Buddy Holly Part I

Buddy Holly was born in Lubbock Texas, in 1936.   He was named Charles Hardin but the nickname Buddy stuck.   Being born in Texas, he heard country music and it was an influence on him…  He listened to the Grand Old Opry and the Louisiana Hayride on radio.  At school, he learned to play guitar and began to take part in talent contexts.  When he left High School, he was determined to pursue a career in music.  He was beginning to mingle his country style with Rhythm and Blues.  

In 1956, he got a contract with Decca Records... He was moving towards Rock and Roll.  He was less than happy with Decca.  He recorded a demo of That’ll be the Day, and formed a new band, with the name “The Crickets”.   In 1957, “That’ll be the Day” was released and began to climb the charts. Buddy began to make TV appearances and had another hit with “Peggy Sue”. 

In 1958, he and the Crickets were becoming more and more successful, and toured Hawaii, Australia and the UK.   He met Maria Elena Santiago, whom he asked to marry him on their first date.  Norman Petty, his manager didn’t like Buddy’s getting married as it was felt that this would put off his female fans.  So the marriage was kept secret.  Buddy also had ambitions to work in films and wanted to study acting with the Lee Strasberg Studio.

Buddy had problems with his manager, over royalties and money issues, and over his marriage.   He became friends with Waylon Jennings, who was then a DJ in Lubbock and who wanted to go into music production.