On this date in 1959, a small plane crashed killing three American Rock & Roll legends and pioneers; Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, as well as the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa. The song by Don McLean, “American Pie” coined the phrase The Day The Music Died when writing about what most consider Rock & Roll’s most tragic plane crash, and its first.
It would have been enough if any of the three stars died, but to have all three of them taken from us in one night was a major blow to the early Rock & Roll movement. They were touring The Midwestern USA as part of the “The Winter Dance Party”, a tour that was scheduled to cover twenty-three cities in three weeks. Also on the tour was Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts, who was initially asked for the seat on the plane and changed his mind due to the fact that the cost was $36 and he felt that a seat on a plane was not worth being equal to his parent’s monthly rent.
Buddy Holly’s backup band; The Crickets were the backing band for the whole the tour for all artists. It is not widely known that Waylon Jennings was a member of his band at the time, although not mentioned int he lyrics of “American Pie”.
The legacy of the crash, “American Pie” and Valens’ influence on Latin performers in the Rock genre and Rock & Roll in general was illustrated in the film La Bamba. I remember at the time before I knew the movie was released people began out of the blue requesting “Donna”, “Come On Let’s Go” and ”La Bamba”. The remakes by Los Lobos modernized the original hits and made them more accessible to the current generation of listeners. “La Bamba” is still a very requested song in many events and situations. My favorite Ritchie Valens song is “Sleepwalk” but am a fan of all his work.
Even as kid I have always been a fan of Buddy Holly and his sweet mix of Rock, Country and Blues with a tight band and those great big eyeglasses. Among the very long list of musicians that have expressed his influence on their music include Rock legends The Beatles, Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. He was part of the initial group of inductees to The Rock and Roll Hal Of Fame and was #13 on The Rolling Stone’s list of “The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time”. He is one of my favorites and always am thrilled when receiving a request to play any of his songs, especially “Rave On”, “Every Day” and “Peggy Sue”. The actual album American Pie by Don McLean was dedicated to Holly specifically, although the song was about all three of them.
For those that are not familiar with The Big Bopper, the one lasting legacy he left us was his mega-hit “Chantilly Lace”. He also wrote several #1 hits for other artists.