Buddy Holly

Charles Hardin Holley, known professionally as Buddy Holly (7 September 1936 – 3 February 1959) was an American 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 were copied by his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and exerted a profound influence on popular music. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Holly #13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Holly’s music was sophisticated for its day, including the use of instruments considered novel for rock and roll, such as the celesta (heard on "Everyday"). Holly was an influential lead and rhythm guitarist, notably on songs such as “Peggy Sue” and “Not Fade Away”. While Holly could pump out boy-loves-girl songs with the best of his contemporaries, other songs featured more sophisticated lyrics and more complex harmonies and melodies than had previously appeared in the genre.

Many of his songs feature a unique vocal “hiccup” technique, a glottal stop, to emphasize certain words in any given song, especially the rockers. Other singers (such as Elvis) have used a similar technique, though less obviously and consistently. Examples of this can be found at the start of the raucous “Rave On”: “Weh-eh-ell, the little things you say and do, make me want to be with you-ou…”; in “That’ll Be the Day”: “Well, you give me all your lovin’ and your -turtle dovin’…”; and in “Peggy Sue”: “I love you Peggy Sue – with a love so rare and tr-ue …”.

_{Sources: Wikipedia
Photo Credit: Buddy Holly Gold}