As a direct result of this performance Holly was offered a contract with Decca Records. Then on Feb 8,1956, when signing the contract he changed his name from "Holley" to "Holly". During his first recording session he put down the classic rocker "That'll Be The Day", which took its title from a phrase that John Wayne's character used throughout his 1956 film, The Searchers.
Many of the songs that he was later to compose including "That'll Be The Day" feature a vocal "hiccup" pioneered in the main by Elvis Presley to break-up certain words - Example "I love you Peggy Sue with a love so rare and tr-ue, also with "Rave On" which starts with "Weh-eh-ell.
Buddy Holly Toured Australia for Lee Gordon in 1958. That same year he met Maria Elena Santiago while she was working as a receptionist for Peer-Southern Music. Legend tells us that he proposed to her on their very first date and they were married in Lubbock Texas on 15 August 1958, just two months after they met.
If Buddy had lived he would be celebrating his 50th
Wedding Anniversary.
Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash (which also took the lives of fellow musicians Ritchie Valens & The Big Bopper), Holly is described by Historians (next to Chuck Berry) as one of the most influential creative forces in early Rock 'n' Roll, profoundly Influencing later artists such as The Beatles & The Rolling Stones. The Stones were to record a cover of Holly's "Not Fade Away" Buddy Holly's funeral was held on Feb 7, 1959 at
the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock. He was buried in the City of Lubbock Cemetery.
His headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Note: Buddy's widow Maria Elena was two weeks pregnant at the time of his death. She would ultimately miscarry and loose the baby. Maria did not attend the funeral.
