The wreckage of the plane disaster that claimed the lives of rock stars The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.), Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela), and Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley) on February 3, CLEAR LAKE, IA March 3, 1959, outside of Clearl
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February 3 is known as The Day the Music Died after a small plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in 1959.
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Holly, a Texas native, was thought to be the next Elvis Presley.
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Waylon Jennings, also from Texas, gave up his seat on the plane for The Big Bopper.
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February 3 is known as The Day the Music Died after a small plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in 1959.
-
Holly, a Texas native, was thought to be the next Elvis Presley.
-
Waylon Jennings, also from Texas, gave up his seat on the plane for The Big Bopper.
On February 3, 1959, just after taking off from Clear Lake, Iowa, a plane carrying 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old Jiles Perry Richardson Jr., better known by his stage name The Big Bopper, and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens perished in an accident alongside pilot Roger Peterson.
After traveling to the event at Clear Lake, Iowa, in a freezing tour bus, Buddy Holly, a native of Lubbock, Texas, rented the aircraft. On the bus, there was no heat.
UNSPECIFIED: Buddy Holly photo Image via Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives
Feb. 3, 1959
Timetable:
For their upcoming performance on the Winter Dance Party Tour, Holly, The Big Bopper, and Valens were heading to Fargo, North Dakota.
Holly was the main attraction on the three-week tour, which was scheduled to visit 24 locations. Tommy Allsup and Holly’s Lubbock friend Waylon Jennings joined the tour as supporting musicians.
On February 2, 1959, the group performed in front of almost 1,500 fans at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
Three members of the group accepted to be taken to their next destination by the pilot.
1958: On stage, The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.) sings his popular song “Chantilly Lace”. (Image courtesy of Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives)
Holly boarded the 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza following the concert. He offered to fly with two other members for $36 each. Waylon Jennings had a cold, so he allowed The Big Bopper use his seat even though he was scheduled to travel. Ritchie Valens offered to flip a coin for the seat because he was also ill, but Tommy Allsup was scheduled to fly. The toss went to Ritchie.
Ritchie Valens is depicted in the portrait, circa 1958, with his hands resting on his guitar (Original Caption). Head and shoulders promotional photo, undated.
All three musicians and the pilot were killed when the jet crashed in a cornfield just minutes after taking off from Mason City Airport at around one in the morning into a blinding snowfall.
On February 7, a few days later, Buddy Holly’s body was laid to rest. At the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, services were performed, and over a thousand mourners showed up. Although Buddy’s stage name was Holly, his real name is Holley.
A view of the gravestone of Buddy Holly, an American rock & roll artist, in Lubbock, Texas, in 1975. On the gravestone, it is written, ‘In loving memory of our own Buddy Holley, September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959.’ (Image courtesy of Getty Images/Hulton Archive))
In his 1996 autobiography, Waylon Jennings expressed his disappointment over having to board the icy bus. “I hope your damn plane crashes!” was his final statement to Buddy Holly, according to reports. This comment, according to Jennings, has followed him ever since.
Monuments
Iowa
At the crash site, where the current landowners planted four trees in remembrance of the dead, Buddy fan Ken Paquette erected a stainless steel monument to the vocalists in 1988.
Lubbock
An abandoned historic structure was acquired by the City of Lubbock in 1997. In order to open the Buddy Holly Center, the city extended, repaired, and restored it. A sizable collection of Buddy Holly memorabilia is kept there. It features musicians from West Texas. Fans of Buddy Holly travel there from all over the world. Every year on the anniversary of The Day the Music Died and Buddy Holly’s birthday, there are celebrations.
The Music
Buddy Holly:
“That’ll Be the Day” peaked at number one on the US and UK singles charts in 1957. Following its triumph, “Peggy Sue” became another big smash.
Valens, Ritchie:
Adapted from a Mexican folk song, “La Bamba” was the most popular of Valens’s songs. As a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement, Valens transformed the song into one with a rock beat and rhythm, which became a smash in 1958. Additionally, his song “Donna” peaked at number two in the United States.
The Big Bopper
“Chantilly Lace,” “Running Bear,” and “White Lightning” are some of his most well-known songs; the latter became George Jones’s first number-one single in 1959.
The City of Lubbock and This Day in Music history are the sources of the information in this article.
