I like Buddy Holly. Elvis too but I'd have to agree with you as far as talent goes.
From a Buddy Holly Bio:
It can be argued that Buddy Holly was, in fact, the very first Elvis impersonator. Until a relatively obscure Elvis Presley, opening for country star Ferlin Huskey, came to Lubbock in February of Buddy's senior year, Buddy was primarily playing traditional Country & Western music for the public. After opening for Elvis at Lubbock's Fair Park Coliseum, Buddy decided his destiny and declared to himself, "That's what I want to do with my life!"
Through vision of the future and sheer force of will, coupled with an amazing talent for comprehending the technology of recording, our young, gangly "Be-spectacled One" set out to create one of the most enduring & influential manifestations of the human capability for dreams. His dream would change the world for us all.
While Elvis will always be the King of Rock-n-Roll, Buddy Holly is most certainly its George Washington. There will never be another beautiful Elvis; Elvis was truly a Force of History. However, Buddy Holly gave hope to all the outcasts, misfits, artists, dreamers, shakers, wailers & moaners of the world that if goofy ol' Buddy Holly could make it as a Star, they could do it too.
Buddy brought Rock-n-Roll to the people who truly needed it - those very same people described on the Statue of Liberty's invitation to the wretched refuse of the world. As Paul McCartney of working-class Liverpool observed, "Buddy Holly gave you confidence. He was like the boy next door