Vol. 20: #5 • Really Expensive Stuff • (1-28-2024) Tidbits of Coachella Valley

February 3 is commemorated as “the day the music died,” referring to the tragic loss of musical talent in a plane crash on that day in 1959. This week, Tidbits profiles the musicians and the song that was written in tribute.

• Charles “Buddy” Holley was a Lubbock-born guitarist who brought us many hits, including “Peggy Sue” and “That’ll Be the Day.” When his name was misspelled on his first recording contract, he became Buddy Holly. Holly was discovered by a record company talent scout when he and his band were performing at a skating rink. The turning point in his career was landing the chance to open for Elvis Presley in 1955. He recorded “That’ll Be the Day” with his band, the Crickets, in 1957, and went on to hit the charts with seven Top 40 singles between August 1957 and August 1958.

• Holly left the Crickets, going out on his own in October 1958. On tour with The Winter Dance Party in 1959, he joined other performers for a gig in Clear Lake, Iowa, on the night of February 2.

• Also on the tour was 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, who was eight months into his music career, and already had several hits, including “La Bamba” and “Donna.”

Twenty-eight-year-old, J. P. Richardson, better known as The Big Bopper, the composer of hits “Chantilly Lace,” “Running Bear,” and “White Lightning,” was also part of the Dance Party.

• The Winter Dance Party tour was 24 cities, and the group of musicians traveled by bus between gigs. The tour began on January 23, 1959, and by February 2, the harsh winter weather, two bus breakdowns, fatigue, and a pile of dirty laundry had left the group exhausted.

• When the Clear Lake, Iowa gig ended after midnight, a 365-mile road trip to Moorhead, Minnesota lay ahead, so Buddy Holly chartered a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza plane fly them there and shorten the trip.

• Valens flipped a coin with the band’s guitar player for a seat on the plane and won the toss. Another available seat had been claimed by the band’s bass player, Waylon Jennings, but he gave it up to The Big Bopper, who was suffering from the flu.

• The plane’s 21-year-old pilot took off less than an hour later at about 1:00 am from the Mason City airport in snowy weather and limited visibility. They had flown barely five miles before the plane suddenly lost altitude and crashed nose first at full throttle in an Iowa cornfield, killing all aboard. The Civil Aeronautics Board attributed the crash to pilot error due to his lack of experience flying at night in adverse weather conditions. Others disputed that claim, citing possible mechanical problems and other circumstances.

• Young Don McLean was a 13-year-old paperboy that year, and was folding his delivery papers the following morning when he was shocked to read the front page news story about the fatal crash. Years later in 1971, McLean himself had begun a music career and recorded “American Pie” in tribute to his beloved musicians.

• His line in the song “February made me shiver, with every paper I’d deliver, bad news on the doorstep” speaks of that sad morning. He also wrote of “the three men I admire most.” The third verse of the 8 ½-minute classic reads, “I can’t remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride,” speaking of Maria, whom Buddy Holly had married five months earlier, less than two months after their first date. She was pregnant at the time of the fatal crash and suffered a miscarriage a few days later.

• The words, “this’ll be the day that I die,” found in the song’s chorus are a slight change to the words of Holly’s song, “That’ll be the day.” His “American Pie” song quickly became a number one hit.

• Big Bopper J.P. Richardson’s son was born two months after the rising singer’s life had tragically ended.