PacRep’s annual love letter to Buddy Holly refuses to fade away, includes more impersonations than ever.

Two teenagers named John and Paul were inspired to start a band after they saw Buddy Holly perform in 1958 at the London Palladium. Another kid, Eric Clapton, had his mind blown at the same show. Lippy teen Mick Jagger caught Holly’s show in Woolwich, London, on a later leg of that tour. In 1959 – two nights before Holly boarded that ill-fated plane – 17-year-old aspiring folk singer, Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, stood four feet from the stage at the Duluth National Guard Armory, mesmerized by the rocker and his Fender.

“[Holly] is in everybody,” Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards once said.

Travis Poelle would agree. He’s been transforming into Holly, sporting a pleated white suit, jet-black-dyed hair and those thick-framed bifocals for 12 years.

He takes impersonator to another level. After longtime performer Poelle first delved into Holly’s world in 2003, when he starred in local director Stephen Moorer’s production of Buddy! The Buddy Holly Story, he discovered looking like Holly was the easy part. Poelle spent hours studying photos, books and film of the icon to better capture his trademark Lubbock, Texas, twang and fiery onstage persona.

Every year since, Moorer and Poelle put together a show that celebrates rock’s greatest eras. Holly is always showcased.

This year, Buddy, Elvis and the Gang: A Tribute Concert! features performances from Elvis, Big Bopper, James Brown, Dusty Springfield, Dylan, Carole King, James Taylor, Mamas and Papas, Little Richard, Sam Cooke and Tina Turner. Poelle slips into the shoes of Ricky Nelson, Art Garfunkel and James Taylor.

“It’s not a group playing covers,” Poelle explains. “Every [musician] in the show acts as if we are the characters.”

But Holly remains the centerpiece. As he should be, after influencing every rocker from The Clash to Weezer to Bruce Springsteen, who famously used to listen to Holly’s music before gigs.

Like the Boss, Holly was a prolific songwriter early on: Holly wrote 50 tunes by 22. Most were hits, from “Peggy Sue” to “That’ll Be the Day” to the tender ballad “True Love Ways.” “Not Fade Away” is Poelle’s all-time favorite Holly tune.

“I never get tired of playing it,” he says. “It’s a good groove with good harmonies and appropriate because we’re not letting Buddy fade away.”

They’re also enabling booty-shaking – audience members are invited to dance in the aisles.

BUDDY, ELVIS AND THE GANG! TRIBUTE CONCERT 7:30pm Thursday-Saturday; 2pm Sunday, through Aug. 30. Golden Bough Theatre, Monte Verde between Eighth and Ninth, Carmel. $20-$42. 622-0100, www.pacrep.org.