Buddy Holly

In 1936 on this day Buddy Holly was born. To me this pioneer of Rock’n’roll was the greatest artist of all time! There were people with better voices, better guitar skills, better song-writing skills and yet somehow if I end up singing in the bath it is usually a Buddy Holly song. (Does That Rank as 'too much information?) There are few more fun experiences than singing along to “Peggy Sue” or “That’ll be the day”.

Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley, in Lubbock, Texas, and the change in surname came around by accident when he was asked to sign a contract which had missed the ‘e’ out. He decided it looked better that way and kept the name. In 1958 he toured the UK with his backing group, The Crickets.

In 1971 Don MacLean released "American Pie" which commemorated the ‘day the music died’, 3rd February 1959, in ‘that’ plane crash which also took the lives of singers Ritchie Valens and J.P.(The Big Bopper) Richardson as well as the pilot Roger Peterson.

Despite his untimely death his music did not die with him. He had recorded so prolifically that new releases were made for another ten years and were awaited by a great following, especially in Europe.

He is ranked no 13 (an appropriate number) in Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.