The Buddy Holly Story

Ever since doing a little research on the musician Buddy Holly for my project "The American Dream through Music" I soon became very intrigued by him. This weekend I decided to rent "The Buddy Holly Story", to get a further understanding on his short but meaningful life. I found this movie to be very interesting and really well-done. Of course it does not 100% accurately display Buddy Holly's musical career, but it is definitely pretty close. Buddy Holly is played by the actor Gary Busey, who does a rather good job in portraying Holly's character. In fact, all the singing in the movie was actually done by Busey himself, which is quite amazing when you come to think about it. This movie displays Buddy Holly's life from the age of 19 to 22 years old, showing you his rapid success in becoming one of the most famous Rock N' Roll stars of all time in just a few years. His music will lead to generations of new singers who will come to idolize his huge influence on music. If you are a big fan of Buddy Holly or just interested in knowing more about how he shaped Rock N’ Roll, then I would definitely recommend you go watch this. It will truly give you a whole other appreciation for music and most importantly in this case Rock N' Roll.

The movie begins when Buddy Holly is just 19 years old and graduated from High School. With his great passion for his new style of music, he hopes to someday be able to share it with everyone across the world. In the opening scene, Buddy Holly plays with his band at a roller rink while being put on the live local radio station. After getting tired of playing plain old country style music he decides to step it up a notch, showing the people what he is really capable of. He begins to perform "That'll be the Day", and before you know it the whole place is up on their feet and dancing. People on the local radio also hear it, so the broadcaster decides to send it into the Nashville’s record producer. Teenagers across the town become in love with his new music, but he is soon looked down upon by many of his older adult figures across the town who call it the Devils music. However, Holly is confident in his music and knows that the kids who are enjoying it the most won’t always be kids forever, so before you even know it everyone will be listening to it. Later Buddy Holly and his band are sent down to Nashville to make an album. However, Holly becomes frustrated with the record producer, knowing that he will only play his music his way and no other way, so he and the band backs out on the album. Buddy than is offered to produce music all on his own in New York City by a man named Ross Turner (played by Conrad Janis). Buddy Holly and his band accept the deal and soon begin to make several albums with the producer. Buddy Holly and his band members become known as "Buddy Holly and the Crickets." In less than a year’s time their music is being played across the world, soon becoming known as Rock N' Roll. Nearly two years later Buddy Holly's band begin to miss being away from home for so long and start to feel over shadowed by Buddy's fame, so they decide to break up Buddy's band, leaving him. By this time Buddy Holly is now married to Turner's secretary, Maria Elena Santiago (played by Maria Richwine) who soon becomes pregnant with their child. Buddy is convinced by his record producer Ross Turner to go on the 1959 Winter Tour for five weeks in order to get is name heard across America. Buddy Holly has his last concert, along with the famous performers the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, at a winter dance in Clear Lake, Iowa. At the end of the concert Buddy Holly plays his final song, "Not Fade Away", and says his farewell to the crowd with "Thank you Clearlake! We love you. C'mon....we'll see you next year!” The movie ends with a caption saying that after the concert their bus breaks down, so the three of them end up chartering a plane together, which crashes that very night causing all three of their deaths. This day has ever since than been known as "the day the music died." Sadly, this is a very true statement and it is a tragedy that could have so easily been prevented. Hopefully this is a movie that you may too be interested in, that will help you understand Buddy Holly’s strong influence on today’s music and the beginnings of Rock N' Roll. Here is a preview of the movie: "The Buddy Holly Story". Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!