Not persuaded by his argument that buddy holly was a bigger pioneer than elvis. Holly song list pretty weak. Peggy sue? Not much there.
Paul McCartney held Buddy Holly in high esteem, for whatever that may be worth. His quote: ‘The late great Buddy Holly, ladies and gentlemen; no one like him.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTAta1y7dIo
Not much there...could be said of much of the catalogue of the Stones, especially, in terms of chord progressions.
But Elvis? As you may know Elvis never composed a thing - anything credited to him was simply a way of funneling more cash via the royalty system.
Elvis WAS a pioneer. The Sun Sessions are an incredible, spontaneous combination of different musical elements. But even the Sun Sessions were cover songs and Elvis performed only other people’s compositions his entire life, even if he had help from Leiber & Stoller.
Holly wrote, sang, played LEAD guitar, arranged and produced - all before the age of 22.
That said, in my view nobody can top Chuck Berry as the father of rock n’ roll but to a musician Holly tops Elvis in all but the vocal department.