Buddy Holly was only 22 when he died--Interesting Random Facts

Everybody knows the story of Buddy Holly and The Day the Music Died, but I was reading about it again just now, and I realized that Buddy Holly was only 22 when he died.  I don't think I had realized he was that young.  I mean, Buddy Holly is so frequently cited as an influence on other musicians (see here), that I just assumed he had reached at least his mid-twenties or late twenties to have had such an influence.  

So if he was only 22 when he died, that means his entire career was when he was under 22.  According to Wikipedia, Buddy Holly was only 18 when he started recording.  And he was only 21 in this video clip: 

...and, doing some more reading, it looks like Ritchie Valens, who infamously died in the same crash, was even younger at 17.  

...but I think there might have been something with singers in the 1950s just being really young just in general.  For example, did you know that the girl who did Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree was 13 when she recorded that song?