Buddy Holley (later amended to Holly) played rock and roll for only two short years, but the material he recorded made a lasting impact on popular
Music. Such standards as Rave On, Peggy Sue, That’ll Be the Day, Oh, Boy,
And Maybe Baby are easily recognizable hits today. Buddy was an engaging,
charismatic figure with his trademark horn-rimmed glasses and vocal hiccup.

Born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936, he learned to play guitar, piano and fiddle at an early age and formed the Western and Bop Band after
High school. In February 1957, he and a revised band lineup, now dubbed
The Crickets. In one year, Holly and The Crickets charted seven Top Forty
Singles.

In October 1958, Holly reluctantly agreed to perform on the Winter Dance
Party, an ill-advised bus tour of the Midwest in the winter of 1959. After a
show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a private plane to the next stop
on the tour: Moorhead, Minn. Two other performers, Ritchie Valens and
The Big Bopper joined him. Their plane left Mason City, Iowa airport at
1: a.m. and crashed in a snow-covered cornfield a few minutes later, killing
all aboard. Buddy Holly was 22 years old. Don McLean’s “American Pie”
immortalized the event as “the day the music died”. This year is the 50th
anniversary of that tragic event.

Buddy Holly’s widow, Maria Elena Holly later remarried, had three children; has lived in New York, Florida, and Dallas, but has never lived in Lubbock.
Peggy Sue Gerron, the inspiration behind “Peggy Sue”, still lives in Lubbock. Now 67, she will mark the anniversary of her friend’s death at the premier of the Australian revival of “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story”, a musical now playing in Sydney. Lubbock, Holly’s hometown will mourn the loss and remember the life of its favorite son during a two-day event:
Not Fade Away.