->''"Yeah... Buddy Holly... check m' out... bad motherfucker.
Holly passed it on via Music/TheBeatles and via
[[Music/TheRollingStones us]]. He's in everybody... this is not
bad for a guy from Lubbock, right?"''  Charles Hardin Holley
(September 7, 1936 -- February 3, 1959) was a tragic pioneer of
RockAndRoll, and one of the three musicians whose death became
known as The Day the Music Died.. He was born in Lubbock, Texas,
into a family where almost everybody played an instrument and
sang CountryMusic. He got his nickname Buddy as a child. He
started learning piano and guitar at 11, and was influenced by
country & western, bluegrass, rhythm & blues, and the music of
his church. He formed a band with his best friend Bob
Montgomery, and got a gig at a local radio station, adding
bassist Larry Welborn and drummer Jerry Allison. There he heard,
and covered, the first rock songs, just as they were coming out
in 1954 and '55, before rock became mainstream.  Decca Records'
country music division signed him in early