title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade teamed with Jimmy Butler and Rajon Rondo in Chicago. In January 2017, the trio were all fined for criticizing their young teammates' effort. In March 2017, Wade sustained a fractured elbow, returning for the playoffs, but the Bulls were defeated 4–2 by the Boston Celtics in the first round.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: On September 24, 2017, three months after trading Butler and waiving Rondo, the Bulls reached an agreement on a buyout with Wade. Three days later, Wade signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, reuniting him with Miami Heat teammate LeBron James. During the season, Wade objected to coach Tyronn Lue's plan to play him off the bench. Wade started for the Cavaliers in the first three games, but shot only 7-for-25. After a blowout loss to the Orlando Magic in the third game, Wade volunteered to take a bench role, becoming leader of the second unit.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: On February 8, 2018, at the NBA trade deadline, the Cavaliers overhauled their roster. Acquiring guards Jordan Clarkson, George Hill, Rodney Hood and Cedi Osman, the Cavaliers traded Wade back to the Miami Heat in exchange for a protected 2024 second-round draft pick. At the funeral of Wade's long-time agent Henry Thomas in January, Wade mended relations with Riley. On February 9, in his first game, Wade was garnered a standing ovation and came off the bench in a 91–85 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. On February 27, Wade scored a season-high 27 points as the Heat rallied to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 102–101. On April 3, in a 101–98 win over the Atlanta Hawks, Wade reached 5,000 assists in a Heat uniform, becoming the ninth player to score 20,000 points and collect 5,000 assists with one team, joining Karl Malone, Bryant, Jordan, James, Larry Bird, John Havlicek, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. On April 16, Wade scored 28 points to end the 76ers' 17-game winning streak and lead the Heat to a 113–103 Game 2 win over Philadelphia and even the first-round playoff series. He passed Larry Bird for 10th on the NBA's career postseason scoring list.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: In the off-season, Wade announced his intentions to retire after the 2018–19 season, re-signing with the Heat on September 18. He missed seven games in mid-November due to the birth of his daughter. On November 25, Wade scored a season-high 35 points, the most ever by a Miami bench player. On December 9, he scored 25 points in his 1,000th career game. On January 6, 2019, Wade became the third player in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 5,000 assists, 4,000 rebounds, 1,500 steals, 800 blocks and 500 three-pointers. Wade was named by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as a special roster addition for the 2019 All-Star game, thus marking his 13th All-Star appearance. Wade had received the second-most fan votes for guards in the Eastern Conference. On April 9, Wade played his last home game in Miami, scoring 30 points. In his final game the following night, Wade recorded his fifth career triple-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: During his playing career with Miami, Wade had discussed the potential for a future ownership stake in the Heat franchise but Wade was unable to commit at the time, according to Heat owner Micky Arison.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: On April 16, 2021, it was announced that Wade had purchased an undisclosed minority ownership stake in the Utah Jazz franchise of the NBA, joining an ownership group led by his personal friend and associate, Ryan Smith, the Jazz majority owner and team governor. Wade is a member of a small ownership group that includes Smith, his wife Ashley, investor and Accel partner Ryan Sweeney, Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and the Miller family, which previously owned the team.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade said in the announcement of his purchase that he hoped to take a hands-on approach to his involvement, and highlighted his close brother-like relationship with Jazz star Donovan Mitchell, who he called the player most like him and "2.0".


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade was a member of the 2004 Olympic team, which won a bronze medal in Athens. The team competed in the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, in which Wade averaged 19.3 points per game. The U.S. national team won a bronze medal. Wade was named to the national team roster from 2006 to 2008; and, together with James and Anthony, Wade co-captained the 2006 team.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: At the 2008 Summer Olympics, the United States went undefeated and captured gold medal honors after beating Spain, the 2006 World champions. Wade, who led the team in scoring, tallied a game-high 27 points in 27 minutes on 75% field goal shooting and added 4 steals, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds. Wade averaged a team-high 16 points in 18 minutes on 67% field goal shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2.3 steals, as the U.S. lived up to their Redeem Team moniker and claimed gold medal honors for the first time since 2000.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Listed at tall and weighing , Wade was a shooting guard who could play point as he did during his rookie season and with smaller lineups. On offense, he was one of the quickest and most difficult players to guard, as well as one of the best slashers in NBA history. Wade's signature one-two step allowed him to dash past bigger defenders and draw fouls. Wade ranked first in free-throw attempts per 48 minutes in 2004–05 and again in the 2006–07 season. Wade was an unselfish player, averaging 5.4 assists for his career. After winning the NBA Finals MVP Award in 2006, Wade developed a reputation as one of the league's premier clutch players.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: David Thorpe, an athletic trainer who runs a training center for NBA players, cited Wade's post-up game as one of his strengths. Thorpe said that Wade's best moves from the post were his turnaround jump shot, double pivot, and what Thorpe termed a "freeze fake", a pump fake Wade used to get his opponent to jump, so that he could drive around him. Wade's main weakness was three-point shooting; he averaged 29% for his career.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade was best known for his ability to convert difficult lay-ups, even after hard mid-air collisions with larger defenders. His style drew concerns over the dangers of playing in this manner, as Wade had hurt his knees and wrists after mid-air collisions with larger players. Wade established himself on defense for his ability to block shots and accumulate steals. He holds the NBA record for blocks by players listed and under, which he achieved in only 679 games; this is over 400 games less than the previous record-holder Dennis Johnson (1,100).


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade married his high school girlfriend Siohvaughn Funches in 2002. They split in 2007, and he divorced her in 2010 after an acrimonious court battle. In 2011, Wade was granted sole custody of his two children. Wade also raises a nephew, the son of Wade's sister Deanna. Wade began dating actress Gabrielle Union in 2008. According to Wade, he and Union briefly split up at some point early in 2013 due to career demands. During that time, Wade and Aja Metoyer conceived a son. Wade and Union became engaged in December 2013 and married on August 30, 2014, in Miami. On November 7, 2018, Wade became a father for the fourth time, when he and Union welcomed their daughter, who was born via surrogate. In 2020, Wade's 12-year-old child came out as a transgender girl and changed her name to Zaya.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade's nicknames include D-Wade and Flash, which was given to him by former teammate Shaquille O'Neal who would sing, "He's the greatest in the Universe", in reference to the Queen song of the same name from the 1980 film "Flash Gordon". The Heat's 2005 NBA playoffs run and Wade's performances while O'Neal was hampered by injury, led to media attention and rapid increase in Wade's popularity. During those playoffs, Wade's jersey became the league's top-selling jersey and remained so for nearly two years. After the Heat's success and Wade's memorable performances during the 2006 NBA playoffs, Wade appeared on several talk shows, including "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Live with Regis and Kelly". He also made a guest star appearance on Disney Channel's "Austin & Ally" as himself, who is an obsessed fan of Austin Moon.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade has been featured in magazine articles and publications. In 2005, he was featured on "People"'s 50 Most Beautiful People, and in 2006 he was named the NBA's best-dressed player by "GQ". In 2007, "Esquire" named him to their 4th annual Best Dressed Men in the World list for the second straight year. Wade's endorsement deals included Gatorade, Lincoln, Staples, Sean John, T-Mobile (his TV commercials paired him with Charles Barkley), and Topps. He had his own line of shoes with Converse named "The Wade" and a series of Sidekick phones known as the D-Wade Edition with T-Mobile. During the 2009–10 season, Wade switched from Converse to Nike's Jordan Brand. Wade was chosen by Jordan and debuted the Air Jordan 2010 during the 2010 NBA All-Star break. During the 2011 NBA playoffs, Wade debuted his first signature shoe for the Jordan Brand, joining Anthony and Chris Paul, who had their own signature shoes. After his Jordan Brand contract expired in 2012, Wade signed with the Chinese athletic brand Li-Ning. Wade was included in "Time"'s list of the 100 most influential people of 2020. In April 2021, Wade became a minority owner of the Utah Jazz. In October 2021, Wade's eldest son, Zaire Wade got drafted by the Salt Lake City Stars, which is the NBA G League affiliate of the Utah Jazz.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: In March 2021, when asked about Michael Jordan, Wade stated that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. He explained, "I come from a Jordan era. I am biased and I'm going to be biased until the day I pass away. Michael Jordan will be my GOAT. I'm not taking anything away from LeBron. LeBron is amazing. But Michael Jordan is my GOAT." Wade stated that Michael Jordan was his favorite player growing up. He explained, "For me, from Chicago, where I grew up, I made it out the hood because I seen a dude, No. 23, play the game of basketball at a level that I was like, I just want to do some of that."


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade is well known for his philanthropic involvement. In 2003, he founded The Wade's World Foundation, which provides support to community-based organizations that promote education, health, and social skills for children in at-risk situations. He hosts a variety of community outreach programs in Chicago and South Florida. In 2008, he announced his partnership with former teammate Alonzo Mourning's charitable foundation and co-hosted ZO's Summer Groove, an annual summer event. On December 24, 2008, Wade purchased a new home for a South Florida woman whose nephew accidentally burned down the family home. In addition, Wade donated furnishings, clothing and gifts to the family.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: After breaking his own Miami Heat single-season scoring record, Wade gave the jersey he wore in that night's victory to 8-year-old Michael Stolzenberg, an avid Heat fan who lost his hands and feet due to a bacterial infection. Wade stated that he knew Stolzenberg previously and wished to add to his collection of Heat memorabilia. Wade is known for visiting other sick children, usually in private to avoid the media spotlight.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: In September 2009, Wade donated money from his foundation to keep the Robbins, Illinois public library from having to shut down. He handed library director Priscilla Coatney a $25,000 check in order to resurrect the building. In January 2010, Wade and Mourning co-founded The Athletes Relief Fund for Haiti", which raised money to help the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In the three days after the fund began soliciting donations from athletes, Wade announced that the "Athletes Relief Fund for Haiti" had already raised over $800,000. Wade stated, "I expected nothing less from my friends and colleagues in the sports community, our commitment to this cause knows no bounds, and we will continue to accept any and all donations throughout the days ahead." Wade is also an avid supporter of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and served as an Ambassador for their Hoops for St. Jude basketball initiative.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: Wade is a Christian and chose the number 3 throughout most of his career because it represents the Holy Trinity. He tithes 10% of his salary to a church in Chicago. His mother, Jolinda, strengthened her ties to Christianity in 2001 after years of drug problems. She served as a minister during her final prison sentence in 2002 and 2003. She was ordained as a Baptist minister in January 2007 and formed the non-denominational Temple of Praise Binding and Loosing Ministry in Chicago. In May 2008, Wade purchased a church building for his mother's ministry.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: In 2019, Wade appeared as a guest judge on season 14 of "America's Got Talent" alongside wife Gabrielle Union.


title: Dwyane Wade

text: In July 2020, Wade tweeted in support of Nick Cannon, who was fired from ViacomCBS after making racist remarks and endorsing antisemitic conspiracy theories. Following some backlash, Wade later deleted his tweet and clarified that he had expressed his support of "[Cannon's ownership of] the content and [the] brand he helped create", and affirmed that he has "zero tolerance for any hate speech."


