The Buddy Holly Story is a 'rockumentary' - a term that was, I think, invented for the very funny bogus documentary This is Spinal Tap. However, it is always possible that, like 'docu-dramas', rockumentaries have been around since the beginning of time.
The Buddy Holly Story is, of course, about the Texas rock 'n' roller, whose band The Crickets was the first white group to play the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. This is just one of the many interesting facts that I learned about Buddy Holly and The Crickets solely from watching The Buddy Holly Story.
Buddy Holly is played by Gary Busey, who starred in Big Wednesday. He does a very good job with our hero, who's a clean cut, likeable control freak.
If there's a problem with the rockumentary genre, it's that there are lots of musical numbers during which we cut between the performer and the people watching. Now, this may work if it's Iggy Pop, or an incredible imitation of Iggy, but if the subject is Buddy Holly or Richie Valens, the technique doesn't exactly set the house on fire.
I don't know why Hollywood insists on making rockumentaries about the likes of Valens and Holly, when there are people such as Little Richard and Elvis who are so much darker and more interesting and perverse. Perhaps the reason why this film and La Bamba got made and the others didn't, was just because, like James Dean, Holly and Valens died young, thereby guaranteeing themselves cult status.