The Inspired & Influenced

There has been a plethora of bands and artists, since 1957, who have been in awe and have been inspired by the music, the sound, the guitar playing and riffs and songs of Buddy Holly & The Crickets. Here are merely a few. More will be added soon

Cliff Richard & The Shadows

Quite possibly the only band to even come close to the sound of Buddy Holly & The Crickets, minus the backing vocals. Hank Marvin's guitar style was a directly influenced by Buddy Holly's style. Then Hank went onto inspire so many other guitarists, who would later forge their own music careers. Chris Read, Mark Knopfler to name a few. Cliff & The Shadows early songs were superb and you can hear Buddy Holly & The Crickets in them all.

Hank Marvin

Hank was and still is a fantastic guitar player. In his early work with Cliff and The Shadows, you can hear Buddy Holly in his licks and style. He went onto inspired so many guitarist in the early 60s.

Billy Fury

Ronald Wycherley (17 April 1940 – 28 January 1983), known professionally as Billy Fury, was an English musician. An early star of rock and roll, he spent 332 weeks on the UK singles chart. His hit singles include "Wondrous Place", "Halfway to Paradise" and "Jealousy". His "That's Love" has a very Buddy Holly/The Crickets vibe.

He also maintained a film career, notably playing rock performers in "Play It Cool" in 1962 and "That'll Be the Day" in 1973, alongside Ringo Starr and David Essex.

Bobby Vee

If it wasn't for Buddy Holly's death, Bobby Vee would not have had the opportunity to become the successful artist he was. He adopted Buddy's vocal style and was a brilliant singer and performer, for many, many years.

Bobby was a huge Buddy Holly fan, in later years, he would record and tour with The Crickets.

Adam Faith

Adam Faith had some hits in the early 60s, with songs like "What Do You Want", "Poor Me" and "Someone Else's Baby", where he adopted Buddy's hiccup vocal style.

He began his musical career in 1957, while working as a film cutter in London in the hope of becoming an actor, singing with and managing a skiffle group, "The Worried Men". The group played in Soho coffee bars after work,[6] and became the resident band at the 2i's Coffee Bar, where they appeared on the BBC Television live music programme Six-Five Special. The producer, Jack Good, was impressed by the singer and arranged a solo recording contract with His Master's Voice under the name Adam Faith (his real name was Terence Nelhams Wright)

Shane Felton (Alvin Stardust)

Shane Fenton loved Buddy Holly, so much so, when he was a young pup, he travelled to a concert where Buddy Holly & The Crickets were performing one night at the Gaumont Theatre in Doncaster, when they were appearing on their 1958 UK Tour

In March 1958, a young Bernard Jewry (who later became famous as Shane Fenton and Alvin Stardust) snuck backstage to meet Buddy Holly at the Gaumont Theatre in Doncaster. Holly signed Shane's guitar with a pencil because there was no paper handy. CLICK HERE to watch Shane (Alvin) talk about his experience meeting & chatting to Buddy, JI and Joe B backstage !

The Beatles

Early Beatles were heavily influenced by the format and the music of Buddy Holly & The Crickets and recorded several Buddy/Crickets covers. Their first amateur recording, under The Quarrymen, was "That'll Be The Day" in 1958.

Skeeter Davis

Skeeter Davis was an American country music singer and songwriter who sang crossover pop music songs including 1962's "The End of the World". She started out as part of the Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually recording for RCA Victor. In the late 1950s, she became a solo star. She was a massive Buddy Holly fan and recorded/released a full tribute album of covers called "Skeeter Davis Sings Buddy Holly".

Linda Rondstadt

Linda frequently paid tribute to Buddy Holly, recording definitive country-rock covers of his classic tracks. Her renditions of "It's So Easy" (a top 5 Billboard hit), "That'll Be The Day", and "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" helped introduce Buddy Holly’s work to a new generation of listeners.

She sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide, setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Linda Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock & roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.

Bob Dylan

Mr Zimmerman needs no introduction, but what a lot of music fans don't know is that he was inspired by Buddy Holly, was a huge Rock & Roll fan, and a fan of Buddy Holly & The Crickets. When in high school, he formed a few bands and they covered Rock & Roll tunes by Little Richard, Elvis etc One of their performances of Danny & The Juniors "Rock & Roll Is Here To Stay" was that loud at a school talent show, the head teacher cut the mic !

When he was 17, he witnessed Buddy Holly perform at the Duluth Armory (he grew up in Duluth) and stood right at the front and looked on in amazement at his hero. At his his Nobel Prize lecture, he explained: "Buddy wrote songs – songs that had beautiful melodies and imaginative verses. And he sang great – sang in more than a few voices. He was the archetype. Everything I wasn't and wanted to be."

The Hollies

The Hollies are an English rock and pop band formed in Manchester in 1962 by singer Allan Clarke and rhythm guitarist/singer Graham Nash. One of the most successful British bands of the 1960s/1970s, their first stable line-up consisted of Clarke, Nash, lead guitarist Tony Hicks, bassist Eric Haydock, and drummer Don Rathbone. Rathbone was replaced by Bobby Elliott in late 1963, while Haydock was replaced by Bernie Calvert in mid-1966. During the Hollies' early years, most of their original songs were written by the trio of Clarke/Hicks/Nash, until Nash left the group in late 1968 to co-form Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Massive Buddy Holly influence on them, particularly Nash. They even took the Holly name for their band name and also released an album of covers called "Buddy Holly",

The Bobby Fuller Four

Robert Gaston Fuller was an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Texas, best known for "Let Her Dance" and his cover of The Crickets' "I Fought the Law," recorded with his group The Bobby Fuller Four, which was a smash hit.

They also recorded and released a rather superb version of Buddy's "Love's Made A Fool Of You" in 1966. The band performed Buddy Holly/Crickets covers in their set. They even recorded at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, when they were first setting out, before they moved to LA in 1966 and signed to Mustang Records with Bob Keane, who discovered Ritchie Valens.