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: Horizon Forbidden West is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The sequel to 2017's "Horizon Zero Dawn", the game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States recovering from the aftermath of an extinction event caused by a rogue robot swarm. The player can explore the open world and complete quests using ranged and melee weapons against hostile machine creatures.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: "Horizon Forbidden West" was released on February 18, 2022, for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and received generally favorable reviews. An expansion, "Burning Shores", will be released on April 19, 2023.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: "Horizon Forbidden West" is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Aloy, a hunter in a world populated by dangerous, animalistic machines. In an open world, she explores the mysterious frontier known as the Forbidden West, a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States, specifically the states of California, Nevada, and Utah. The map is larger than in the previous game. Exploration is improved with new underwater discoveries, and improvements to combat using the Valor Surge system, freeform climbing, and tools such as the Shieldwing, Focus Scanner, Diving Mask, and Pullcaster. The mission structure for quests better supports variety in objectives with compelling reward systems.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: "Horizon Forbidden West" continues the story of Aloy (Ashly Burch), a young hunter of the Nora tribe and a clone of the Old World scientist Elisabet Sobeck, as she leads a band of companions on a quest to the arcane frontier known as the Forbidden West to find the source of a mysterious plague that kills all it infects. On her journey across these uncharted lands, Aloy encounters new regions ravaged by massive storms and deadly machines, and conflicts with a tribe of nomadic raiders who have tamed the machines as war mounts. She discovers a vast array of environments and ecosystems, including lush valleys, dry deserts, snowy mountains, tropical beaches, ruined cities, and underwater settings.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: In the six months following the defeat of HADES (Anthony Ingruber) in "Horizon Zero Dawn", Aloy has been searching fruitlessly for a working backup of GAIA (Lesley Ewen) to restore the planet's rapidly degrading biosphere. Sylens (Lance Reddick), having stolen HADES, contacts Aloy and asks her to continue her search in the Forbidden West region.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: Aloy and her friend Varl (John Macmillan) cross into the west to find the ruling Tenakth tribe in the midst of a civil war between Chief Hekarro (Geno Segers) and the rebel leader Regalla (Angela Bassett). Aloy tracks Sylens to a facility where she finds HADES badly damaged, and permanently deletes it. She recovers a GAIA backup without its subsystems, but is interrupted by a group of futuristic humans. The group, consisting of their leader Gerard (Dan Donohue), his lieutenant Tilda (Carrie-Anne Moss), enforcer Erik (Marc Kudisch) and accompanied by a clone of Sobeck named Beta (also voiced by Burch), possess advanced technology that renders them invulnerable. They take a second GAIA backup while Aloy barely escapes.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: Zo (Erica Luttrell), a member of the nearby Utaru tribe, guides Aloy to a control center where she rejoins GAIA with her subsystem MINERVA (Morla Gorrondona). GAIA locates the other subsystems AETHER (Wil Coban), DEMETER (Sophie Simnett), and POSEIDON (also Donohue), and advises Aloy to retrieve them before attempting to capture the more advanced HEPHAESTUS (Stefan Ashton Frank). GAIA reveals the extinction signal that triggered HADES originated from the Sirius system; Aloy suspects that it was sent by the futuristic humans. She later tracks down Beta, who informs Aloy that her group are in fact Far Zenith, colonists who fled Earth during its global extinction, having managed to extend their natural lifespans. After their colony on Sirius collapsed, the Zeniths returned to Earth to use GAIA through Beta's genetic make-up for their own recolonization. They have acquired subsystems ELEUTHIA, ARTEMIS, and APOLLO, but Beta has stolen their GAIA backup.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: Aloy recovers AETHER after helping Hekarro advance in the war and retrieves POSEIDON from the ruins of Las Vegas. Journeying to California, she encounters the Quen, a foreign tribe who are attempting to solve ecological crises in their homeland. Aloy helps tribe member Alva (Alison Jaye) with acquiring data, while recovering DEMETER. After obtaining a high level clearance from the tomb of a mutated Ted Faro (Lloyd Owen), Aloy uses GAIA to trap HEPHAESTUS, and is attacked by the Zeniths. Erik kills Varl and recaptures Beta while Gerard steals GAIA, but Tilda double crosses them and helps Aloy escape. Tilda explains that she was romantically involved with Elisabet and regretted leaving her; having been inspired by Aloy, she wishes to stop Far Zenith. She further reveals that Sylens has been supporting the Tenakth rebels to use them against the Zeniths. Aloy refuses to sacrifice the Tenakth and instead defeats Regalla herself after thwarting the latter's final attack on Hekarro.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: Aloy and her companions assault Far Zenith's base, while Beta releases HEPHAESTUS into the Zeniths' network and ties down Far Zenith's army. Sylens disables the Zeniths' personal defences, allowing Aloy and Zo to kill Erik, while Tilda kills Gerard. Aloy and Beta learn that the Far Zenith colony was in fact destroyed by Nemesis, a failed mind-uploading experiment they created; the Zeniths fled from Nemesis and hoped to steal GAIA to colonize a new planet. Nemesis also sent the extinction signal to Earth, and is en route to destroy the planet. Tilda tries to force Aloy to abandon Earth with her, but Aloy refuses and is forced to kill Tilda. Sylens reveals that HADES told him about Nemesis, and also plans to escape Earth, but has a change of heart and decides to aid Aloy against Nemesis. Aloy's companions disperse to spread the warning of Nemesis, while Aloy and Beta reactivate GAIA.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: Guerrilla Games began developing "Horizon Forbidden West" in 2018, a year after its predecessor "Horizon Zero Dawn" was released. It was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The director is Mathijs de Jonge and the narrative director is Benjamin McCaw. Joris de Man, The Flight (composed of Joe Henson and Alexis Smith), and Niels van de Leest return to compose an original score for the game alongside Oleksa Lozowchuk. Ashly Burch, Lance Reddick, and John Hopkins reprise their roles as Aloy, Sylens, and Erend, respectively. Angela Bassett plays a new character named Regalla, and Carrie-Anne Moss plays Tilda. Using motion capturing, Aloy's motions were acted by Peggy Vrijens.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: The PlayStation 5's increased processing power, custom solid-state drive storage, Tempest Engine, and DualSense controller provides the game with advanced haptic feedback, 3D spatial audio, enhanced lighting, special water rendering, improved visual effects, and reduced loading times. This version has an optional "performance mode" at 60 frames per second with a lower base resolution, and an updated version of the Decima engine supporting high dynamic range.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: "Horizon Forbidden West" was announced during Sony's PlayStation 5 reveal event in June 2020 with a planned release in 2021. On May 27, 2021, Guerrilla Games showcased a 14-minute PlayStation 5 gameplay demo for the game in Sony's State of Play presentation. In June 2021, head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst said they were on track for a late 2021 release but development was being partly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they were having trouble getting access to performance capture and talent. On August 25, 2021, it was announced that its release had been delayed to February 18, 2022. The game had "gone gold" on January 27, 2022, according to Guerrilla Games, meaning that physical copies were ready to be produced, with any further development delivered through online software updates.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: The PlayStation 4 version can be freely upgraded to the PlayStation 5 version. The PlayStation 4 version comes on two Blu-ray discs using 97GB, and the PlayStation 5 version comes on one Ultra HD Blu-ray using 98GB.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: A comic book series, set after the events of the first game, was published by Titan Comics on August 5, 2020. On June 3, 2021, Guerilla released an extended play (EP) titled "The Isle of Spires" composed of four tracks. On February 16, 2022, Argentine singer Nathy Peluso released "Emergencia", an electronic single inspired by the video game. In the music video, Peluso takes on the role of Aloy.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: A DLC pack titled "Burning Shores" was announced at The Game Awards 2022. In this DLC pack, Aloy must explore Los Angeles and deal with a "sinister threat". It will be released exclusively for the PS5 on April 19, 2023.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: "Horizon Forbidden West" received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many critics praised the game's larger setting compared to the first entry. In a review published by "Wired", Swapna Krishna praised "Horizon Forbidden West" as a successful open world game and as a manageable alternative to the less forgiving gameplay of "The Witcher 3", while in a review for NPR, Krishna compared the game favorably to the first in the series, writing that it "continues the achievements of its predecessor" while "seeking to improve upon them in every way". Jason Schreier, in a review for Bloomberg, echoed this sentiment, writing "The mantra for "Horizon Forbidden West"s development appears to be: make everything bigger, better and more beautiful." Conversely, in a mixed review for "The Telegraph", Dan Silver characterized the game's open world and scale as "overwhelming".


