Happy birthday to the late great legend Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, an American musician and singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll. His works and innovations inspired and influenced contemporary and later musicians, notably the Beatles, Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, and exerted a profound influence on popular music. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Holly number 13 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. Charles Hardin Holley was born on September 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, to Lawrence Odell Holley (November 14, 1901 – July 8, 1985) and Ella Pauline Drake (August 29, 1902 – May 20, 1990). In Philip Normans biography, it is stated that his mothers family claimed to be descended from the English navigator Francis Drake. Holly was always called Buddy by his family. The youngest of three siblings, his older brothers Larry and Travis taught him to play a variety of instruments, including the guitar, four-string banjo and lap steel guitar. At the age of five, Hollys young voice and exuberance won him a talent contest singing a then-popular song, Have You Ever Gone Sailing (Down the River of Memories). In 1949, while still retaining his youthful soprano voice, he recorded a bluesy solo rendering of Hank Snows My Two Timin Woman on a wire recorder borrowed by a friend who worked in a music shop. Holly saw Elvis Presley sing in Lubbock in 1955, and began to incorporate a rockabilly style, similar to the Sun Records sound, which had a strong rhythm acoustic and slap bass. On October 15, 1955, Holly, along with Bob Montgomery and Larry Welborn, opened the bill for Presley in Lubbock, catching the eye of a Nashville talent scout. Hollys transition to rock continued when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local show organized by Eddie Crandall, the manager for Marty Robbins. On September 7, 2011 (what would have been Hollys 75th birthday), he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame posthumously. His widow, Maria Elena Santiago, attended, as did Phil Everly, Peter Asher, Priscilla Presley and actor Gary Busey, who played Holly in The Buddy Holly Story.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 06:00:49 +0000
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