YEAR
1986
INDUCTED BY
John Fogerty
CATEGORY
Performers
Rock & roll as we know it wouldn’t exist without Buddy Holly.
The bespectacled ’50s teen idol roughed up familiar musical influences—rhythm & blues, rockabilly, country & western—with upbeat tempos, a jittery vocal approach, and youthful lyrics filled with edgy declarations of love, lust and heartbreak.
Buddy Holly
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Michael Hill
From an autobiographical high-school essay by Buddy Holly: “My life has been what you might call an uneventful one, and it seems there is not much of interest to tell…I have many hobbies. Some of these are hunting, fishing, leatherwork, reading, painting and playing western music. I have thought about making a career out of western music if I am good enough, but I will just have to wait and see how that turns out.”
Holly did try to make a career out of western music, forming the Western and Bop Band with classmates Bob Montgomery and Larry Welborn. Between 1953 and 1955, they performed regularly on Lubbock radio station KDAV and recorded demos of eleven Holly/Montgomery tunes.