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: Some critics noted technical issues at launch, ranging from minor graphical issues, to crashes and losses of save files.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: In the UK, "Forbidden West" was the best digitally selling game during the week of release. At least 49% of all sales in the UK were made digitally. In Germany, over 200,000 copies of the game were sold during its launch month. The PlayStation 4 version of "Horizon Forbidden West" was the third bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 48,476 physical copies being sold. The PlayStation 5 version sold 43,012 physical copies in Japan throughout the same week, making it the fourth bestselling retail game of the week in the country.


title: Horizon Forbidden West

text: In July 2022 "Forbidden West" won the best game award and the best Visual Art award at the 2022 Star Awards. The game was up for 7 nominations at The Game Awards 2022, including Game of the Year, but lost to "Elden Ring".


title: Buddy Holly

text: Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.


title: Buddy Holly

text: He made his first appearance on local television in 1952, and the following year he formed the group "Buddy and Bob" with his friend Bob Montgomery. In 1955, after opening for Elvis Presley, he decided to pursue a career in music. He opened for Presley three times that year; his band's style shifted from country and western to entirely rock and roll. In October that year, when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets, he was spotted by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall, who helped him get a contract with Decca Records.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly's recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley, who had become famous for producing orchestrated country hits for stars like Patsy Cline. Unhappy with Bradley's musical style and control in the studio, Holly went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, and recorded a demo of "That'll Be the Day", among other songs. Petty became the band's manager and sent the demo to Brunswick Records, which released it as a single credited to "The Crickets", which became the name of Holly's band. In September 1957, as the band toured, "That'll Be the Day" topped the US and UK singles charts. Its success was followed in October by another major hit, "Peggy Sue".


title: Buddy Holly

text: The album "The "Chirping" Crickets", released in November 1957, reached number five on the UK Albums Chart. Holly made his second appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in January 1958 and soon after toured Australia and then the UK. In early 1959, he assembled a new band, consisting of future country music star Waylon Jennings (bass), famed session musician Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums), and embarked on a tour of the midwestern US. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, he chartered an airplane to travel to his next show in Moorhead, Minnesota. Soon after takeoff, the plane crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson in a tragedy later referred to by Don McLean as "The Day the Music Died" in his song "American Pie".


title: Buddy Holly

text: During his short career, Holly wrote and recorded many songs. He is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. He was a major influence on later popular music artists, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Hollies (who named themselves in his honor), Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, Marshall Crenshaw, and Elton John. He was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986. "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked him number 13 in its list of "100 Greatest Artists."


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley (spelled "-ey") on September 7, 1936, in Lubbock, Texas, the fourth child of Lawrence Odell "L.O." Holley (1901–1985) and Ella Pauline Drake (1902–1990). His elder siblings were Larry (1925–2022), Travis (1927–2016), and Patricia Lou (1929–2008). Holly was of mostly English and Welsh descent, and had small amounts of Native American ancestry as well. From early childhood, he was nicknamed "Buddy". During the Great Depression, the Holleys frequently moved residence within Lubbock; L.O. changed jobs several times. Buddy Holly was baptized a Baptist, and the family were members of the Tabernacle Baptist Church.


title: Buddy Holly

text: The Holleys had an interest in music; all the family members except L.O. were able to play an instrument or sing. The elder Holley brothers performed in local talent shows; on one occasion, Buddy joined them on violin. Since he could not play it, his brother Larry greased the bow so it would not make any sound. The brothers won the contest. During World War II, Larry and Travis were called to military service. Upon his return, Larry brought with him a guitar he had bought from a shipmate while serving in the Pacific. At age 11, Buddy took piano lessons but abandoned them after nine months. He switched to the guitar after he saw a classmate playing and singing on the school bus. Buddy's parents initially bought him a steel guitar, but he insisted that he wanted a guitar like his brother's. His parents bought the guitar from a pawnshop, and Travis taught him to play it.


title: Buddy Holly

text: During his early childhood, Holly was influenced by the music of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, Bill Monroe, Hank Snow, Bob Wills, and the Carter Family. At Roscoe Wilson Elementary, he became friends with Bob Montgomery, and the two played together, practicing with songs by the Louvin Brothers and Johnnie & Jack. They both listened to the radio programs "Grand Ole Opry" on WSM, "Louisiana Hayride" on KWKH, and "Big D Jamboree". At the same time, Holly played with other musicians he met in high school, including Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison. In 1952 Holly and Jack Neal participated as a duo billed as "Buddy and Jack" in a talent contest on a local television show. After Neal left, he was replaced by Bob Montgomery and they were billed as "Buddy and Bob". The two soon started performing on the "Sunday Party" show on KDAV in 1953 and performed live gigs in Lubbock. At that time, Holley was influenced by late-night radio stations that played blues and rhythm and blues (R&B). Holly would sit in his car with Curtis and tune to distant radio stations that could only be received at night, when local transmissions ceased. Holly then modified his music by blending his earlier country and western (C&W) influence with R & B.


title: Buddy Holly

text: By 1955, after graduating from Lubbock High School, Holly decided to pursue a full-time career in music. He was further encouraged after seeing Elvis Presley perform live in Lubbock, whose act was booked by Pappy Dave Stone of KDAV. In February, he opened for Presley at the Fair Park Coliseum, in April at the Cotton Club, and again in June at the Coliseum. By that time, he had incorporated into his band Larry Welborn on the stand-up bass and Allison on drums, as his style shifted from country and western to rock and roll due to seeing Presley's performances and hearing his music. In October, Stone booked Bill Haley & His Comets and placed Holley as the opening act to be seen by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall. Impressed, Crandall persuaded Grand Ole Opry manager Jim Denny to seek a recording contract for Holley. Stone sent a demo tape, which Denny forwarded to Paul Cohen, who signed the band to Decca Records in February 1956. In the contract, Decca misspelled Holly's surname as "Holly", and from then on he was known as "Buddy Holly", instead of his real name "Holley".


title: Buddy Holly

text: On January 26, 1956, Holly attended his first formal recording session, which was produced by Owen Bradley. He attended two more sessions in Nashville, but with the producer selecting the session musicians and arrangements, Holly became increasingly frustrated by his lack of creative control. In April 1956, Decca released "Blue Days, Black Nights" as a single, with "Love Me" on the B-side. Denny included Holly on a tour as the opening act for Faron Young. During the tour, they were promoted as "Buddy Holly and the Two Tones", while later Decca called them "Buddy Holly and the Three Tunes". The label later released Holly's second single "Modern Don Juan", backed with "You Are My One Desire". Neither single made an impression. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly his contract would not be renewed, but insisted he could not record the same songs for anyone else for five years.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly was unhappy with the results of his time with Decca; he was inspired by the success of Buddy Knox's "Party Doll" and Jimmy Bowen's "I'm Stickin' with You", and visited Norman Petty, who had produced and promoted both records. Together with Allison, bassist Joe B. Mauldin, and rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan, he went to Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. The group recorded a demo of "That'll Be the Day", a song they had previously recorded in Nashville. Now playing lead guitar, Holly achieved the sound he desired. Petty became his manager and sent the record to Brunswick Records in New York City. Holly, still under contract with Decca, could not release the record under his name, so a band name was used; Allison proposed the name "Crickets". Brunswick gave Holly a basic agreement to release "That'll Be the Day", leaving him with both artistic control and financial responsibility for future recordings.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Impressed with the demo, the label's executives released it without recording a new version. "I'm Looking for Someone to Love" was the B-side; the single was credited to The Crickets. Petty and Holly later learned that Brunswick was a subsidiary of Decca, which legally cleared future recordings under the name Buddy Holly. Recordings credited to the Crickets would be released on Brunswick, while the recordings under Holly's name were released on another subsidiary label, Coral Records. Holly concurrently held a recording contract with both labels.


title: Buddy Holly

text: "That'll Be the Day" was released on May 27, 1957. Petty booked Holly and the Crickets for a tour with Irvin Feld, who had noticed the band after "That'll Be the Day" appeared on the R&B chart. He booked them for appearances in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and New York City. The band was booked to play at New York's Apollo Theater on August 16–22. During the opening performances, the group did not impress the audience, but they were accepted after they included "Bo Diddley". By the end of their run at the Apollo, "That'll Be the Day" was climbing the charts. Encouraged by the single's success, Petty started to prepare two album releases; a solo album for Holly and another for the Crickets. Holly appeared on "American Bandstand", hosted by Dick Clark on ABC, on August 26. Before leaving New York, the band befriended the Everly Brothers.


title: Buddy Holly

text: "That'll Be the Day" topped the US "Best Sellers in Stores" chart on September 23 and was number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in November. On September 20, Coral released "Peggy Sue", backed with "Everyday", with Holly credited as the performer. By October, "Peggy Sue" had reached number three on "Billboard"s pop chart and number two on the R&B chart; it peaked at number six on the UK Singles chart. As the success of the song grew, it brought more attention to Holly, with the band at the time being billed as "Buddy Holly and the Crickets" (although never on records during Holly's lifetime; the record labels identified the band as "Buddy Holly and the Crickets" beginning in 1962).


title: Buddy Holly

text: In the last week of September, the band members flew to Lubbock to visit their families. Holly's high school girlfriend, Echo McGuire, had left him for a fellow student. Aside from McGuire, Holly had a relationship with Lubbock fan June Clark. After Clark ended their relationship, Holly realized the importance of his relationship with McGuire and considered his relationship with Clark a temporary one. Meanwhile, for their return to recording, Petty arranged a session in Oklahoma City, where he was performing with his own band. While the band drove to the location, the producer set up a makeshift studio. The rest of the songs needed for an album and singles were recorded; Petty later dubbed the material in Clovis. The resulting album, "The "Chirping" Crickets", was released on November 27, 1957. It reached number five on the UK Albums Chart. In October, Brunswick released the second single by the Crickets, "Oh, Boy!", with "Not Fade Away" on the B-side. The single reached number 10 on the pop chart and 13 on the R&B chart. Holly and the Crickets performed "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue" on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on December 1, 1957. Following the appearance, Niki Sullivan left the group because he was tired of the intensive touring, and he wanted to resume his education. On December 29 Holly and the Crickets performed "Peggy Sue" on "The Arthur Murray Party".


