Buddy Holly's 1957 Home — 1305 37th Street, Lubbock

In 1957, as Buddy Holly was recording the songs that would change rock and roll forever, he was living at 1305 37th Street in Lubbock, Texas — a modest family home on a quiet residential street in the south of the city. The Holley family, who were in the house construction business, occupied numerous residences around town over the years, and this was one of several addresses associated with Buddy during his late teenage years and brief adult life.

By 1957, Holly had already made his first unsuccessful recordings for Decca Records in Nashville and was working with producer Norman Petty at his studio in Clovis, New Mexico, just across the state line. It was during this period that "That'll Be the Day" was recorded — the single that broke Holly nationally when it was released in May 1957, reaching number one on the Billboard chart by September. "Peggy Sue", "Oh, Boy!", and "Not Fade Away" followed in quick succession.

A short drive south leads to another Holley family home at 1606 39th Street, only a few blocks away. The birthplace at 1911 6th Street — now an empty lot behind the Avenue Q Walmart — was sadly destroyed by fire some years back. For Holly pilgrims visiting Lubbock, driving between these addresses gives a sense of the small, flat, windswept city that produced one of rock and roll's most consequential figures.