'The Chirping Crickets'

It had to be pretty cool to be a rock-and-roll fan in Lubbock, Texas in October 1955.

Elvis Presley came to the West Texas cattle town to play a concert. I could only imagine it raised quite a bit of fuss. I'm sure the fine residents of mid-1950s Lubbock didn't take to Presley's hip-juking, slap bass and provocations.

Nonetheless, Lubbock was treated to a show. For the random teenager taking in the show, they had to fight through an opening band led by local boy Buddy Holly. In hindsight, attendees probably now realize how important that night was. It was an older kid (The King was 20) providing an opportunity for the younger kid (Holly had just turned 19).

What Presley had done for Holly, Holly would win up doing for The Beatles, whose first recording session included a worked down cover of "That'll Be The Day."

Holly died in that plane crash just two years after recording The Chirping Crickets, his first album. He only "recorded" two other albums although he had enough material that the record company kept churning out collections of his tunes.

It's fascinating to think that this guy lived just a mere 22 years and his life was snatched around a series of circumstances and decisions that just as easily have gone a different way. This wasn't Mama Cass chocking on a ham sandwich or Janis Joplin choking on her own vomit.

Yet, he left this brilliant legacy of music. The adage that artists do all this creation and whenever they pass this work will all survive centuries and centuries afterward. Picasso was 91 when he died. Hemingway was 61. Their work resonates still. Holly's legacy started a little early.