- Buddy Holly, Not Fade Away: The Complete Studio Recordings and More
I had a moment of internal struggle when it came time to subtitle this post, because the music of Buddy Holly can fit into so many categories: rock ’n’ roll, country, pop. Next to Jerry Lee Lewis, Holly has always been my favorite 50s pioneer. The young man from Lubbock, Texas, who died at 22 in the same February 1959 plane crash that took the lives of Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, was a superb and distinctive singer. Plus his band came up with novel sonic ideas, and he wrote the most sophisticated, catchy melodies of any of the early rockers.