Goofs

In the final title card, Ritchie Valens' first name is spelled correctly, but in the cast list it is spelled "Richie".

(at around 1 min) Buddy pulls the truck into a garage to unload boxes from the back of the truck. Boxes in back of truck appear and disappear as Buddy moves them to shelf stacks. One time he takes some and none appear in truck but when he comes back to truck, more are magically there. Near the end of this scene, the green toolbox also mysteriously disappears.

When the band is recording "Everyday" in the garage, the reel to reel recorder is recording and 'on' when Buddy's mom comes into the garage to tell him he has a phone call. Then, right when Buddy leaves, the recorder is off even though he never flipped the off switch.

The coffee pot in the Holly apartment leaps from the kitchen counter to the dining table between shots.

When Buddy plays his acoustic guitar for the two neighbor boys, it is in concert pitch. A moment after they leave, he picks up the guitar again. When he strums it this time, it is tuned a semitone below concert pitch.

Buddy Holly's parents were not against the music as depicted in the film. Mrs. Holley even helped Buddy write "Maybe Baby".

During his final concert, Buddy Holly is backed by a full orchestra. In reality, he toured with a small unnamed band consisting of Waylon Jennings on bass, Carl Bunch on drums and Tommy Allsup on lead guitar.

Buddy Holly never toured with Sam Cooke.

As the disabled bus is towed into Clear Lake, Iowa, it is of the "Greyhound" cross-country type. In reality, The Winter Party '59 tour traveled in aged and unheated school buses.

Buddy Holly and The Crickets did not perform "Maybe Baby" on "The Ed Sullivan Show". In their 2 appearances on the show, they performed "That'll Be The Day" and "Peggy Sue" on December 12, 1957 and then "Oh Boy" on December 26, 1958. "Maybe Baby" was not released until February 28, 1958.

The make out scene in Buddy's truck, the passenger window appears to be rolled up. But when the band mates pull up along side the truck and yell, Holly Holly Holly, the window is down.

As Gary Busey is about to sing "Mockingbird Hill", he looks down at a piece of paper taped to the top of his guitar. Busey had forgotten the lyrics to the song and wrote them down on that paper so he could remember them during his performance.

The sunburst Fender Stratocaster guitar shown being played by Buddy during his last concert (in Clearlake, 1959) has the large made-for-TV headstock and Fender decal that had not been made yet. Fender would not make them that way until after the company's purchase by CBS (in '65), and more specifically: circa 1968.

Buddy is seen unloading boxes of ceramic tile from his dad's truck and stacking them on a shelf. Boxes of tile that size weigh 35 to 40lb each. Buddy would not be able to toss them around two at a time as he is shown doing, and the shelf he is stacking them on would have collapsed under their weight.

In the later part of the movie when Buddy & Elena are in their apartment, the doorbell rings and Buddy goes to answer it. Behind the door are two boys but Buddy isn't supposed to know this as he thought it might be his manager Ross Turner. calling However just before Buddy opens the door he moves his head down and is looking towards the bottom of the door because he knows that two kids will be on the other side and not a grown man.

At the roller rink, Buddy plays a Fender "Bronco" guitar. The Bronco was not manufactured by Fender until the early 1970s.

In the final concert scene, Buddy Holly is shown playing a CBS-era Fender Stratocaster. CBS bought Fender in 1965 (six years after Buddy died). CBS Strats are easily identified by the larger style headstock and the different style headstock decals. Also, the guitar Holly is seen playing has a rosewood fingerboard, which wasn't introduced until 1959. Buddy's Strats (he owned at least three) all had maple fingerboards.

When Buddy is attempting to compose in his apartment, and when the neighbor boys come over to ask him to 'fix' their guitar, he is playing a Gibson acoustic guitar (either a LG-3 or most likely a B-25). The guitar in the movie has an adjustable bridge (called the 'Tone Killer'), which was not introduced on the LG-3 until 1961, and the B-25 until 1966.

When Buddy sees his girlfriend off on the bus, the camera pans over to the bus station past a gas station that has a billboard with a Century 21 real estate sign over it. Century 21 started in 1971.

The world map on the wall behind Buddy in the Greyhound Bus station shows the continent of Africa as made up of independent states. At the time "Cindy Lou" was going off to college, Africa was mostly comprised of British, French, Belgian, and Portuguese colonies which did not gain their independence till the 1960s.

When Buddy calls Maria from Clear Lake, Maria answers her bedside phone and the background music from the Clear Lake concert is heard coming from her phone a split second before she actually lifts the receiver.

While Buddy's playing That'll Be The Day, his guitar doesn't match with the solo that's on the soundtrack.

There are no mountains in Lubbock, Texas.

Gary Busey sings the lyrics out of sync of the original songs lyrics throughout the movie.

Buddy's future wife Maria Elena was his music publisher's secretary, not his record company boss' secretary.