perfecting his hopped-up mix of country and blues. After three failed recording sessions in Nashville in 1956, he and his band, the Crickets (Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin and Niki Sullivan), hooked up with producer Norman Petty in the summer of 1957. In short order, the Crickets had their first #1 pop hit, "That'll Be the Day."

Over the next 18 months, Holly scored seven more Top 40 pop hits (sometimes billed as Buddy Holly on record, sometimes as the Crickets), toured with Chuck Berry and the Everly Brothers, and appeared on the network TV programs American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show. And like many early rock & rollers, he made some bad business decisions. When the smoke cleared, Holly found himself without a band or a record label. Tight for cash and with a baby on the way, he reluctantly accepted a spot on a grueling cross-country tour, dubbed the "Winter Dance Party." In a snowstorm on February 3, 1959, Buddy, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, a.k.a. "The Big Bopper," were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. Holly was only 22.

His unreleased recordings were released posthumously, and his songs have been covered by hundreds of artists, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Linda Ronstadt, Mickey Gilley and the Stray Cats. In 1986, Buddy Holly was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His legacy has been celebrated with a motion picture, several documentaries and a touring Broadway musical.

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Song Catalog

 

"Crying, Waiting, Hoping"

Buddy Holly1965 
The Beatles1965 
Dave Mason1975 
Wreckless Eric1978 
Marshall Crenshaw1987 
Marty Stuart & Steve Earle1996 
 

"Everyday"

(written with Norman Petty)

Buddy Holly1957 
Bobby Vee1960 
Long John Baldry1964 
Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs1964 
The Rogues1965 
The Hollies1966 
The Tremeloes1968 
John Denver1972 #81 pop
Don McLean1974 
Becky Hobbs1977 
Gary Busey1978 
The Selecter1980 
Jimmy Page1984 
James Taylor1985 #26 country, #61 pop
Peter White1990 
The Crickets1993 
Albert Lee1996 
The Neville Brothers2000 
Pearl Jam2000 
Erasure2003 
J. D. Souther2004 
Wylie & the Wild West2004 
 

"I'm Lookin' for Someone to Love"

(written with Norman Petty)

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1957 
Skeeter Davis1967 

"It's So Easy"

(written with Norman Petty)

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1958 
Connie Francis1959 
Bobby Vee1963 
The Trashmen1964 
Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs1965 
Skeeter Davis1967 
Waylon Jennings1974 
Hot Tuna1976 
Linda Ronstadt1977 #5 pop, #81 country
Cornell Dupree1977 
Showaddywaddy2003 
 

"Learning the Game"

The Searchers1964 
The Hullabaloos1965 
Buddy Holly1966 
Sandy Denny1972 
Andrew Gold1976 
Justin Hayward1977 
Wayne Newton1978 
Leo Kottke1979 
Any Trouble1984 
Syd Straw1989 
Black Tie1991  #59 country
The Lemonheads1993 
Waylon Jennings & Mark Knopfler1996 
Los Super Seven2005 
 

"Listen to Me"

(written with Norman Petty)

Buddy Holly1957 
Bobby Vee1963 
Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs1965 
 

"Lonesome Tears"

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1957 
Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs1963 
Carolyn Hester1966 
Denny Laine1976 
The Stray Cats1993 
 

"Love's Made a Fool of You"

(written with Bob Montgomery)

The Crickets1960 
Bobby Vee1961 
The Trashmen1964 
Buddy Holly1964 
Tom Rush1966 
The Bobby Fuller Four1966 #26 pop
The Hollies1966 
Cochise1971 #96 pop
Sandy Denny1972 
Greg Kihn1977 
Chris Spedding1986 
Johnny Rivers2004 
 

"Maybe Baby"

(written with Norman Petty)

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1958 #17 pop
Esquerita1959 
Conway Twitty1959 
Connie Francis1959 
Dale Hawkins1959 
Bobby Vee1963 
Jackie DeShannon1964 
Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs1965 
Billy Fury1965 
The Hollies1966 
Skeeter Davis1967 
Waylon Jennings1974 
Susie Allanson1978 #7 country
Don McLean1989 
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band1996 
 

"Not Fade Away"

(written with Norman Petty)

