Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- Born Lubbock, Texas
- Killed in a plane crash just as he attained stardom, Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holly is one of the most influential and mythic figures in American music. Raised in a musical family and steeped in a crossroads of musical genres that included gospel, country, and rhythm and blues, Holly formed his own band out of high school. Soon he was opening for Elvis Presley in Lubbock, Texas (1955). By 1957, Holly had a new record contract and a new band, and his career took off nationally and internationally; his first hit was “That’ll Be the Day.” Tragically, Holly and performers Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson (“The Big Bopper”) were killed in a plane crash in Iowa in January 1959. Memorialized later as “The Day the Music Died,” the myth of Buddy Holly has overshadowed his influence as a performer and guitarist in the history of rock and roll.
- Nacido en Lubbock, Texas
- Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holly, fallecido en un accidente aéreo cuando apenas alcanzaba el estrellato, es una de las figuras más influyentes y míticas de la música estadounidense. Holly creció en el seno de una familia musical absorbiendo una confluencia de géneros como el góspel, el country y el rhythm and blues, y al terminar la escuela superior formó su propia banda. Poco después ya había logrado presentarse como primer acto en un concierto de Elvis Presley en Lubbock, Texas (1955). Para 1957 tenía contrato nuevo y banda nueva, y su carrera despegó a nivel nacional e internacional. Su primer hit fue “That’ll Be the Day”. Trágicamente, Holly y los músicos Ricthie Valens y J. P. Richardson (“The Big Bopper”) perecieron en un accidente de avión en Iowa en enero de 1959. El mito de su muerte, conmemorado como “El día que murió la música”, ha opacado la influencia de Holly como cantante y guitarrista en la historia del rock and roll.
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Lew Allen, born 1939
- Sitter
- Buddy Holly, 7 Sep 1936 - 3 Feb 1959
- Date
- 1958 (printed later)
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 25.5 × 33.2 cm (10 1/16 × 13 1/16")
- Sheet: 27.9 × 35.4 cm (11 × 13 15/16")
- Mat: 40.6 × 55.9 cm (16 × 22")
- Type
- Photograph
