David Box was born in Sulphur Springs, Texas, in 1943 to parents Harold D. and Virginia Box. The family moved to Lubbock, Texas, in 1945. Harold, known as “Boxy,” was a self-taught fiddle player in The Sunshine Trio, a group that performed on KFYO-AM radio five days a week. David first performed at just 3 years old in a talent show at the Palace Theater in Lubbock, broadcast by KSEL-AM, receiving three curtain calls and $13 in tips from audience members.
Inspired by the success of Lubbock native Buddy Holly, David continued to pursue a career in music, writing songs and performing. In high school, he was friends with Terry Allen and formed several Lubbock musical groups: The Rhythm Teens, The Shamrocks, and The Ravens. In 1960 David joined The Crickets to record posthumously the Buddy Holly tune “Peggy Sue Got Married” on Box’s seventeenth birthday. He also contributed guitar and vocal talents to their album, which also included one of the songs he had written. He met and worked with top Nashville recording artists including Roy Orbison. In 1963 he toured the East Coast with The Everly Brothers, Bobby Vee, Dusty Springfield and The Searchers, who recorded his song “Don’t Cha Know.”
The next year Buddy Holly’s former business manager negotiated an LP-album contract with RCA Records. Set to fly to Nashville the next day, three musician friends and David Box, an aviation enthusiast since childhood, decided to take a morning pleasure flight. Fifteen minutes into the flight on October 23, 1964, the plane crashed in Harris County, Texas, with no survivors. David’s grave marker reads “I’ll sing throughout eternity,” a line from an old Gospel song.
David Box was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame in 2006.
