Advertising
- Never Say No to Panda: Buddy's "True Love Way" is featured as the Leitmotif of the ad's main spokesperson, the Panda. Unlike the sweet nature of the song, it instead plays before the Panda wrecks the advertisement's target's life because they refuse to eat its Panda Cheese.
- Almost Famous: When William is in a plane with Stillwater, and the plane runs into turbulence, in a moment of Black Comedy, Russell starts singing "Peggy Sue".
- American Graffiti: Milner says at one point, "Rock-n-roll hasn't been the same since Buddy Holly died."
- The Commitments: At one point, the band needs to borrow Bernie's chipper van to drive themselves and their gear to a gig. When Mickah calls the van a "shit heap", and says they can't travel in it, Joey claims Buddy Holly said the same thing about the plane he got in that eventually killed him.
- In One-Trick Pony, Buddy Holly is mentioned while the band members are listing dead rock stars.
- In Quantum Leap, one of the Kisses With History involves Sam inspiring the lyrics to "Peggy Sue".
- Mike of The Young Ones discovers Buddy in his room, having parachuted out of the plane and has been stuck there for over twenty years.
Music
- Don McLean's most famous song, "American Pie", is partly about Buddy Holly's death:But February made me shiver with every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside the day the music died - Weezer's Breakthrough Hit "Buddy Holly", of course, was named after the singer.