title: Buddy Holly

text: On January 8, 1958, Holly and the Crickets joined "America's Greatest Teenage Recording Stars" tour. On January 25, Holly recorded "Rave On"; the next day, he made his second appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show", singing "Oh, Boy!" He departed to perform in Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 27, and then started a week-long tour of Australia billed as the "Big Show" with Paul Anka, Jerry Lee Lewis and Jodie Sands . In March, the band toured the United Kingdom, playing 50 shows in 25 days. The same month, his debut solo album, "Buddy Holly", was released. Upon their return to the United States, Holly and the Crickets joined Alan Freed's "Big Beat Show" tour for 41 dates. In April, Decca released "That'll Be the Day", featuring the songs recorded with Bradley during his early Nashville sessions.


title: Buddy Holly

text: A new recording session in Clovis was arranged in May; Holly hired Tommy Allsup to play lead guitar. The session produced the recordings of "It's So Easy" and "Heartbeat". Holly was impressed by Allsup and invited him to join the Crickets. In June, Holly traveled alone to New York for a solo recording session. Without the Crickets, he chose to be backed by a jazz and R&B band, recording "Now We're One" and Bobby Darin's "Early in the Morning".


title: Buddy Holly

text: During a visit to the offices of Peer-Southern, Holly met María Elena Santiago. He asked her out on their first meeting and proposed marriage to her on their first date. The wedding took place on August 15. Holly's manager Norman Petty disapproved of the marriage and advised Holly to keep it secret to avoid upsetting Holly's female fans. Petty's suggestion created friction with Holly, who had also started to question Petty's bookkeeping. The Crickets were also frustrated with Petty, who controlled all of the proceeds earned by the band.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly and Santiago frequented many of New York's music venues, including the Village Gate, Blue Note, Village Vanguard, and Johnny Johnson's. Santiago later said that Holly was keen to learn fingerstyle flamenco guitar and that he would often visit her aunt's home to play the piano there. Holly planned collaborations between soul singers and rock and roll. He wanted to make an album with Ray Charles and Mahalia Jackson. He also had ambitions to work in film and registered for acting classes with Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Santiago accompanied Holly on tours. To hide her marriage to Holly, she was presented as the Crickets' secretary. She took care of the laundry and equipment set-up and collected the concert revenues. Santiago kept the money for the band instead of their habitual transfer to Petty in New Mexico. She and her aunt Provi Garcia, an executive in the Latin American music department at Peer-Southern, convinced Holly that Petty was paying the band's royalties from Coral-Brunswick into his own company's account. Holly planned to retrieve his royalties from Petty and to later fire him as manager and producer. At the recommendation of the Everly Brothers, Holly hired lawyer Harold Orenstein to negotiate his royalties. The problems with Petty were triggered after he was unable to pay Holly. At the time, New York promoter Manny Greenfield reclaimed a large part of Holly's earnings; Greenfield had booked Holly for shows during previous tours. The two had a verbal agreement; Greenfield would obtain 5% of the booking earnings. Greenfield later felt he was also acting as Holly's manager and deserved a higher payment, which Holly refused. Greenfield then sued Holly. Under New York law, because Holly's royalties originated in New York and were directed out of the state, the payments were frozen until the dispute was settled. Petty then could not complete the transfers to Holly, who considered him responsible for the missing profit.


title: Buddy Holly

text: In September, Holly returned to Clovis for a new recording session, which yielded "Reminiscing" and "Come Back Baby". During the session, he ventured into producing by recording Lubbock DJ Waylon Jennings. Holly produced the single "Jole Blon" and "When Sin Stops (Love Begins)" for Jennings. Holly became increasingly interested in the New York music, recording, and publishing scene. Holly and Santiago settled in Apartment 4H of the Brevoort Apartments, at 11 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village, where he recorded a series of acoustic songs, including "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and "What to Do". The inspiration to record the songs is sometimes attributed to the ending of his relationship with McGuire.


title: Buddy Holly

text: On October 21, 1958, Holly's final studio session was recorded at the Pythian Temple on West 70th Street (now a luxury condominium). Known by Holly fans as "the string sessions", Holly recorded four songs for Coral in an innovative collaboration with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra, an 18-piece ensemble composed of former members of the NBC Symphony Orchestra including saxophonist Boomie Richman.


title: Buddy Holly

text: These four songs were the only ones Coral ever mixed in stereo, but only "Raining in My Heart" was released that way (in 1959, on an obscure promotional LP titled "Hitsville"). All four records otherwise received releases in mono. The original stereo mixes were consulted many years later for compilation albums.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly ended his association with Petty in December 1958. His band members kept Petty as their manager and split from Holly. The split was amicable and based on logistics: Holly had decided to settle permanently in New York, where the business and publishing offices were, and the Crickets preferred not to leave their home state. Petty was still holding the money from the royalties, forcing Holly to form a new band and return to touring.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly vacationed with his wife in Lubbock and visited Jennings's radio station in December 1958. For the start of the Winter Dance Party tour, he assembled a band consisting of Waylon Jennings (electric bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums). Holly and Jennings left for New York City, arriving on January 15, 1959. Jennings stayed at Holly's apartment by Washington Square Park on the days prior to a meeting scheduled at the headquarters of the General Artists Corporation, which organized the tour. They then traveled by train to Chicago to join the rest of the band.


title: Buddy Holly

text: The Winter Dance Party tour began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 23, 1959. The amount of travel involved created logistical problems, as the distance between venues had not been considered when scheduling performances. Adding to the problem, the unheated tour buses twice broke down in freezing weather, with dire consequences. Holly's drummer Carl Bunch was hospitalized for frostbite to his toes (sustained while aboard the bus), so Holly decided to seek other transportation. On February 2, before their appearance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza airplane for Jennings, Allsup, and himself, from Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa. Holly's idea was to depart following the show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake and fly to their next venue, in Moorhead, Minnesota, via Fargo, North Dakota, allowing them time to rest and launder their clothes and avoid a rigorous bus journey. Immediately after the Clear Lake show (which ended just before midnight), Allsup agreed to flip a coin for the seat with Valens. Valens called heads; when he won, he reportedly said, "That's the first time I've ever won anything in my life." Allsup later opened a restaurant/bar in Fort Worth, Texas, called Heads Up Saloon. Waylon Jennings voluntarily gave up his seat to J. P. Richardson (the Big Bopper), who had influenza and complained that the tour bus was too cold and uncomfortable for a man of his size.


title: Buddy Holly

text: The pilot, Roger Peterson, took off in inclement weather, even though he was not certified to fly by instruments only. Buddy's brother Larry Holley said, "I got the full report from the Civil Aeronautics – it took me a year to get it, but I got it – and they had installed a new Sperry gyroscope in the airplane. The Sperry works different than any other gyro. One of them, the background moves and the plane stays like this [stationary], and in the other one the background stays steady and the plane moves, it works just backwards. He [the pilot] could have been reading this backwards... they were going down, they thought they were still climbing."


title: Buddy Holly

text: Shortly after 12:55 am on February 3, 1959, Holly, Valens, Richardson, and Peterson were killed when the aircraft crashed into a cornfield five miles northwest of Mason City shortly after takeoff. The three musicians, who were ejected from the fuselage upon impact, sustained severe head and chest injuries. Holly was 22 years old.


title: Buddy Holly

text: The report did not mention a gun belonging to Holly that was found by a farmer two months after the crash. Newspaper accounts of the gun discovery fueled rumors among fans that the pilot was somehow shot, causing the crash. Another curious finding at the crash was that Richardson's body was discovered nearly 40 feet (12 meters) away from the crash while the others were found in or near the wreckage. However an autopsy done at the request of Richardson's son in 2007 found no evidence to support the rumours. Dr. Bill Bass, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, stated that "There was no indication of foul play," and that Richardson "died immediately."


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly's funeral was held on February 7, 1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock. The service was officiated by Ben D. Johnson, who had presided at the Hollys' wedding just months earlier. The pallbearers were Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, Bob Montgomery, and Sonny Curtis. Some sources say that Phil Everly, one half of The Everly Brothers, was also pallbearer, but Everly said that he attended the funeral but was not a pallbearer. Waylon Jennings was unable to attend because of his commitment to the still-touring Winter Dance Party. Holly's body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery, in the eastern part of the city. His headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Santiago watched the first reports of Holly's death on television. The following day, she suffered a miscarriage. Holly's mother, who heard the news on the radio in Lubbock, Texas, screamed and collapsed. Because of Elena's miscarriage, in the months following the accident, the authorities implemented a policy against announcing victims' names until after families are informed. Santiago did not attend the funeral and has never visited the grave site. She later told the "Avalanche-Journal", "In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane."


