The film ends with two title cards: "Buddy Holly died later that night along with J. P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson and Ritchie Valens in the crash of a private plane just outside of Clearlake," followed by "...And the rest is rock 'n roll."
       End credits include the statement: "Filmed on location and at Culver City Studios." The filmmakers offer special thanks to the following individuals: "Jim Afflick, Herman Avrut, Toni Barton, Ave Butensky, Stu Chalfin, Joe Diaz, John Eastman, Lee Eastman, Buddy Epstein, Maggie & Bob Fain, Jeff Franklin, Len Hodes, Sue Lesser, Joe Lipshur, Fred Mancuso, Jan McCormick, Harry McMahan, Frank Mooney, Clifford Neschky, Ralph Peer, Ralph A. Rash, Ralph R. Rash, Norman Rudman, Allen Sanders, Bobby Schiffman, Bobbi Silver, Jon Sirlin, Joe Spadafora, Joe Weiss, and Louise Zuckerman." A dedication appears at the end of the closing credits: "This film is dedicated to those who loved him first. Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Holley and Maria Elena Holly."
       A 26 Apr 1977 DV news item noted that The Buddy Holly Story would be the first film project produced and financed by the National Independent Theatre Exhibitors (NITE) with a budget of $2 million. The article noted that the film would be co-produced by Charter Financial Group of Houston, TX, Edward Cohen and Associates of Beverly Hills, CA, and Innovisions, based in Philadelphia, PA, with Boston investment group T. S. Enterprises providing $1.6 million of the estimated $2 million budget. In the article. Edward Cohen is cited as claiming that this production had “beat out Universal, Twentieth Century-Fox, and ABC Television, among others” in gaining the rights to Buddy Holly’s life story. A 28 Apr 1977 DV follow-up article stated that the project had been around for several years, noting that the rights acquisition had first been announced in DV on 28 Oct 1975. This article also noted a separate and unrelated attempt by Twentieth Century-Fox to bring Holly’s life story to the screen in the abortive 1975 production Not Fade Away, based on a revised shooting script dated 8 Sep 1975 by writer T. Y. Drake. According to studio records filming on Not Fade Away got under way 30 Sep 1975 with Don Kanzy as producer, Jerry Freedman directing, and Larry Kostroff and Jack Burnstein as production managers. DV stated that shooting was suspended on Not Fade Away after three weeks due to “Artistic differences and dissatisfaction with the rushes . . . ” However, in his 27 Dec 1977 HR“On Location” column, Robert Osborne stated that the studio had to shut down production and write off the loss “when the legal department realized the studio didn’t have the proper signature to green-light such a venture.” Osborne wrote that Not Fade Away had only been shooting for two weeks when production shuttered. In a 21 Jun 1978 LAT interview, Maria Elena Holly Diaz, Holly’s widow, stated that she had rejected Fox’s project because the studio had only “offered me $1.” Gary Busey had a supporting role as Holly's drummer in Not Fade Away.
       On 12 Nov 1976 DV announced that the Charter Financial Group-Edward Cohen Associates-Innovisions film was set to begin principal photography 12 Dec 1976, while a 29 Nov 1976 LAT article stated the principal photography would begin 27 Dec 1976 in TX, under the title, The Buddy Holly Story: The Day the Music Died.
       According to the studio press kit found at AMPAS library, director Steve Rash and producer Freddy Bauer obtained the rights to Holly’s story from his widow Maria Elena, who embraced the concept of having her late husband’s music filmed live instead of using the practice of lip-synching. The actors chosen to play Holly and his band were selected for their musical abilities. Gary Busey had toured as a drummer for Leon Russell, Don Stroud boned up on his drumming skills, and Charles Martin Smith, who was skilled at piano, guitar and composing music, played the bass on screen.
       According to the press kit biography of screen writer Robert Gittler, he was a longtime friend of Rash and did nine rewrites to achieve the final shooting script. The Buddy Holly Story was Gittler’s first and only screenplay. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot on 16 May 1978, only days before the film was released.
