Paul McCartney says three things about Buddy Holly inspired The Beatles

Three things about Buddy Holly inspired The Beatles, according to Paul McCartney.

The veteran songwriter who would later form Wings says there were “lots of people” coming up in the music scene at the same time as the Fab Four. Holly was the most influential of all on the group, with McCartney crediting The Crickets frontman as being a major factor in The Beatles’ formation. The Everyday songwriter, who died at 22, was unlike many artists of the time and managed to stand out to McCartney. So much so he and fellow Beatles members George Harrison and John Lennon would cover one of Holly’s songs during their first-ever session together.

Speaking of Holly’s influence during an episode of the Anthology documentary, McCartney said: “There were lots of people coming up then, and one of them was Buddy Holly. We loved his vocal sound and we loved his guitar playing, but most of all, I think, was the fact that he wrote the stuff himself. That’s what turned us on.”

McCartney would be praising Holly years later in a documentary made for BBC Radio 2, where he shared his thoughts on what made the guitarist so influential. He said: “On a musical level, he sang and played guitar, Elvis just sang, and Scotty Moore played guitar.

“He not only played guitar, but he played the solos. Normally, if you played guitar there was another guy in the group who was the lead guitar who played the solos, but Buddy sang, played guitar and played the solos. He also wrote the stuff. So this was like [an] all-inclusive one-man band, and we really thought that was great. We thought this is what we have to do.”

So influential was Buddy Holly on The Beatles that not only did he inspire the band’s name, but also what they played during their first recording session. John Lennon said of the band’s name: “I was looking for a name like The Crickets that meant two things, and from crickets I got to beetles.

“And I changed the BEA, because ‘beetles’ didn’t mean two things on its own. When you said it, people thought of crawly things; and when you read it, it was beat music.” The Quarrymen’s first session together, which featured McCartney, Lennon, and George Harrison, heard the band cover Holly’s That’ll Be the Day.

The recording took place on July 14, 1958, and is believed to be The Beatles’ first-ever recording. Their version of the Holly classic has been hailed by fans, with a YouTube upload of the early years recording making it clear just how big a fan Lennon was of Holly.

One fan wrote: “You can tell how big of a fan John was, he had all of Buddy’s little woos and falsetto bits down perfectly. I bet this would’ve sounded amazing if they had re-recorded it for Beatles For Sale.” Another praised Harrison’s strengths as a guitar player at such a young age.

They wrote: “That guitar solo is amazing. I had no idea George Harrison was such an accomplished guitar player at 15 years old.” You can listen to The Quarrymen’s cover of That’ll Be the Day below.