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly's singing style was characterized by his vocal hiccups and his alternation between his regular voice and falsetto. His "stuttering vocals" were complemented by his percussive guitar playing, solos, stops, bent notes, and rhythm and blues chord progressions. He often strummed downstrokes that were accompanied by Allison's "driving" percussion.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly bought his first Fender Stratocaster, which became his signature guitar, at Harrod Music in Lubbock for $249.50. Fender Stratocasters were popular with country musicians; Holly chose it for its loud sound. His "innovative" playing style was characterized by its blending of "chunky rhythm" and "high string lead work". He played his first Stratocaster, a 1954 model, until it was stolen during a tour stop in Michigan in 1957. To replace it, he purchased a 1957 model before a show in Detroit. Holly owned four or five Stratocasters during his career.


title: Buddy Holly

text: At the beginning of their music careers, Holly and his group wore business suits. When they met the Everly Brothers, Don Everly took the band to Phil's men's shop in New York City and introduced them to Ivy League clothes. The brothers advised Holly to replace his old-fashioned glasses with horn-rimmed glasses, which had been popularized by Steve Allen. Holly bought a pair of glasses made in Mexico from Lubbock optometrist Dr. J. Davis Armistead. Teenagers in the United States started to request this style of glasses, which were later popularly known as "Buddy Holly glasses".


title: Buddy Holly

text: When the plane crashed, the wreckage was strewn across many yards of snow-covered ground. While his other belongings were recovered immediately, there was no record of his signature glasses being found. They were presumed lost until, in March 1980, they were discovered in a Cerro Gordo County courthouse storage area by Sheriff Gerald Allen. They had been found in the spring of 1959, after the snow had melted, and had been given to the sheriff's office. They were placed in an envelope dated April 7, 1959, along with the Big Bopper's watch, a lighter, two pairs of dice and part of another watch, and misplaced when the county moved courthouses. The glasses, missing their lenses, were returned to Santiago a year later, after a legal contest over them with his parents. They are now on display at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Buddy Holly left behind dozens of unfinished recordings — solo transcriptions of his new compositions, informal jam sessions with bandmates, or tapes demonstrating songs intended for other artists. The last known recordings, made in Holly's apartment in late 1958, were his last six original songs. In June 1959, Coral Records overdubbed two of them with backing vocals by the Ray Charles Singers and studio musicians in an attempt to simulate the established Crickets sound. The finished tracks became the first posthumous Holly single, "Peggy Sue Got Married"/"Crying, Waiting, Hoping". The new release was successful enough to warrant an album drawing upon the other Holly demos, using the same studio personnel, in January 1960. All six songs were included in "The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2" (1960).


title: Buddy Holly

text: The demand for Holly records was so great, and Holly had recorded so prolifically, that his record label was able to release new Holly albums and singles for the next 10 years. Norman Petty produced most of these new editions, drawing upon unreleased studio masters, alternate takes, audition tapes, and even amateur recordings (some dating back to 1954 with low-fidelity vocals). The final "new" Buddy Holly album, "Giant", was released in 1969; the single chosen from the album was "Love Is Strange".


title: Buddy Holly

text: "Encyclopædia Britannica" stated that Holly "produced some of the most distinctive and influential work in rock music". AllMusic defined him as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll". "Rolling Stone" ranked him number 13 on its list of "100 Greatest Artists". The "Telegraph" called him a "pioneer and a revolutionary [...] a multidimensional talent [...] (who) co-wrote and performed (songs that) remain as fresh and potent today".


title: Buddy Holly

text: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included Holly among its first class in 1986. On its entry, the Hall of Fame remarked upon the large quantity of material he produced during his short musical career, and said it "made a major and lasting impact on popular music". It called him an "innovator" for writing his own material, his experimentation with double tracking and the use of orchestration; he is also said to have "pioneered and popularized the now-standard" use of two guitars, bass, and drums by rock bands. The Songwriters Hall of Fame also inducted Holly in 1986, and said his contributions "changed the face of Rock 'n' Roll". Holly developed in collaboration with Petty techniques of overdubbing and reverb, while he used innovative instrumentation later implemented by other artists. Holly became "one of the most influential pioneers of rock and roll" who had a "lasting influence" on genre performers of the 1960s.


title: Buddy Holly

text: In 1980, Grant Speed sculpted a statue of Holly playing his Fender guitar. This statue is the centerpiece of Lubbock's Walk of Fame, which honors notable people who contributed to Lubbock's musical history. Other memorials to Buddy Holly include a street named in his honor and the Buddy Holly Center, which contains a museum of Holly memorabilia and fine arts gallery. The center is located on Crickets Avenue, one street east of Buddy Holly Avenue, in a building that previously housed the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway Depot.


title: Buddy Holly

text: In 1997, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave Holly the Lifetime Achievement Award. Holly was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2010, Grant Speed's statue was taken down for refurbishment and construction of a new Walk of Fame began. On May 9, 2011, the City of Lubbock held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Buddy and Maria Elena Holly Plaza, the new home of the statue and the Walk of Fame. The same year, a star bearing Holly's name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, commemorating his 75th birthday.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Groundbreaking was held on April 20, 2017, for the construction of a new performing arts center in Lubbock, the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences, a downtown $153 million project expected to be completed in 2020. Thus far, the private group, the Lubbock Entertainment and Performing Arts Association, has raised or received pledges in the amount of $93 million to underwrite the project.


title: Buddy Holly

text: According to a June 2019 article in "The New York Times Magazine", "virtually all" of Holly's masters were lost in the 2008 Universal fire. This is disputed by Chad Kassem of Analogue Productions, who claims to have used the master tapes of Holly's first two albums in Analogue Productions reissues of these albums on LP and SACD in 2017.


title: Buddy Holly

text: John Lennon and Paul McCartney saw Holly for the first time when he appeared on "Sunday Night at the London Palladium". The two had recently met and begun their musical association. They studied Holly's records, learned his performance style and lyricism, and based their act around his persona. Inspired by Holly's insect-themed Crickets, they chose to name their band "The Beatles". Lennon and McCartney later cited Holly as one of their main influences.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Lennon's band the Quarrymen covered "That'll Be the Day" in their first recording session, in 1958. During breaks in the Beatles' first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show", on February 9, 1964, Lennon asked CBS coordinator Vince Calandra about Holly's performances; Calandra said Lennon and McCartney repeatedly expressed their appreciation of Holly. The Beatles recorded a close cover of Holly's version of "Words of Love", which was released on their 1964 album "Beatles for Sale" (in the US, in June 1965 on "Beatles VI"). During the January 1969 recording sessions for their album "Let It Be", the Beatles played a slow, impromptu version of "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" – which Holly popularized but did not write – with Lennon mimicking Holly's vocal style. Lennon recorded a cover version of "Peggy Sue" on his 1975 album "Rock 'n' Roll". McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.


title: Buddy Holly

text: On January 31, 1959, two nights before Holly's death, 17-year-old Bob Dylan attended Holly's performance in Duluth. Dylan referred to this in his acceptance speech when he received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for "Time Out of Mind" in 1998: "... when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him ... and he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was ... with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way".


title: Buddy Holly

text: Mick Jagger saw Holly performing live in Woolwich, London, during a tour of England; Jagger particularly remembered Holly's performance of "Not Fade Away" – a song that also inspired Keith Richards, who modeled his early guitar playing on the track. The Rolling Stones had a hit version of the song in 1964. Richards later said, "[Holly] passed it on via the Beatles and via [the Rolling Stones] ... He's in everybody".


title: Buddy Holly

text: Don McLean's popular 1971 ballad "American Pie" was inspired by Holly's death and the day of the plane crash. The song's lyric, which calls the incident "The Day the Music Died", became popularly associated with the crash. McLean's album "American Pie" is dedicated to Holly. In 2015, McLean wrote, "Buddy Holly would have the same stature musically whether he would have lived or died, because of his accomplishments ... By the time he was 22 years old, he had recorded some 50 tracks, most of which he had written himself ... in my view and the view of many others, a hit ... Buddy Holly and the Crickets were the template for all the rock bands that followed".


title: Buddy Holly

text: Elton John was musically influenced by Holly. At age 13, although he did not require them, John started wearing horn-rimmed glasses to imitate Holly. The Clash were also influenced by Holly, and referenced him in their song "If Music Could Talk" from the "Sandinista!" album. "The Chirping Crickets" was the first album Eric Clapton ever bought; he later saw Holly on "Sunday Night at the London Palladium". In his autobiography, Clapton recounted the first time he saw Holly and his Fender, saying, "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven ... it was like seeing an instrument from outer space and I said to myself: 'That's the future – that's what I want'".


title: Buddy Holly

text: The launch of Bobby Vee's successful musical career resulted from Holly's death; Vee was selected to replace Holly on the tour that continued after the plane crash. Holly's profound influence on Vee's singing style can be heard in the songs "Rubber Ball" – the B-side of which was a cover of Holly's "Everyday" – and "Run to Him". The name of the British rock band the Hollies is often claimed as a tribute to Holly; according to the band, they admired Holly, but their name was mainly inspired by sprigs of holly in evidence around Christmas 1962. In an August 24, 1978, interview with "Rolling Stone", Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh, "I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest". The Grateful Dead performed the song "Not Fade Away" in concerts.


title: Buddy Holly

text: In 2016, Richard Barone released his album "Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960s", paying tribute to the new wave of singer-songwriters in the Village during that pivotal, post-Holly era. The album opens with Barone's version of "Learning the Game", one of the final songs written and recorded by Holly at his home in Greenwich Village, a week before his death.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly's life story inspired a Hollywood biographical film, "The Buddy Holly Story" (1978); its lead actor Gary Busey received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Holly. The film was widely criticized by the rock press, and by Holly's friends and family, for its inaccuracies. This led Paul McCartney (whose MPL Communications by then controlled the publishing rights to Buddy Holly's song catalog) to produce and host his own documentary about Holly in 1985, titled "The Real Buddy Holly Story". This video includes interviews with Keith Richards, Phil and Don Everly, Sonny Curtis, Jerry Allison, Holly's family, and McCartney, among others.


title: Buddy Holly

text: In 1987, musician Marshall Crenshaw portrayed Buddy Holly in the movie "La Bamba", which depicts him performing at the Surf Ballroom and boarding the fatal airplane with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Crenshaw's version of "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" is featured on the "La Bamba" original motion picture soundtrack.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Holly was depicted in a 1989 episode of the science-fiction television program "Quantum Leap" titled "How the Tess Was Won"; Holly's identity is only revealed at the end of the episode. Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) influences Buddy Holly to change his lyrics from "piggy, suey" to "Peggy Sue", setting up Holly's future hit song. Holly's follow up to that hit song is featured in the 1986 Francis Ford Coppola film "Peggy Sue Got Married", in which a 43-year-old mother and housewife facing divorce played by Kathleen Turner is thrust back in time and given the chance to change the course of her life.


