- Errors in geography: There are no mountains in Lubbock, Texas.
- Factual errors: Buddy Holly's final concert was at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, not the Clear Lake Auditorium as depicted in the movie.
- Factual errors: The billboard on the Clear Lake Auditorium (standing in for the Clear Lake Surf Ballroom) reads "Feb 3". Buddy Holly's final performance was Monday, Feb. 2, 1959.
- Anachronisms: The "Ludwig" logo on the drums was not adopted until the 1960's.
- Factual errors: Early in the movie the family's last name on the side of the truck is spelled "Holly". Their name was actually Holley, but Buddy's name was misprinted on a record label and he adopted the revised spelling.
- Continuity: The coffee pot in the Holly apartment leaps from the kitchen counter to the dining table between shots.
- Continuity: 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.
- Anachronisms: At the roller rink, Buddy plays a Fender "Bronco" guitar. The Bronco was not manufactured by Fender until the early 1970s.
- Factual errors: Buddy Holly's front teeth were knocked out before a performance in the UK, not on US television as shown in the film.
- Factual errors: Buddy is shown writing out a score during a studio scene when in real life, Buddy Holly could not read nor write music.
- Anachronisms: 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.
- Anachronisms: The Telecaster that Buddy plays at the Apollo is a mid seventies CBS model. You can clearly read the large "Telecaster" logo which was introduced when CBS bought the company from Leo Fender in the late 1960s.
- Anachronisms: In the roller-rink scene, Cindy Lou is drinking from a quarter-inch-or-more-diameter straw. In the 1950s, straws were much narrower and came in 2s.
- Anachronisms: In the roller-rink scene, Cindy Lou is drinking through a quarter-inch-or-more-diameter straw. In the 1950s, straws were much narrower and came in 2s.
- Factual errors: 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.
- Factual errors: 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.
- Factual errors: Buddy never toured with Sam Cooke.
- Factual errors: The Crickets real names were Jerry Allison and Joe B. Mauldin, not Jesse and Ray Bob as in the movie.
- Factual errors: Buddy's parents were not against the music as the movie said. Mrs. Holley even helped Buddy write “Maybe Baby”.
- Factual errors: KDAV was a daytime-only radio station in the 1950s.
- Factual errors: Buddy Holly played the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In the movie, he plays a Telecaster.
- Factual errors: Buddy Holly's pastor did not oppose Buddy's musical projects. In fact, Buddy reputedly tithed regularly to his church. The Holley (correct family name) were Baptists.
- Factual errors: 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 12/1/57 and then Oh Boy on 12/26/58. Maybe Baby was not released until 2/28/58.
- Anachronisms: In the final concert scene, Gary Busey is shown playing a CBS era Fender Stratocaster. CBS bought Fender in 1965 (ie six years after Buddy died). CBS Strats are easily identified by the larger style headstock and the different style headstock decals. Also, the guitar Busey 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.
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: 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.
- Anachronisms: Buddy and Maria are shown at a 3D movie in 1957. These type of movies were popular in 1953 and 1954. No mainstream 3D movies were produced in the 50s after 1954.
- Factual errors: Buddy Holly did not produce his recordings. Norma Petty was producer for most of his career.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Factual errors: SPOILER: The closing caption refers to "Clearlake" (one word), Iowa. The city is "Clear Lake" (two words), as seen at the city's official website, http://www.clearlakeiowa.com/. The same mistake is made in the name of the (erroneous) "Clearlake Auditorium".
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