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1957 
Dave Berry1964 
The Rolling Stones1964 #48 pop
Quicksilver Messenger Service1970 
The Grateful Dead1971 
The Everly Brothers1973 
The Sutherland Brothers1976 
Stephen Stills1978 
Tanya Tucker1979 #70 pop
Mick Fleetwood1981 
Eric Hine1981 #73 pop
The Knack1982 
Jon Butcher1984 
Crowded House1987 
Trish Lyn1989 #69 country
Trout Fishing in America1990 
The Band & the Crickets1996 
John Entwistle1997 
Status Quo1999 
Cory Morrow2001 
Noel Redding2004 
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers2005 
James Taylor2008 

"Peggy Sue"

(written with Jerry Allison, Norman Petty)

Buddy Holly1957 #3 pop
Connie Francis1959 
Bobby Vee1962 
Mike Berry1963 
Link Wray1965 
The Hollies1966 
The Tremeloes1968 
Billy "Crash" Craddock1973 
Waylon Jennings1974 
John Lennon1975 
The Troggs1976 
New Riders of the Purple Sage1977 
The Beach Boys1978 #59 pop
Henry Mancini1989 
Keith Sykes2006 
 

"Peggy Sue Got Married"

The Crickets1960 
Buddy Holly1966 
Buddy Holly & the Hollies1996 
 

"Tell Me How"

(written with Jerry Allison, Norman Petty)

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1957 
Bobby Vee1963 
The Trashmen1963 
Peter & Gordon1964 
The Hollies1966 
Duke Robillard1990 
Deke Dickerson2005 

"That'll Be the Day"

(written with Jerry Allison, Norman Petty)

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1957 #1 pop
Connie Francis1959 
Cliff Richard1959 
Pat Boone1960 
The Beatles1962 
Bobby Vee1963 
Tommy Roe1963 
The Everly Brothers1965 
The Hullabaloos1965 
The Hollies1966 
Skeeter Davis1967 
Lynn Anderson1970 
Kenny Vernon1972 #56 country
Sandy Denny1972 
Foghat1974 
Waylon Jennings1974 
Linda Ronstadt1976 #11 pop,#27 country
The Flamin' Groovies1976 
Pure Prairie League1976 #96 country
Dillard-Hartford-Dillard1977 
Jerry Williams1977 
Link Wray1982 
Rodney Crowell & the Crickets2004 
 

"Think it Over"

(written with Jerry Allison, Norman Petty)

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1958 #27 pop
Bobby Vee1963 
Mike Berry1963 
Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs1965 
Skeeter Davis1967 
The Tractors1996 

"True Love Ways"

(written with Norman Petty)

Buddy Holly1960 
Bobby Vee1963 
Jimmy Jones1963 
Peter & Gordon1965 #14 pop
Skeeter Davis1967 
Randy Gurley1978 #77 country
Roky Erickson1978 
Alan Price1980 
Cliff Richard1980 
Mickey Gilley1980 #1 country, #66 pop
David Essex1982 
Elvis Costello1986 
Rick Nelson1986 
The Shadows1989 
The Mavericks1996 
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra1996 
Hot Rod Lincoln1998 
Johnny Mathis1999 
Martina McBride2005 
 

"Well All Right"

(written with Jerry Allison, Norman Petty, Joe B. Mauldin)

Buddy Holly1958 
Bobby Vee 1962 
The Trashmen1963 
Skeeter Davis1967 
Blind Faith1969 
Waylon Jennings1974 
Santana1978 #69 pop
Nanci Griffith & the Crickets1996 
Albert Hammond Jr.2006 
Chris Whitley2008 
 

"What to Do"

Buddy Holly1965 
 

"Wishing"

(written with Bob Montgomery)

Bobby Vee1959 
Buddy Holly1963 
Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs1964 
The Hollies1966 
Richard Thompson1990 
Mary Chapin Carpenter1996 

"Words of Love"

The Crickets (w. Buddy Holly)1957 
The Diamonds1957 #13 pop
Bobby Vee1963 
The Beatles1964 
Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs1965 
 

"You're the Once"

(written with Slim Corbin, Waylon Jennings)

Buddy Holly1964 
Billy Swan1975 
Roky Erickson1978 
Fleetwood Mac2001 

Other Media

Buddy Holly

Induction Year: 1994