Feb

MUSIC HISTORY WAS MADE ON THIS DAY

February 3, 1959: The Day the Music Died: Photos From the Plane Crash That Killed Buddy Holly and Others in Iowa ~ Vintage Everyday

3 February 1959: “The Day the Music Died” | This Day in Aviation

Rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P.
“The Big Bopper” Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson,
were killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane
crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on
a flight headed for Moorhead, Minnesota.

Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error.

Holly and his band, the Crickets, had just scored a No. 1 hit with
“That’ll Be the Day.”

After mechanical difficulties with the tour bus, Holly had chartered
a plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance
Party Tour. However, Richardson, who had the flu, convinced
Holly’s band member Waylon Jennings to give up his seat, and
Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for another seat on the plane.

still alive in Clear Lake ...

Clear Lake, Iowa's memorial to the “Day the Music Died” is a giant pair of Buddy Holly glasses.

What Don McLean says 'American Pie,' 'the day the music died' means

Singer Don McLean (above) memorialized Holly, Valens and
Richardson in the 1972 No. 1 hit “American Pie,” which
refers to February 3, 1959 as “the day the music died.”