       The 27 Dec 1977 HR story stated that Lubbock, TX, no longer looked as it did when Holly lived there, so Newhall and Palmdale, CA, were substituted. A portion of Grand Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets in downtown Los Angeles was used to recreate New York City in the 1950s. The Lubbock bus station and the roller rink were filmed in Glendale, CA.
       Holly’s family claimed they were never shown a script, and the filmmakers had taken great dramatic license to tell Buddy’s story. A 21 Sep 1978 Rolling Stone article described several inaccuracies in the film. Holly and the Crickets toured extensively with black groups because bookers originally thought the group was black. Racial tensions arose during the touring but those conflicts were ignored in the screenplay. According to Holly’s parents, their pastor never condemned their son’s music from the pulpit. Buddy had a good relationship with his pastor and tithed ten percent of his earnings to the church. His mother mentioned that she wrote “Maybe Baby” as an antidote to Buddy’s serious songs and gave it to her son. The next thing she knew he had recorded it.
       Director Steve Rash told AFI Catalog that the character of Buddy Holly's producer, Norman Petty, was eliminated from the script because he demanded final approval.
       The film repeated the canard that Holly was hired to play the Apollo Theater in Harlem because he and his band sounded "black" on "That'll Be the Day." In fact, the song was released as by "The Crickets," without Holly's name, on Brunswick Records. Since Brunswick was a traditionally black music label, and The Crickets had previously been the name of an African American doo-wop group, the mistake had little to do with the band's sound.
       On 25 Jan 1978, Var announced that Columbia Pictures had acquired distribution rights to the film for an advance reputed to be “$2,000,000 plus.” A 27 Jan 1978 HR article by Roger Cels revealed that a dispute had arisen between Columbia and NITE over distribution rights. NITE president Tom Patterson claimed that more than one hundred of its affiliated theater owners had contracted to play the film through the then-defunct NITE distribution program. However, producer Edward Cohen contested any claim by Patterson and NITE, asserting that no signed agreements existed between the producers and NITE.
       According to a 19 Dec 1978 HR news item, NITE filed a $220 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, GA, citing that Columbia’s distribution deal with the film’s producers had caused the dissolution of its organization and resulted in discriminatory exhibition terms and hardship to its membership of small theater owners. An 8 Oct 1982HR story reported that NITE had lost its suit after five years. Former NITE president Patterson stated that he would file an appeal. The outcome of the appeal, if any, has not been determined.
       A 27 Feb 1978 HR article noted that Barbara Cooke Preston, widow of singer Sam Cooke, filed a lawsuit asking to stop the release of the film because she had not been compensated for the use of her late husband’s image. The suit also alleged that the singer was portrayed falsely in the film.
       A 4 Jul 1978 LAT article reported a suit filed by writer Alan Swyer for breach of contract against Innovisions, Inc. Swyer contended that in a 1975 oral agreement he was promised $35,000 in four installments for an original screenplay, two and a half percent of the company’s gross profits and $12,500 upon receiving a screen credit in the finished movie and all rights to create and publish a novel based on the movie. Swyer charged that he had not received his $35,000 fee in a timely fashion and never received other due payments and had been denied co-credit as screenwriter. In addition, Innovisions made a deal with Ballantine Books to publish a novelized form of the movie without his participation. Swyer’s litigation asked for damages “in excess of $100,000.” The outcome of the lawsuit has not been determined.
       A 13 Nov 1985 Var news story stated that The Buddy Holly Production Co. sued Columbia for withholding profits from the film. The complaint noted that $1.2 million was being withheld. The producers claimed that Columbia’s excuse for the delayed payment was a pending federal antitrust lawsuit, but noted the litigation had been resolved in 1984. The complaint stated the company was seeking damages in the amount of $2 million to its reputation, $5 million in punitive damages and a portion of the $1.5 million Columbia had received from selling the television rights of the film.
       Gary Busey was nominated for an Academy Award for the category “Actor in a Leading Role” and was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for “Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy.” He won a Los Angeles Film Critics Association New Generation Award. Joe Renzetti received an Academy Award for “Music (Adaptation Score).” Tex Rudloff, Joel Fein, Curly Thirlwell and Willie Burton were nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Sound.”