Charles Hardin Holley. Born September 7th, 1936 in Lubbock Texas. He started learning to play the fiddle and piano on his own, and his older brother’s taught him how to play guitar, all the way till 1949, when he wrote and recorded his own song “My Two TImin’ Woman” in his own home. This recording showed off his incredible potential for music, and earned him his parent’s support for pursuing a musical career. He was a remarkable Musician who changed the format and foundation of music, Earning his multiple names, the most prevalent being “The Father of Rock and Roll”. Charles started his musical path playing country music. Around 1954, Charles had completed high school and moved on to small time performances. During one of his performances, he was asked to play as an opening for one of Elvis Presley’s performances, of which he agreed to do. Come time after the performance, Sonny Curtis, a member of the crickets noticed a change in Charles. He saw Charles had fallen in love with Elvis, and almost the day after, the Crickets became clones of the hip gyrating swing king. This was Charles taking his turn into “Rock and Roll Mode”. From then on, the Crickets’ music would be rock and roll, and their fame skyrocketed. Charles changed the format of rock and roll instrument lineup to having two guitars, a vocalist, bassist, and a drummer, which is still the most popular of lineups today. Charles was part of the list of artists that blended white culture music and black culture music, just like Elvis did, creating something the two could enjoy together. The way he wrote his music was described as taking other forms and incorporating it into his music which gave it a certain flavour that very few artists could ever claim to have. Christopher Smith explained Charles's music as an Aspiring young musician could sit at the end of their bed with their guitar and listen to a Buddy Holly record and immediately figure out what they were doing with that guitar. His lasting impact influenced the form of Hip hop in the 60’s and 70’s and the Beatles even based their name off of the Crickets as a homage to Charles and the Crickets. Though his career was unfortunately short and ended almost as fast as it started. Charles was struggling financially since he split from the crickets in 1957 to go his own way. In late 1958, Charles and his group took up performances at the winter dance tour. He was tired of broken down buses in the freezing cold so he had ordered a private 4 seat plane. Because his group had 4 people, someone was going to have to stay behind and take a bus, leading to a coin toss between Tommy Allsup and Ritchie Valens for the final seat with The Big Bopper and Charles. Tommy lost and ended up taking the bus, and Valens got the final seat. The Plane owner and pilot weren’t informed of a coming storm and took off, only to crash mere minutes later, Killing the pilot, Charles, Ritchie, and The Big Bopper, ending Charles’s career at the age of 22. Everyone came to recognize this tragic event as “The Day the Music Died” and later would have a song written by Don Mclean, called “American Pie” about the events of Charles’s death and the lasting effects it had on the world.
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