title: Buddy Holly

text: Steve Buscemi appeared as Holly in a brief cameo as a 1950s-themed restaurant employee in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film "Pulp Fiction", in which he takes Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega's orders (portrayed respectively by Uma Thurman and John Travolta).


title: Buddy Holly

text: In 1985, the German punk band Die Ärzte composed a song centering on Buddy Holly's glasses, titled "Buddy Holly's Brille".


title: Buddy Holly

text: In 1998, the post-apocalyptic film "Six String Samurai" depicted Holly as a guitar-playing samurai traveling to Las Vegas to become the new king of Nevada after the death of Elvis Presley.


title: Buddy Holly

text: In 2006, country band the Dixie Chicks mention Buddy Holly in their song "Lubbock or Leave It". Lead singer Natalie Maines and Holly share a hometown of Lubbock, Texas.


title: Buddy Holly

text: The TV documentary "Buddy Holly – Rave On: The Story of Buddy Holly" aired on BBC Four in 2017. An upcoming documentary "The Day the Music Died/American Pie" explores the story behind the Don Mclean song.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, layered vocals, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson is also known for his formerly high-ranged singing and for his lifelong struggles with mental illness.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Raised in Hawthorne, California, Wilson's formative influences included George Gershwin, the Four Freshmen, Phil Spector, and Burt Bacharach. In 1961, he began his professional career as a member of the Beach Boys, serving as the band's songwriter, producer, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, and "de facto" leader. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, he became the first pop artist credited for writing, arranging, producing, and performing his own material. He also produced other acts, most notably the Honeys and American Spring. By the mid-1960s, he had written or co-written more than two dozen U.S. Top 40 hits, including the number-ones "Surf City" (1963), "I Get Around" (1964), "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), and "Good Vibrations" (1966). He is considered among the first music producer "auteurs" and the first rock producers to apply the studio as an instrument.


title: Brian Wilson

text: In 1964, Wilson had a nervous breakdown and resigned from regular concert touring, which led to more refined work, such as the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" and his first credited solo release, "Caroline, No" (both 1966), as well as the unfinished album "Smile". As he declined professionally and psychologically in the late 1960s, his contributions to the band diminished, and legends grew around his lifestyle of seclusion, overeating, and drug abuse. His first comeback, divisive among fans, yielded the would-be solo effort "The Beach Boys Love You" (1977). In the 1980s, he formed a controversial creative and business partnership with his psychologist, Eugene Landy, and relaunched his solo career with the album "Brian Wilson" (1988). Wilson disassociated from Landy in 1991. Since 1999, he has toured regularly as a solo artist.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Heralding popular music's recognition as an art form, Wilson's accomplishments as a producer helped initiate an era of unprecedented creative autonomy for label-signed acts. The youth zeitgeist of the 1960s is commonly associated with his early songs, and he is regarded as an important figure to many music genres and movements, including the California sound, art pop, psychedelia, chamber pop, progressive music, punk, outsider, and sunshine pop. Since the 1980s, his influence has extended to styles such as post-punk, indie rock, emo, dream pop, "Shibuya-kei", and chillwave. Wilson's accolades include numerous industry awards, inductions into multiple music halls of fame, and entries on several "greatest of all time" critics' rankings. His life was dramatized in the 2014 biopic "Love & Mercy".


title: Brian Wilson

text: Brian Douglas Wilson was born on June 20, 1942, at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, California, the first child of Audree Neva ("née" Korthof) and Murry Wilson, a machinist and later a part-time songwriter. He has Dutch, Scottish, English, German, Irish, and Swedish ancestry. Brian's two younger brothers Dennis and Carl were born in 1944 and 1946, respectively. Shortly after Dennis' birth, the family moved from Inglewood to 3701 West 119th Street in nearby Hawthorne, California. Like his brothers, Brian suffered abuse from his father that was mostly psychological and sometimes physical. He characterized his father as "violent" and "cruel"; however, many of the stories which later circulated about his father's treatment were "dirty lies", according to Wilson, and that "even the things that are true" had been misreported.


title: Brian Wilson

text: From an early age, Wilson demonstrated an extraordinary skill for learning by ear. Speaking of his unusual musical abilities prior to his first birthday, his father said that, as a baby, he could repeat the melody from "When the Caissons Go Rolling Along" after only a few verses had been sung by the father. The Wilsons' father encouraged his children in the music field in numerous ways. As a child, Wilson was given six weeks of lessons on a "toy accordion" and, at seven and eight, sang solos in church with a choir behind him. There, his choir director discovered that Wilson had perfect pitch. After the Wilson family purchased a piano for their home, Brian abandoned his accordion and devoted hours to learning his favorite songs on piano. Later, he learned to write manuscript music from a friend of his father's.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Wilson sang with various students at school functions and with his family and friends at home, teaching his two brothers harmony parts that all three would then practice. He also played piano obsessively after school, deconstructing the harmonies of the Four Freshmen by listening to short segments of their songs on a phonograph, then working to recreate the blended sounds note by note on the keyboard. Moreover, he owned an educational record called "The Instruments of the Orchestra" and frequently listened to his favorite radio station at the time, KFWB. He was introduced to R&B by Carl and taught to play boogie woogie piano by their uncle Charlie. According to Brian, he and Carl often "stayed up all night" listening to Johnny Otis' KFOX radio show to discuss its R&B songs and add them "to our musical vocabulary". Carl said that, by the time Brian was ten, "he could play great boogie-woogie piano!"


title: Brian Wilson

text: One of Brian's first songwriting exercises, penned on a sheet of paper when he was nine, was a rewriting of the lyrics to Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susannah". In his 1991 memoir, he recalls writing his first song for a 4th grade school project concerning Paul Bunyan. In a 2005 interview, he said that he began composing original music in 1955, when he was 12.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Carl said, "There were many years of [Brian's] life where he did nothing but play the piano. Months at a time. Days on end. Four Freshmen records. Just all music." Dennis remembered, "Brian was the freak. He used to stay in his room all day listening to records rather than play baseball." Their mother recalled that Brian "constantly" listened to the radio in his room during his junior high school years. "Murry once [said] to me, 'Do you think we should worry about him?' I said, 'No. He's just loving the music.'"


title: Brian Wilson

text: In high school, Wilson was quarterback on his local football team at Hawthorne High. He also played baseball and was a cross-country runner in his senior year. Before his success in music, Wilson's only paid employment was a part-time job sweeping at a jewelry store for four months when he was 15. On weekends, he was also a cleaner for his father's machining company, ABLE. Around this time, Wilson auditioned to be the singer of the record to mark the launch of the Original Sound Record Company, "Chapel of Love" (unrelated to the 1964 song), but he was rejected for being too young. For his 16th birthday, he received a portable two-track Wollensak tape recorder, allowing him to experiment with recording songs, group vocals, and rudimentary production techniques. Biographer Peter Ames Carlin writes that the tapes suggest that "Brian liked nothing more than to gather his friends around the piano [...] Most often he'd harmonize with [...] friends from his senior class."


title: Brian Wilson

text: Written for his Senior Problems course in October 1959, Wilson submitted an essay, "My Philosophy", in which he stated that his ambitions were to "make a name for myself [...] in music." One of Wilson's earliest public performances was at a fall arts program at his high school. He enlisted his cousin and frequent singing partner Mike Love and, to entice Carl into the group, named the newly formed membership "Carl and the Passions." The performance featured tunes by Dion and the Belmonts and the Four Freshmen ("It's a Blue World"), the latter of which proved difficult for the ensemble. The event was notable for the impression which it made on another musician and classmate of Wilson's in the audience, Al Jardine.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Fred Morgan, Wilson's high school music teacher, remembered that Wilson, at 17, had demonstrated an above-average understanding of Bach and Beethoven. Nonetheless, he gave Wilson a final grade of C for his Piano and Harmony course due to incomplete assignments. For his final project, instead of composing a 120-measure piano sonata, Wilson submitted a 32-measure piece. Morgan gave the work an F. Reflecting on his last year of high school, Brian said that he was ""very" happy. I wouldn't say I was popular in school, but I was associated with popular people."


title: Brian Wilson

text: Wilson enrolled as a psychology major at El Camino Junior College in Los Angeles, in September 1960, while simultaneously continuing his musical studies at the community college as well. He was disappointed to find that his music teachers strongly disapproved of pop music, and he quit college after a year and half. By Wilson's account, he wrote his first all-original melody, loosely based on a Dion and the Belmonts version of "When You Wish Upon a Star", in 1961. The song was eventually known as "Surfer Girl". However, Wilson's closest high school friends disputed this, recalling that Wilson had written numerous songs prior to "Surfer Girl".


title: Brian Wilson

text: Wilson, brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine first appeared as a music group in the autumn of 1961, initially under the name the Pendletones. After being prodded by Dennis to write a song about the local water-sports craze, Wilson and Mike Love together created what became the first single for the band, "Surfin'". Around this time, the group rented an amplifier, a microphone, and a stand-up bass for Jardine to play. After the boys rehearsed for several weeks in the Wilsons' music room, his parents returned home from a brief trip to Mexico. Eventually impressed, Murry Wilson proclaimed himself the group's manager and the band embarked on serious rehearsals for a proper studio session.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Recorded by Hite and Dorinda Morgan and released on the small Candix Records label, "Surfin'" became a top local hit in Los Angeles and reached number 75 on the national "Billboard" sales charts. Dennis later described the first time that his older brother heard their song on the radio, as the three Wilson brothers and David Marks drove in Wilson's 1957 Ford in the rain: "Nothing will ever top the expression on Brian's face, ever ... "that" was the all-time moment." However, the Pendletones were no more, as Candix Records had changed their name to the Beach Boys. Wilson and his bandmates, following a set by Ike & Tina Turner, performed their first major live show at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance on New Year's Eve, 1961. Three days previously, Wilson's father had bought him an electric bass and amplifier. Wilson had learned to play the instrument in that short period of time, with Jardine moving to rhythm guitar.


