For rock ‘n’ roll fans, February 3, 1959, has a special significance. It’s “the day the music died,” because on that date Buddy Holly, one of the pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll music, was killed in a plane accident in the midwest along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. The incident robbed the world of a true musical visionary whose constant experimentation in this new music might have had an even greater impact on the recording industry had he lived. But Holly’s music had a life of its own and would later serve as inspiration to the Beatles and musicians like Marshall Crenshaw (who would eventually play Buddy Holly in La Bamba, 1987, a dramatization of Ritchie Valens’ life). In The Buddy Holly Story (1978), the legend from Lubbock, Texas, is reassessed in a thoroughly entertaining musical biography that mixes fact and fiction in equal parts, a practice Hollywood is unable to resist despite the potential for distortion and false allegations. Luckily, the film captures Holly’s charm and stubborn individuality through Gary Busey’s chameleon-like performance in the title role.