“Not Fade Away” is a song credited to Buddy Holly (originally under his first and middle names, Charles Hardin) and Norman Petty (although Petty’s co-writing credit is most likely a formality) and first recorded by Holly’s band The Crickets. In 2004, this song was ranked number 107 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. However, The Crickets’ recording never charted as a single. (More from Wikipedia)
The confusion spread to the general public as well, since some of his 45’s were released under the name Buddy Holly, and others as the Crickets (often with Holly’s name nowhere in sight, even as a songwriter). In spite of this, Buddy Holly and/or the Crickets had numerous hit songs, among them “Not Fade Away”, “Everyday”, “Listen to Me”, “Oh Boy!”, “Peggy Sue”, “Maybe Baby”, “Rave On”, “Heartbeat”, and “It’s So Easy”.
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Keith Richards once said of Buddy Holly that he had “an influence on everybody”. Richards heard Buddy perform “Not Fade Away” in concert; as only their third single, the Rolling Stones hit #3 on the UK charts with “Not Fade Away” (performed in the Bo Diddley style that was the genesis of the song in the first place) – and that song is my very favorite Rolling Stones cover song.