title: Brian Wilson

text: When Candix Records ran into money problems and sold the Beach Boys' master recordings to another label, Wilson's father terminated the contract. As "Surfin'" faded from the charts, Wilson, who had forged a songwriting partnership with local musician Gary Usher, created several new songs, including a car song, "409", that Usher helped them write. Wilson and the Beach Boys cut new tracks at Western Recorders in Hollywood, including "Surfin' Safari" and "409". These songs convinced Capitol Records to release the demos as a single; they became a double-sided national hit.


title: Brian Wilson

text: As a member of the Beach Boys, Wilson was signed by Capitol Records' Nick Venet to a seven-year contract in 1962. Recording sessions for the band's first album, "Surfin' Safari", took place in Capitol's basement studios in the famous tower building in August, but early on Wilson lobbied for a different place to cut Beach Boys tracks. The large rooms were built to record the big orchestras and ensembles of the 1950s, not small rock groups. At Wilson's insistence, Capitol agreed to let the Beach Boys pay for their own outside recording sessions, to which Capitol would own all the rights. Additionally, during the taping of their first LP, Wilson fought for, and won, the right to helm the production – though this fact was not acknowledged with an album liner notes production credit.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Wilson remarked, "I've always felt I was a behind-the-scenes man, rather than an entertainer." He had been a massive fan of Phil Spector – who had risen to fame with the Teddy Bears – and aspired to model his burgeoning career after the record producer. With Gary Usher, Wilson wrote numerous songs patterned after the Teddy Bears, and they wrote and produced some records for local talent, albeit with no commercial success. Brian gradually dissolved his partnership with Usher due to interference from Murry. Brian's first record that he produced outside of the Beach Boys, albeit uncredited, was Rachel and the Revolvers' "The Revo-Lution", written with Usher and issued by Dot Records in September.


title: Brian Wilson

text: By mid-1962, Brian was writing songs with DJ Roger Christian, whom he had met through either Murry or Usher, and guitarist Bob Norberg, who became Wilson's roommate. David Marks said, "He was obsessed with it. Brian was writing song with people off the street in front of his house, disc jockeys, anyone. He had so much stuff flowing through him at once he could hardly handle it." In October, Safari Records, a label created by Murry, released the single "The Surfer Moon" by Bob & Sheri. It was the first record that bore the label "Produced by Brian Wilson". The only other record the label issued was Bob & Sheri's "Humpty Dumpty". Both songs were written by Wilson.


title: Brian Wilson

text: From January to March 1963, Wilson produced the Beach Boys' second album, "Surfin' U.S.A.". To focus his efforts on writing and recording, he limited his public appearances with the group to television gigs and local shows. Otherwise, David Marks acted as Wilson's substitute on vocals. In March, Capitol released the Beach Boys' first top-ten single, "Surfin' U.S.A.", which began their long run of highly successful recording efforts at Western. The "Surfin' U.S.A." album was also a big hit in the U.S., reaching number two on the national sales charts by July. The Beach Boys had become a top-rank recording and touring band.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Against Venet's wishes, Wilson worked with non-Capitol acts. Shortly after meeting Liberty Records' Jan and Dean (likely in August 1962), Wilson offered them a new song he had written, "Surf City", which the duo soon recorded. On July 20, 1963, "Surf City", which Wilson co-wrote with Jan Berry, was his first composition to reach the top of the US charts. The resulting success pleased Wilson, but angered both Murry and Capitol Records. Murry went so far as to order his oldest son to sever any future collaborations with Jan and Dean, although they continued to appear on each other's records. Wilson's hits with Jan and Dean effectively revitalized the music duo's then-faltering career.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Around the same time, Wilson began producing a girl group, the Honeys, consisting of sisters Marilyn and Diane Rovell and their cousin Ginger Blake, who were local high school students he had met at a Beach Boys concert during the previous August. Wilson pitched the Honeys to Capitol, envisioning them as a female counterpart to the Beach Boys. The company released several Honeys recordings as singles, although they sold poorly. In the meantime, Wilson became closely acquainted with the Rovell family and made their home his primary residence for most of 1963 and 1964.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Wilson was for the first time officially credited as the Beach Boys' producer on the album "Surfer Girl", recorded in June and July 1963 and released that September. This LP reached number seven on the national charts, with similarly successful singles. He also produced a set of largely car-oriented tunes for the Beach Boys' fourth album, "Little Deuce Coupe", which was released in October 1963, only three weeks after the "Surfer Girl" LP. Still resistant to touring, Wilson was replaced onstage for many of the band's live performances in mid-1963 by Al Jardine, who had briefly quit the band to focus on school. Wilson was forced to rejoin the touring line-up upon Marks' departure in late 1963.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Towards the end of 1963, Wilson formed a record production company, Brian Wilson Productions, with an office on Sunset Boulevard, and a music publishing company, Ocean Music, for songs he wrote for other artists. Excepting his work with the Beach Boys, for the whole of 1963, Wilson had written, arranged, produced, or performed on at least 42 songs with the Honeys, Jan and Dean, the Survivors, Sharon Marie, the Timers, the Castells ("I Do"), Bob Norberg, Vickie Kocher, Gary Usher, Christian, Paul Petersen ("She Rides with Me"), and Larry Denton ("Endless Sleep").


title: Brian Wilson

text: Throughout 1964, Wilson engaged in worldwide concert tours with the Beach Boys while continuing to write and produce for the group, whose studio output for this year included the albums "Shut Down Volume 2" (March), "All Summer Long" (June), and "The Beach Boys' Christmas Album" (November). Following a particularly stressful Australasian tour in early 1964, it was agreed by the group to dismiss Murry from his managerial duties. Murry still had a subsequent influence over the band's activities and kept a direct correspondence with Brian, giving him thoughts about the group's decisions; Wilson also periodically sought music opinions from his father.


title: Brian Wilson

text: In February, Beatlemania swept the U.S., a development that deeply disturbed Wilson. In a 1966 interview, he commented, "The Beatles invasion shook me up a lot. They eclipsed a lot of what we'd worked for. [...] The Beach Boys' supremacy as the number one vocal group in America was being challenged. So we stepped on the gas a little bit." Author James Perone identifies the Beach Boys' May single "I Get Around", their first U.S. number one hit, as representing both a successful response by Wilson to the British Invasion, and the beginning of an unofficial rivalry between him and the Beatles, principally Paul McCartney. The B-side, "Don't Worry Baby", was cited by Wilson in a 1970 interview as "Probably the best record we've done".


title: Brian Wilson

text: The increasing pressures of Wilson's career and personal life pushed him to a psychological breaking point. He had ceased writing surfing-themed material after "Don't Back Down" in April, and during the group's first major European tour, in late 1964, replied angrily to a journalist when asked how he felt about originating the surfing sound. Wilson resented being identified with surf and car songs, explaining that he had only intended to "produce a sound that teens dig, and that can be applied to any theme. [...] We're just gonna stay on the life of a social teenager." He later described himself as a "Mr Everything" that had been so "run down mentally and emotionally [...] to the point where I had no peace of mind and no chance to actually sit down and think or even rest." Adding to his concerns was the group's "business operations" and the quality of their records, which he believed suffered from this arrangement. On December 7, in an effort to bring himself more emotional stability, Wilson impulsively married Marilyn Rovell.


title: Brian Wilson

text: On December 23, Wilson was to accompany his bandmates on a two-week US tour, but while on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, began sobbing uncontrollably over his marriage. Al Jardine, who had sat next to Wilson on the plane, later said, "None of us had ever witnessed something like that." Wilson played the show in Houston later that day, but was replaced by session musician Glen Campbell for the rest of the tour dates. At the time, Wilson described it as "the first of a series of three breakdowns I had." When the group resumed recording their next album in January 1965, Wilson declared to his bandmates that he would be withdrawing from future tours. He later told a journalist that his decision had been a byproduct of his "fucked up" jealousy toward Spector and the Beatles.


title: Brian Wilson

text: In 1965, Wilson immediately showcased great advances in his musical development with the albums "The Beach Boys Today!" (March) and "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)" (June). Campbell remained on tour with the band until he was no longer able to, in February. As a thanks, Wilson produced a single for Campbell in March, "Guess I'm Dumb", after which the band recruited Columbia Records staff producer Bruce Johnston as Wilson's substitute on tour. In February, March, July, and October, Wilson rejoined the live group for one-off occasions.


title: Brian Wilson

text: With his bandmates often away on tour, Wilson distanced himself socially from the other Beach Boys. Since the autumn of 1964, he had moved from the Rovells' home to a one-bedroom apartment at 7235 Hollywood Boulevard, and given his newfound independence, had begun forming a new social circle for himself through the industry connections he had accumulated. Biographer Steven Gaines writes, "Brian had total freedom from family restraints for the first time. [...] he was finally able to make a new set of friends without parental interference." By Gary Usher's account, Wilson had had few close friends and was "like a piece of clay waiting to be molded". By the end of the year, Wilson was one of the most successful, influential, and sought-after young musicians in Los Angeles. However, a wider public recognition of Wilson's talents eluded him until 1966.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Wilson stated that "a lot of [his] friends", who were drug users, had "turned [him] on" to drugs while he had been touring with the group. Beforehand, according to Mike Love, Wilson had been known to be strictly opposed to drugs. Wilson's closest friend in this period was Loren Schwartz, a talent agent that he had met at a Hollywood studio. Through Schwartz, Wilson was exposed to a wealth of literature and mystical topics – largely of philosophy and world religions – that he formed a deep fascination with. Schwartz also introduced marijuana and hashish to Wilson, whose habitual use of the drug caused a rift in his marriage to Marilyn, further strained by his frequent visitations to Schwartz's apartment. Beginning with "Please Let Me Wonder" (1965), Wilson wrote songs while under the influence of marijuana. As his 2016 memoir suggested, "smoking a little bit of pot [...] changed the way I heard arrangements." His drug use was initially kept hidden from the rest of his family and group.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Early in 1965, a few weeks after Wilson and his wife moved into a new apartment on West Hollywood's Gardner Street, Wilson took the psychedelic drug LSD (or "acid") for the first time, under Schwartz' supervision. Schwartz recalled that Wilson's dosage was 125 micrograms of "pure Owsley" and that his first experience included "the full-on ego death". Marilyn recalled that Wilson returned home the next day and recounted his experience, telling her repeatedly that his "mind was blown" and that he had seen God. In Wilson's words, "I took LSD and it just tore my head off. [...] You just come to grips with what you are, what you can do [and] can't do, and learn to face it."


