![]() Buddy Holly helped spearhead a whole new genre, serving as a main inspiration for the next generation of rock songwriters including, most importantly, John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Paul Simon, Pete Townshend, Brian Wilson & Mike Love, Ray Davies, and Bob Dylan. Although many of his greatest hits from the 1950s, such as "Peggy Sue," "Not Fade Away," "Every Day," "Maybe Baby" "Well… Alright," and "That'll Be The Day" have stood the test of time, Buddy's ultimate influence was not as a performer but as a songwriter. Ritchie Valens was 17, and the Big Bopper was 28.īuddy Holly was born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7th, 1936 as Charles Hardin Holley. The most logical explanation suggests that encased in a sea of white snow, Peterson simply flew the plane into the ground.Īt the time of the crash, Buddy Holly was 22 years old. Over the years there has been speculation as to whether a gun was accidentally fired inside the plane, disabling or killing the pilot. ![]() The three young stars and pilot Roger Peterson died immediately on impact. Minutes after takeoff, one wing hit the ground and the small plane corkscrewed over and over. The pilot may have been inexperienced with the instrumentation. The ground was already blanketed in white. A cold wind immediately gave way to snow, which drastically reduced visibility. The red Beechcraft Bonanza took off from Mason City, Iowa, ten miles east of Clear Lake, at around 1:50 a.m. Valens, who was sick, told Allsup, "I'll flip you for the remaining seat." On the toss of a coin, Allsup lost the seat - but won the rest of his life. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up!" Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your plane crashes!" This friendly banter would haunt Jennings for years. Dion was supposed to be on the plane rather than Valens, but balked when he heard that his share would be a whopping $36 - the exact amount of his parents' monthly rent back home in the Bronx. Jennings and Allsup gave up their seats to Richardson and Valens. Holly chartered a plane to fly him and his band to Fargo, North Dakota, near Moorhead. He had hoped to get to their next stop with time to rest and do his laundry.ĭion says that the time he spent with Holly has left a deep and lasting impression on him, and he remembers him as a man wise beyond his years: SOUNDCUE (:27 OC. When the tour finally arrived at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2nd, 1959, Holly had made plans to fly out to the next city directly after the show, rather than brave the unheated 430-mile bus trip to Moorhead, Minnesota. At one point, it was so cold that the tour's drummer developed frostbite, resulting in the Belmonts' Angelo D'Aleo - as well as Valens - serving double-duty by filling in on drums. Throughout the tour, the musicians' bus was either breaking down or often without heat. Holly, who had parted ways with longtime backing group the Crickets the previous year, was backed up by a then-unknown Waylon Jennings on bass, Carl Bunch on drums, and Tommy Allsup on lead guitar.ĭion DiMucci says that although the shows were always hot, his favorite moments from the tour were jamming on the near freezing bus on the way to the next town: SOUNDCUE (:14 OC. The three had been performing along with Dion & The Belmonts as part of the Winter Dance Party Tour, which would cover 24 cities in a short three-week period from January 23rd to February 15th. "The Big Bopper" Richardson died in a plane crash after a performance in Clear Lake, Iowa. It was 64 years ago today (February 3rd, 1959) that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P.
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