Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936–February 3, 1959), better known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and a pioneer of Rock and Roll. The change of spelling of Holley to Holly came about because of an error in a contract he was asked to sign, listing him as Buddy Holly. That spelling was then adopted for his professional career.

Tributes

In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the '50s era, erected a stainless steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. It is located on private farmland, about one quarter mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, approximately eight miles north of Clear Lake. He also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.

Related Topics:
1988 - Green Bay - Wisconsin - July 17 - 2003

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The dramatic arc of Holly's life story inspired a Hollywood biography The Buddy Holly Story, for which actor Gary Busey received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Holly, as well as successful Broadway and West End musicals documenting his career. The West End musical, Buddy, ran for seven years.

Related Topics:
The Buddy Holly Story - Gary Busey - Academy Award for Best Actor - Broadway - West End

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Buddy Holly is considered one of the founding fathers of rock 'n roll and one of its most influential. Although his career was cut short, his body of work is considered some of the best in rock music history and his music would influence not only many of his recording contemporaries, but also the future direction music would take. As one of the capstones of Rock 'n' Roll, Buddy influenced groups for decades.

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The science fiction novel Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede, by Bradley Denton (ISBN 0688108229 and ISBN 0380718766), begins when television sets throughout the world suddenly begin broadcasting a concert by an apparently living Buddy Holly, who says he is on Ganymede.

Related Topics:
Science fiction - Bradley Denton - Ganymede

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Terry Pratchett's novel Soul Music features a protagonist whose name translates to "Bud Y Holly".

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Terry Pratchett - Soul Music

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"Oil", an episode of The Young Ones features Mike (Christopher Ryan) discovering Buddy Holly, alive and well and tangled in parachutes, in the attic of a house in London. Holly comments that he loves "your British beetles", as he has been eating them since the plane crash. Mike asks Holly if he has come up with any new material, and Holly plays a brief song about eating crickets when his parachute strap breaks, slamming him into the floor and killing him. Mike later hands off a duffle bag containing Holly's corpse to two minor characters, asking them to "take care of my Buddy."

Related Topics:
The Young Ones - Christopher Ryan

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The 1998 film "Six-String Samurai," a surreal romp through an alternate-timeline post-apocalyptic America (Russia bombed and then invaded the United States in 1957), features a rock-and-rolling martial arts hero named "Buddy" who sports familiar black horn-rimmed glasses and a tuxedo. The film follows Buddy's journey to "Lost Vegas", the last outpost of freedom in the world, to claim the crown of the recently-deceased King Elvis. The movie itself is forgetable, but does have a few moments of brilliance, such as when the central villian (an evil warrior clearly inspired by Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash) says to his incompetent but well-dressed underlings, "You have failed me for the last... Nice shoes!"

Related Topics:
Guns N' Roses - Slash

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