As far as present-day audiences are concerned, two events have shaped the career of Buddy Holly, the Lubbock, Texas, resident whose string of de-twanged rockabilly hits in the late 1950s led him down the trail forged by Elvis and made him rock's second teen idol (Chuck Berry hit the charts around the same time, but as an older black man – he turned 30 in 1956 – wasn't a contender). Most important and most unfortunate was the Iowa plane crash that took Holly's life along with those of young Chicano rock hero Richie Valens and Texas DJ and novelty-act singer J.P. '"Big Bopper" Richardson. The second was The Buddy Holly Story, the biopic starring Gary Busey as Holly that ranks with Jailhouse Rock, The Harder They Come, and A Hard Day's Night as the best rock movie ever.

Holly, who died at 22, left a string of hits, including "Oh Boy!," "Maybe Baby," and "That'll Be the Day," that can be found on The "Chirping" Crickets, his amazing debut album, initially released in 1957. His sound – built around his Fender Stratocaster guitar and his almost pretty, exuberant voice – owed its drive to the rockabilly music coming from Sam Phillips's Sun Studios, but it was smooth enough to appeal to rock-hungry urban ears. Though American R&B is rightly credited as being the most important influence shaping the British Invasion that was a few years off, Holly's music certainly was a close second. While alive, he was a bigger star abroad than at home, and the Beatles, the Searchers, and the Hollies all acknowledge his inspiration, and the debt goes beyond his sound; the iconoclastic Holly was the first white rocker to write his own songs.