title: Brian Wilson

text: During his first acid trip, Wilson went to a piano and devised the riff for the band's next single, "California Girls". He later described the instrumental tracking for the song, held on April 6, as "my favorite session", and the opening orchestral section as "the greatest piece of music that I've ever written." For the remainder of the year, he experienced considerable paranoia. Wilson's 2016 memoir states that he refrained from dropping LSD for a second time until he was twenty-three, in 1966 or 1967. Marilyn believed that her husband likely took dozens of LSD trips in the subsequent years, although she had been only aware of the two trips at the time. Conversely, Brian's second wife Melinda Ledbetter claimed in 2004 that Brian took only three LSD trips in his lifetime.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Following unsuccessful attempts to dissuade him from his constant fraternizing with Schwartz, Marilyn separated from Brian for at least a month. She later said, "He was not the same Brian that he was before the drugs. [...] These people were very hurtful, and I tried to get that through to Brian." In mid-1965, at the suggestion of Four Freshmen manager Bill Wagner, Brian consulted with a UCLA psychiatrist on the adverse effects of LSD. The psychiatrist later told Wagner, "I don't know if he is savable. He gives me the impression he's been on it for a while, and he's entirely enamored of it." Speaking in 1966, Wilson said that he had developed an interest in "pills" for the purpose of self-discovery, not recreation, and believed that the usage of psychedelics "won't hurt you".


title: Brian Wilson

text: Brian and Marilyn eventually reconciled, and in October 1965, moved into a new home on 1448 Laurel Way in Beverly Hills. Wilson said that he spent five months planning an album that would reflect his growing interest in "the making of music for people on a spiritual level". He recalled having an unexpected rush of "creative ideas" and that he "didn't mind" the constant presence of visitors at his home, "so long as there weren't too many and provided I could cop out and sit, thinking. I had a big Spanish table and I sat there hour after hour making the tunes inside my head [...] I was taking a lot of drugs, fooling around with pills, a lot of pills, and it fouled me up for a while. It got me really introspective".


title: Brian Wilson

text: In December 1965, Tony Asher, a jingle writer whom Wilson had recently met, accepted Wilson's offer to be his writing partner for what became the Beach Boys' next album, "Pet Sounds" (May 1966). He produced most of "Pet Sounds" from January to April 1966 at four Hollywood studios, mainly employing his bandmates on vocals and his usual pool of session musicians for the backing tracks. Among the album tracks, he later described "Let's Go Away for Awhile" as "the most satisfying piece of music" he had made to date and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" as an autobiographical song "about a guy who was crying because he thought he was too advanced". In 1995, he referred to "Caroline, No" as "probably the best I've ever written".


title: Brian Wilson

text: Released in March 1966, the album's first single, "Caroline, No", marked the first record credited to Wilson as a solo artist. It led to speculation that he was considering leaving the band. Wilson recalled, "I explained to [the rest of the group], 'It's OK. It is only a temporary rift where I have something to say.' I wanted to step out of the group a little bit and, sure enough, I was able to." "Caroline, No" ultimately stalled at number 32. In the U.S., "Pet Sounds" faced similarly underwhelming sales. Wilson was "mortified" that his artistic growth failed to translate into a number-one album. According to Marilyn, "When it wasn't received by the public the way he thought it would be received, it made him hold back. [...] but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. He needed to create more."


title: Brian Wilson

text: Thanks to mutual connections, Wilson had been introduced to the Beatles' former press officer Derek Taylor, who was subsequently employed as the Beach Boys' publicist. Responding to Brian's request to inspire a greater public appreciation for his talents, Taylor initiated a media campaign that proclaimed Wilson to be a genius. Taylor's prestige was crucial in offering a credible perspective to those on the outside, and his efforts are widely recognized as instrumental in the album's success in Britain. In turn, however, Wilson resented that the branding had the effect of creating higher public expectations for himself. The fact that the music press had begun undervaluing the contributions of the rest of the group also frustrated him and his bandmates, including Love and Carl Wilson.


title: Brian Wilson

text: For the remainder of 1966, Wilson focused on completing the band's single "Good Vibrations", which became a number-one hit in December, and a new batch of songs written with session musician Van Dyke Parks for inclusion on "Smile", the album planned to follow "Pet Sounds". Wilson touted the album as a "teenage symphony to God" and continued to involve more people in his social, business, and creative affairs. Parks said that, eventually, "it wasn't just Brian and me in a room; it was Brian and me [...] and all kinds of self-interested people pulling him in various directions." Television producer David Oppenheim, who attended these scenes to film the documentary "" (1967), characterized Wilson's home as a "playpen of irresponsible people."


title: Brian Wilson

text: "Smile" was never finished, due in large part to Wilson's worsening mental condition and exhaustion. His friends, family, and colleagues often date the project's unraveling and Wilson's onset of erratic behavior to around November 1966 – namely, when he recorded the would-be album track "" (or "Fire"). In April 1967, Wilson and his wife put their Laurel Way home up for sale and took residence at a newly purchased mansion on 10452 Bellagio Road in Bel Air. Wilson also set to work on constructing a personal home studio. By then, most of his new contacts had disassociated or were exiled from his social circle.


title: Brian Wilson

text: In May, Derek Taylor announced that the six-months-overdue "Smile" album had been "scrapped". Wilson explained in a 1968 interview, "We pulled out of that production pace, really because I was about ready to die. I was trying so hard. So, all of a sudden I decided not to try any more." The underwhelming critical and commercial response to the band's July single "Heroes and Villains" has been cited as another exacerbating factor in Wilson's professional and psychological decline.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Starting with "Smiley Smile" (September 1967), the band made Wilson's home their primary base of recording operations until 1972. The album was also the first in which production was credited to the entire group instead of Wilson alone. Producer Terry Melcher attributed this change to Wilson's self-consciousness over his reputation, unwilling to "put his stamp on records so that peers will have a Brian Wilson track to criticize." In August, Wilson rejoined the live band for two one-off appearances in Honolulu. The shows were recorded for a planned live album, "Lei'd in Hawaii", that was never finished.


title: Brian Wilson

text: During the sessions for "Wild Honey" (December), Brian requested Carl to contribute more to the record-making process. Brian also attempted to produce an album for singer Danny Hutton's new group, Redwood, but after the recording of three songs, including "Time to Get Alone" and "Darlin'", this motion was halted by Mike Love and Carl Wilson, who wanted Brian to focus on the Beach Boys' contractual obligations. "Friends" (June 1968) was recorded during a period of emotional recovery for Wilson. Although it included more contributions from the rest of the group, he actively led the studio sessions, even on the songs that he did not write. He later referred to it as his second "solo album" (the first being "Pet Sounds"), as well as his favorite Beach Boys album.


title: Brian Wilson

text: For the remainder of 1968, Wilson's songwriting output declined substantially, as did his emotional state, leading him to self-medicate with the excessive consumption of food, alcohol, and drugs. Amid the looming financial insolvency of the Beach Boys, he began to supplement his regular use of amphetamines and marijuana with cocaine. Hutton, who had introduced Wilson to cocaine, recalled that Wilson expressed suicidal wishes at the time, and that it was when his "real decline started".


title: Brian Wilson

text: In mid-1968, Wilson was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, possibly of his own volition. His issues were not disclosed to the public, and sessions for "20/20" (February 1969) continued in his absence. Journalist Nik Cohn, writing in 1968, said that Wilson had been rumored to be "increasingly withdrawn, brooding, hermitic [...] and occasionally, he is to be seen in the back of some limousine, cruising around Hollywood, bleary and unshaven, huddled way tight into himself." Once discharged later in the year, Wilson rarely finished any tracks for the band, leaving much of his subsequent output for Carl Wilson to complete.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Regarding Brian's participation on the group's recordings from then, band engineer Stephen Desper said that Brian remained "indirectly involved with production" through Carl. The bathrobe-clad Wilson would occasionally appear from his bedroom to preview a new song for the group, an event that Melcher likened to Aesop delivering a new fable. Otherwise, he stayed in his bedroom upstairs while his bandmates recorded in the studio down below. He would occasionally visit a session if he had heard a piece of music that he felt should be changed.


title: Brian Wilson

text: Conversely, Dennis Wilson recalled that his elder brother began to have "no involvement at all" with the Beach Boys, which forced the group to "find things that [he] worked on and try and piece it together." Marilyn Wilson recalled that her husband withdrew because of perceived resentment from the group: "It was like, 'OK, you assholes, you think you can do as good as me or whatever – go ahead – "you" do it. You think it's so easy? You do it.'" Referencing the accusation that the Beach Boys refused to let Brian work, Dennis said, "I would go to his house daily and beg, 'What can I do to help you?' I said, 'Forget recording, forget all of it.' It got to Brian's health."


title: Brian Wilson

text: Journalist Brian Chidester coined "Bedroom Tapes" as a loose umbrella term for Wilson's subsequent unreleased output until 1975, despite the fact that his home studio was dismantled in 1972. Much of the material that Wilson recorded from the epoch remains unreleased and unheard by the public. Chidester states that some of it has been described as "schizophrenia on tape" and "intensely personal songs of gentle humanism and strange experimentation, which reflected on his then-fragile emotional state." Wilson's daughter Wendy remembered, "Where other people might take a run to release some stress, he would go to the piano and write a 5-minute song."