February 3:

1959 : The day the music died

On this day in 1959, rising American rock stars Buddy
Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper"
Richardson are killed when their chartered Beechcraft
Bonanza plane crashes in Iowa a few minutes after
takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for
Moorehead, 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.

Holly, born Charles Holley in Lubbock, Texas, and just
22 when he died, began singing country music with high
school friends before switching to rock and roll after
opening for various performers, including Elvis
Presley. By the mid-1950s, Holly and his band had a
regular radio show and toured internationally, playing
hits like "Peggy Sue," "Oh, Boy!," "Maybe Baby" and
"Early in the Morning." Holly wrote all his own songs,
many of which were released after his death and
influenced such artists as Bob Dylan and Paul
McCartney.

Another crash victim, J.P. "The Big Bopper"
Richardson, 28, started out as a disk jockey in Texas
and later began writing songs. Richardson's most
famous recording was the rockabilly "Chantilly Lace,"
which made the Top 10. He developed a stage show based
on his radio persona, "The Big Bopper."

The third crash victim was Ritchie Valens, born
Richard Valenzuela in a suburb of Los Angeles, who
was only 17 when the plane went down but had already
scored hits with "Come On, Let's Go," "Donna" and "La
Bamba," an upbeat number based on a traditional
Mexican wedding song (though Valens barely spoke
Spanish). In 1987, Valens' life was portrayed in the
movie La Bamba, and the title song, performed by Los
Lobos, became a No. 1 hit. Valens was posthumously
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Singer Don McLean 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."

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