Decca's misspelling permanently renamed Charles Holley
When Decca signed the Lubbock teenager, the contract wrote Holly instead of Holley. Charles Hardin Holley kept the typo as his stage name. Locked out of releasing the same songs under his own name, he and Jerry Allison invented the Crickets so "That'll Be the Day" could escape—and it topped U.S. and U.K. charts in 1957.
Born September 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, Buddy grew up in a musical Baptist family during the Depression. He learned guitar from brother Travis, soaked up Hank Williams and Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, and partnered with Bob Montgomery as Buddy and Bob on local TV and KDAV. Opening for Elvis Presley three times in 1955 swung him from country toward rock and roll. Scout Eddie Crandall caught him opening for Bill Haley; Decca sessions with Owen Bradley in Nashville left Holly frustrated by hired players and tight control. The label dropped him in January 1957 yet barred him from re-recording those songs elsewhere for five years.
At Norman Petty's Clovis, New Mexico studio, with Joe B. Mauldin and Niki Sullivan, he cut a new "That'll Be the Day"—a title borrowed from John Wayne's catchphrase in The Searchers. Brunswick issued it as the Crickets to dodge Decca's restrictions; Petty also reasoned DJs would spin more sides if credited to different names. Coral released Holly solo cuts such as "Peggy Sue" while Brunswick kept Crickets records. The single topped U.S. best-sellers on September 23, 1957, and spent three weeks at U.K. number one. They became the first white act at Harlem's Apollo Theatre that August, winning the crowd after adding "Bo Diddley."
Holly is often credited with fixing the classic rock lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. Influence reached Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and many more. After a Clear Lake, Iowa show on the winter 1959 Midwest tour, the charter plane he shared with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper crashed, killing all aboard on February 3—later mourned in song as the day the music died. In 1986 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named him among its inaugural class; he had rewritten pop songcraft in barely two chart years.
Source: Buddy Holly
