Music on Mondays — The day the music died
On February 3, 1959, a plane crash in an Iowa cornfield near Grant Township took from the world three young musicians: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson. The plane’s pilot, Roger Peterson, too often forgotten since the crash was blamed on bad weather and pilot error, also died. Peterson had both a private pilot license and a commecial license, but he was still working on his instrument flying rating, which turned out to be critical in the bad weather.
At the time, Buddy Holly was part of the Winter Dance Tour that was to cover 24 midwestern states in just three weeks. After signing on to the Winter Dance Tour, Holly assembled a backing band that included Tommy Allsup on guitar, Carl Bunch on drums, and Waylon Jennings (yes, that Waylon Jennings) on bass. 
After their performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly’s bus developed mechanical problems, causing Holly to charter a plane for his band to get to the next performance in Moorhead, Minnesota. The plane, a 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed shortly after takeoff.
Ritchie Valens and Richardson also were part of the Winter Dance Tour. Richardson, having the flu, convinced Waylon Jennings to give up his seat on the plane. Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for another seat on the plane, the seat originally to go to Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts. Dion did not want to pay $36 for his seat on the plane.
Don McLean memorialized Holly, Valens, and Richardson in his No. 1 hit “American Pie,” released in November 1971, referring to February 3, 1959, as “the day the music died.” If you ever hear someone say “The day the music died,” it’s a phrase that entered the public lexicon to mean something ending prematurely; when Holly, Valens, and Richardson died, they were just 22, 17, and 28, respectively. Peterson, the pilot, was just 21.
Here, then, are four songs for today’s Music on Mondays, one each from Holly, Valens, and Richardson, and then Don McLean’s “American Pie.” Below the four songs are some interesting tidbits that you might not know.
Interesting tidbits that you might not know:
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If you’ve already listened to the four songs, you probably recognize J. P. Richardson as The Big Bopper.
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Richardson is credited with creating the first music video, in 1958.
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The first #1 hit for country music legend George Jones was “White Lightning,” written by Richardson.
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Richardson also wrote “Running Bear” and sang background vocals on the recording by Johnny Preston. It was released seven months after the crash and went to #1 on the charts.
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Richardson’s son, Jay Perry, had his dad’s body exhumed in January 2007 to settle rumors of Richardson surviving the plane crash. The well-preserved body was identified as Richardson, autopsied, and reburied in a new casket. The autopsy showed that J.P. died of massive injuries and could not have crawled away from the plane and survived as some believed. In December 2008, Jay put the original casket up for auction on eBay. I don’t know whether or not it sold.
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Buddy Holly was in the inaugural class of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986.
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Holly was born in Lubbock, Texas, and sang in the choir at Lubbock High School. Lubbock memorials to Buddy Holly include streets named Crickets Avenue and Buddy Holly Avenue. The Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock is located in the former Fort Worth & Denver South Plains Railway Depot and contains a museum of Holly memorabilia and a Fine Arts Gallery.
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Valens had overcome a fear of flying after a Douglas
DC-7B (picture at right) and a U.S. Air Force Northrup F89J Scorpion collided over his junior high school in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley on January 31, 1957. Eight people were killed or died from their injuries, three of whom were children age 12 and 13, and another 74 children suffered injuries. The DC-7B was on its first functional test flight before being delivered to Continental Airlines; the F89J was also on a test flight to check its onboard radar equipment. The collision took place at an altitude of 25,000 feet, with the DC-7B falling onto the grounds of the Pacoima Junior High School and the Pacoima Congregational Church. - The Beechcraft Bonanza that crashed in the cornfield has been in continuous production since 1947, making it the oldest continuously produced plane, with over 17,000 planes produced.
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Posted on February 4, 2013, in Music on Mondays and tagged Beechcraft Bonanza 35, buddy holly and the crickets, Douglas CD-7B, j. p. richardson, Northrup F89J Scorpion, Pacoima Congregational Church, Pacoima Junior High School, ritchie valens, the big bopper, waylon jennings. Bookmark the permalink. 25 Comments.
First .. has the price changed on the stamp?
Second .. that is a bloody awesome post. Thank you. I think I am going to have to change my music of the day to commemorate one – or all – of them. Thanks
The price changes each time on the stamp. Zoey the Cool Cat demands more for each post she approves. Eventually I’ll have to fire her and hire some young kitty who will approve posts at a fraction of the cost………….lol
LOL. I don’t notice it often, but the last couple of times I have
Very interesting! I saw something fairly recently that said that one of the people who had to give up his seat on the plane (it might have been Waylon) was annoyed by it and made a comment like “I hope your plane crashes,” that haunted him ever after. Sad, huh? How weird that they had to dig one of them up to prove he didn’t die, though. That is just bizarre.
Oh, and way back in high school I wrote a nine-page paper on all the various symbolism in the song American Pie. My mom helped me out, and I got an A+++. I might still have it somewhere.
Yes. As Buddy Holly was getting on the plane, he looked at Waylon and said, “I hope your ol’ bus freezes up,” to which Waylon replied, “Well I hope your ol’ plane crashes.” It was a statement that Waylon has said haunted him for decades.
I like you A+++……….lol
A great post!
Excellent post ! ! ! Thanks for sharing this.
This was a fabulous post, I am going to reblog. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks!
Reblogged this on Sand Spring Chesapeakes and commented:
This was a very interesting and fabulous post. Had to reblog!
Thank you for this tribute. I know a lot about these men, despite their dying months before I was born–except Don McLean.
This was a really interesting post! Loved the music.
Interesting post. Thanks for all the information.
May I reblog this, please?
Of course! No need to ask permission if the reblog button is visible, and it always is on my posts unless WordPress or the theme creators alter things with their updates.
I love those music videos! You did a good job with all this history stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Wonderful post that took me back to my dancing days. It really felt that the music had died when we heard the news. When I look at the pictures of Buddy it reminds me how young we all were, and what a gorgeous young man he was… you have to be old to see the real beauty I suspect.!
Lovely to hear my old favourites again, including American Pie..
Wow Russell I loved this post thank you for doing this
x. Now I have the songs rolling around in my head and this is making me smile 
Reblogged this on karenlawrencephotography.
Really a wonderful tribute… Love them all.
Beautiful. I just had goosebumps reading it and listening to American Pie. I saw a movie about this and of Patsy Cline. Plane crashes like this haunt me. Excellent tribute!
I hope you don’t mind if I reblog your link on my reblog page?
And Ricky Nelson and Jim Croce. In fact, I was in Dallas for the 1986 Cotton Bowl between Texas A&M (my alma mater) and Auburn. Two friends and I had tickets to see Ricky Nelson on December 31, 1985. We were eating and drinking at a bar around 6:00 p.m. when news came that Ricky Nelson had been killed in a plane crash. I still have the unused ticket somewhere around here.
Wow! Now that is truly a tribute. I have goosebumps.
Great post. I really do like Buddy Holly and it’s made me want to search out my LP ‘Buddy Holly Lives’ and give it a whirl.
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