The Day the Music Died
1959 American plane crash
The Day the Music Died
On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later became known as "The Day the Music Died" after singer-songwriter Don McLean referred to it as such in his 1971 song "American Pie". At the time, Holly and his band, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, were playing on the "Winter Dance Party" tour across the American Midwest. Rising artists Valens, Richardson, Frankie Sardo and vocal group Dion and the Belmonts had joined the tour as well. The long journeys between venues in poorly heated tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of flu and even frostbite. After performing in Clear Lake, and frustrated by the conditions on the tour buses, Holly chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, suffering from the flu, swapped places with Jennings...
Read on Wikipedia · Image Civil Aeronautics Board, Public domain
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