Posted on 02/03/2014 6:40:08 AM PST by Baynative
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
Me too .. Feb 29, 1948
True enough. I didn't much like their choices either. But most of the surveys I've seen of the "greatest" music/songs whatever are heavily biased to the 60's.
For those with a lot of time on their hands I recommend the following YouTube video playlist. It covers music from the 60's through 2013. The best comes first.
They have a nice scene depicting playing at the skating rink in the Buddy Holly Story. If you haven’t seen it, you might get a kick out of the early scenes in Lubbock.
What a great thread! I was 10 years old and living in Moorhead. MN at the time. I do remember the news of the crash but wasnt particularly attuned to who they were, yet, I guess.
The headline below about Iowa’s right-to-work law grabbed my attention. The previous November, Californians rejected a right-to-work law (Prop. 18), but Iowa’s law prevails to this day.
Interestingly, I found the following text:
From the Coroner's Report dated Feb. 4, 1959Did the coroner really pilfer Buddy Holly's cash for his fee??? Never read about that before...(snip)
Personal effects found with the body are listed on a separate sheet in this report.
Fingerprints were taken of the deceased for purposes of identification.
Ralph E. Smiley, MD
Acting coroner
Personal effects, Charles Holley
Cash $193.00 less $11.65 coroner's fees - $181.35 2 cuff links, silver 1/2 in. balls having jeweled band Top portion of ball point pen.
“Rock n Roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died.” - John Milner “American Graffiti”
You’re 1 month from my sister’s age.
I am 12-6-46, second year baby boom.
My mom was a member of the RCA Victor record club. She got a new 78 record every month. IIRC it had 3 songs, all pop singers. Rosemary Clooney, Eddie Fisher, Pati Paige and so on.
We watched the Les Paul and Mary Ford Show followed by Dinah Shore. both 15 minutes IIRC. Tennessee Ernie Ford, Grand Ole Opry. Nat King Cole, Jimmy Durante, Liberace, Perry Como. Anything with music.
I remember my mom tried to explain to us why Nat King Cole was cancelled, but I was too young to understand. Maybe the first and one of the few times my parents ever said anything about race.
I went to boarding school in Paintsville KY. On a warm spring night, I remember the high school girls were out on the big veranda and they were playing records. I laid in bed and heard hound dog and all shook up for the first time. Never heard anything like it.
The nuns let us watch 1/2 hour of bandstand on occasion.
We lived in Logan WV and had two radio stations, both country. No western, just country.
When we moved to Cal, my mom not only had tossed my comic books, but my sisters 45s and all of her Elvis posters.
In 1959 when I was a sophomore in college, Rock-and-Roll was strictly music to dance to. Listening music was Modern Jazz and Folk Songs. The words to R&R were beneath our refined sensibilities. Now, that old R&R is my favorite listening music. The other stuff just puts me to sleep.
Thanx everyone for all the info and personal stories.
I’ll check in later to catch up.
I meant #50 to go to your #12.
Not really. There was some OK Surf stuff and a few decent artists but from '65 on we had the wimpy Brit stuff and then tons of doper music. Tie-died shirts, muttonchop whiskers, bellbottom pants and draft dodgers.
That period of history is best buried where it belongs.
Holly was one of the first big stars to play the Fender Stratocaster, which would shortly be the world’s best selling and most copied guitar (also played by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton & David Gilmour among many other rockers).
Holly’s parents opened their home as a museum/memorial to Buddy and allowed visitors to walk in and play one of Holly’s original Stratocasters for many years after he died. It was only after the Strat began to get so worn it was in danger of falling apart that they stopped doing this.
One man's opinion.
Even the Beatles and Rolling Stones disagreed with this view.
Actually Holly was a Game-Changer in the early Rock N' Roll / Rockabilly era.
Both the Beatles and Rolling Stones, along with many others, not only recorded Holly's music but acknowledged the influence he had on their music and careers.
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The legend goes that the heater on the tour bus had failed and some of the performers were spreading a cold. The plane trip was to try to avoid a long ride in a freezing bus.
Legend also has it that when Jennings lost his seat to Holly, he teasingly said to him “well, I hope your plane crashes” which haunted him for the rest of his life.
I was one of those hippies, but I didn't smell .. I worked and bathed in my own apartment and occasionally .. rented room.
65 - 67 was Army time, 68 and beyond was for ME and my 21 year old pleasure(s) and I, by jiminy .. enjoyed a HELLavalot !
Just like you were supposed to (and maybe did)
We left the ballads of Frank Sinatra (which oftentimes were really syripy, stupid lyrics) and awoke to The Beatles talkin' 'bout our high school girl/boy angst and the Stones' impetus to go out and kick some ass.
Dylan and HIS ilk thought thoughts many of us plebes had never considered before.
The 60's were very dynamic and, ... personally ... I'm glad I was alive at the time ... happy I survived ... and wouldn't change much of anything I did or felt or experienced.
It was a life style the entire planet (of 18 - 30 year olds) was experiencing at the same time.
I can say these things NOW ... it was a global, Satanic coup ... but at the time ... it was phenominal.
They were all heading to your home town for their next performance when the accident at Clear Lake occured.
50th Anniversary DOOMED"After the evening performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, the tour was scheduled for a ten-hour ride to Moorhead, Minn. CAG had arranged for a school bus to get them there, 440 miles away.
That was enough for Buddy Holly. He chartered a small plane to reach Moorhead. A warm hotel room, clean sheets and hot food would await him there. And he could take the groups’ dirty laundry for proper cleaning. Valens and Richardson, who was feeling ill, asked to fly along."
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