Left to right: Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson.
* Roger Peterson, of Alton, Iowa, the pilot, age 21.
* Charles Hardin Holley, a.k.a. Buddy Holly, of Lubbock, Texas, age 22, one of the leading figures in the early years of rock and roll music, who, with his band the Crickets, had recorded the enormous hits "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue," and a number of other songs which, with their lyrics, harmonies and arrangements, would inspire many later performers, including the Beatles.
* Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes, a.k.a. Richard Valenzuela, a.k.a. Ritchie Valens, of the Pacoima section of Los Angeles, California, age just 17, a Mexican-American guitar whiz who was only beginning to show what he could do, led by his one true hit record, a double-sided hit containing the slow love song "Donna" and a raved-up version of the Mexican folk song "La Bamba."
* Jiles Perry Richardson Jr., a.k.a. J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. Jape Richardson, a.k.a. The Big Bopper, of Beaumont, Texas, age 28, a disc jockey who, like so many deejays before him (such as Jim Lowe, "The Green Door") and after him (such as Rick Dees, "Disco Duck"), had so much fun playing the music that he decided to record some of it himself, including the 1958 hit "Chantilly Lace."
Holly, Valens and Richardson had been the headliners of the Winter Dance Party tour, making stops all over the Midwest. The last show was at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2. Built in 1948, the Ballroom still hosts shows, with a seating capacity of 2,100.
The tour bus' heater broke down, and Holly wanted to get to the next stop quickly, to sleep in a warm hotel bed instead of on the cold bus, and to get his laundry done. So he hired the plane to get them to Moorhead, Minnesota. But it was snowing, and Peterson was a terribly inexperienced pilot. The plane only flew 6 miles before crashing.
In 1971, singer Don McLean wrote "American Pie," in which he called the event "The Day the Music Died."
I disagree with this assessment: The reaction to the crash showed, rather, that this was the day the music grew up, that those who opposed it saw that rock and roll could generate the same kind of devotion from its fans that previous forms had, that it was not going to go away.
In the next few years, the music would mature. Elvis Presley would return from serving in the U.S. Army with "grownup" hits like "It's Now Or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and proving that, given the same kind of break that he got, he would have been a music star even if rock and roll had never happened.
Roy Orbison, already 24 when he had his 1st national hit, would be a rocker that even grownups could love. (My grandmother, who was 36 when "Only the Lonely" hit in 1960, was crazy about him.) The folk music movement had already kicked into gear by the time the Beechcraft went down, and would grow to the point where Bob Dylan and Joan Baez would make it a huge phenomenon.
Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller with the Drifters, Berry Gordy with his Motown acts, and Phil Spector with lots of groups backed by his "Wall of Sound," were creating recordings far more sophisticated than some of the early rock records, some of which sounded like they were recorded in closets and stairwells -- and some of literally were, because it was considered an improvement over the kinds of studios the performers could afford to rent.
And, as I said, Holly inspired the Beatles, and much of Holly's work also filtered into that of the Beach Boys. Think of how many acts those 2 groups inspired.
Dion & The Belmonts, the Bronx-based doo-wop group, were also on the Winter Dance Party tour. Lead singer Dion DiMucci was offered one of the seats on the plane. He was told that it cost $36 -- about $316 in 2019 money. But that was a month's rent at the apartment where he grew up on East 183rd Street, and the number stuck in his mind, so he decided that he couldn't pay it.
Dion would go on to have a few hits with the Belmonts, and a few more as a soloist, before a struggle with substance abuse curtailed his career. He recovered, and is alive today, at age 79. He has gone out of his way to clear up some of the misconceptions about that fateful night.
Valens was on the plane because he "won" a coin flip with guitarist Tommy Allsup. Richardson had a cold, and so Holly's lead guitarist gave up his seat for him. That guitarist was Waylon Jennings, and he became a country music superstar, and he lived on until 2002. Allsup lived until 2017.
Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens in 1959; Jim Reeves, in 1964; Otis Redding, in 1967; and Jim Croce, in 1973: All died in the crashes of Beechcraft planes. Maybe, since 1973, rock-and-rollers have finally learned.
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