Imagine a skinny kid with thick black glasses standing under the bright lights of New York City in 1957. He played a song called Peggy Sue that had a beat like a racing heart.
It was a sound that made every teenager in America want to jump out of their seat and dance. He used a special guitar called a Stratocaster that looked like it came from another world. In this video you can heart that his voice had a funny hiccup that stays in your head all day long.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets “Peggy Sue” on The Ed Sullivan Show
One fan who saw it said that the sound was so loud and clear it felt like it was right in the room. Another person remembered how the drums never stopped rolling for even a second.
That joyful noise on the television screen was the start of a journey that would end much too soon. While the world was still humming his tunes, a snowy night in Iowa changed everything. The simple boy with glasses, suddenly gone in a flash of cold metal.
BUDDY HOLLY Crash Site and SURF BALLROOM – The Day The Music Died 4K
It is a place that feels frozen in time. Just like the songs he left behind. People visit the Surf Ballroom today and walk the same floor where he played his very last show.
They talk about how he was moving toward a new sound that we never got to hear. It is a story of a bright light that burned out before the sun even came up.
Buddy was a quiet kid who wrote that his life was not very interesting. He did not know he would become a hero to legends like The Beatles and John Fogerty.
He proved that being yourself is the most powerful thing an artist can do.. Follow Buddy Holly on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. You might find a piece of your own youth waiting there for you.