Buddy Holly

Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) is a decidedly uneven tribute to the late, great rock & roller. Though it is clear the artists on the tribute are sincere in their affection for Holly, their covers add nothing to the original versions…

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959) known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." His works and innovations inspired and influenced contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton, and exerted a profound influence on popular music. Holly was among the first group of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Holly #13 among "The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time".

Some dead celebrities pass beyond "legendary" status to become objects of downright cultish obsession. Buddy Holly, the skinny young Texan with horn-rims, is one such, and Amburn's biography will please true believers who tend to think Holly began the process by which the Beatles and their ilk transformed rock from kids' music into art. Amburn finds deep significance in the minutiae of Holly's life and career, and his prose bogs down periodically as Holly's old associates chew past events to dust. Yet from all this sedulous examination and reexamination, tidbits not aired in other sources emerge; for instance, Little Richard's assessment of Holly's genitalia, which may reveal more about Richard than Holly, contributes to Holly's "legend" just as the Plaster Casters' immortalization of Jimi Hendrix did to his. Occasionally, the book seems diffuse; subjects are minutely examined, then abruptly dropped. Still, this comprehensive look at one of the most influential early rockers deserves its place in most pop-music collections, all the more so because of its impeccable references, detailed bibliography, and discography. Mike Tribby