Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gazette, February 3, 1959
Posted on 02/04/2015 8:13:52 AM PST by iowamark
In February 1959, a paperboy delivered newspapers with a story about a plane crash in Iowa.
About a decade later, the paperboy, Don McLean, described the day in his song, “American Pie.”
He began by remembering the papers he delivered:
A long long time ago,
I can still remember how,
That music used to make me smile.And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance,
And maybe they’d be happy for a while.But February made me shiver,
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.
On February 3, 1959, the media reported that musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) had died in a plane crash. The pilot, Roger Peterson, was also killed.
The plane crashed around 1 a.m., just a few hours after they had performed at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.
In addition to radio and TV stories, the news was delivered in afternoon papers later that day.
Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gazette, February 3, 1959
WatchMojo.com’s video includes biographies of the musicians and information about the crash:
“On February 2, 1959, Holly and his tour mates were on the eleventh night of their Winter Dance Party tour through the snow-covered Midwest. It was a Monday — a school night — but 1,100 teenagers crammed into Clear Lake, Iowa’s Surf Ballroom for two sold out shows.
They wore blue jeans and saddle shoes and screamed for 17-year-old Richie Valens, whose single ‘Donna’ was about to go gold. Between sets, Holly solicited people to join him on the charter airplane he’d hired to fly to the next show in Moorhead, Minnesota. The musicians had been traveling by bus for over a week and it had already broken down once. They were tired, they hadn’t been paid yet and all of their clothes were dirty. With the airplane, Holly could arrive early, do everyone’s laundry and catch up on some rest.
A 21-year-old pilot named Roger Peterson had agreed to take the singer to Fargo, North Dakota — the closest airport to Moorehead….The three musicians boarded the red and white single-engine Beech Bonanza around 12:30 on Feb. 3….The plane stayed in the sky for only a few minutes; no one is quite sure what went wrong. The best guess is that Peterson flew directly into the blizzard….”
— “A Brief History of The Day the Music Died”
Time Magazine, February 3, 2009
AP story excerpt in the Carrol (Iowa) Daily Times Herald, February 3, 1959
Buddy Holly appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show almost exactly a year before his performance in Iowa.
He sang “Oh, Boy!” on the Sullivan show, which was one of the last songs he performed at the Surf Ballroom before leaving for his plane flight.
OMG! I just posted THIS in the FR canteen this very morning:
“Tuesday started out terrible, but then the Ten-Year-Old-Tablet-toting-Tyranical-Terror DISCOVERED BUDDY HOLLY.
I took him on a whirlwind tour of You Tube, visiting Buddy, Elvis, Richie Valens, The Big Bopper, and of Course told him about “The Day The Music Died”.
The song that did it was “She’s so square, but I don’t care”, which had appeared in an absolutely VILE movie trailer of disgusting CGI characters called the “Boxtrolls”.
I recognized it as a Buddy Holly song and took it from there.
I am giving the kid an edjumacation! LOL!”
I had no idea that today was the anniversary.
Extra Credit Question.
What now famous musician was SUPPOSED to have been on that plane? He wasn’t and he’s alive.
Big Bopper’s son died about a year and a half ago. He never met his dad, his mom was pregnant when the plane crashed.
What I find interesting is that the headlines you see in that newspaper could just as well appear in today’s newspapers.
There is nothing new under the sun, as they say.
My iPhone started playing American Pie last weekend. All these decades I just thought it was chock full of nonsense lyrics!
Has it really been that long?
Waylon Jennings ?
Here’s some nonsense lyrics from Waylon Jennings (with Buddy Holly and King Curtis). They didn’t know cajun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F238KHpgDBM
Ooops. You’re right.
The great Waylon Jennings died in 2002.
From Wiki..... Richardson had contracted flu during the tour and asked Waylon Jennings for his seat on the plane. When Holly learned that Jennings was not going to fly, he said in jest, “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up.” Jennings responded, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes,” a humorous but ill-fated response that haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.[9]
I listen to Buddy Holly often. His music is fantastic. Johnny Horton and Johnny Cash are my two other favorites rockabilly kings of the era. I should know the answer to your question, but I don’t recall now.
Don McLean lives quietly in Camden Maine. He made a rare concert appearance at Portland Maine’s Independance Day celebration a couple of years ago.
‘Jape’ J.P. Richardson wrote Chantilly Lace (as the B-side to his novelty song that he thought might make come money) and later wrote this one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NMklxiE6xw
George Jone was from the same area as Richardson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE5pM1HXxlI
Richardson also was behind this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAKD5CD0I3w
Johnny Preston was likewise from Beaumont. J.P. Richardson and George Jones did the indian whoops on the 1959 original. All 3 are now deceased.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3meEmDpaDU
The Beatles played some of the biggest venues of their day (Shea Stadium, Candelstick Park, Boston Gardens...) and yet all of those venues are gone today.
Really it was Woodstock that did the big paradigm shift, though. Bands went from doing two shows a night at a music hall to doing one show. Bill Graham didn’t want 3,000 seat bands. It was on to 10-20,000 seat venues and up.
Pink Floyd got put out at such venues in the 1970s when they started to count how many seats had been sold vs. how many they were being paid for (thousands less).
But that music business model is imploding. There are pop dance shows and old acts that still draw big bank (and draw it with tickets that can run $125-600 and more per ticket WITHOUT scalping or ticket handling fees) but the mid-size venues in some towns are corporate chains, closed to local acts and bands who won’t play the entire circuit.
Then there are the smaller rung general admission venues. Places that may pre-sell tickets but that don’t go through Livenation-Ticketmaster (who own venues and the contracts on the civic stadiums).
Another bad joke that came true: Charles Nelson Reilly was supposedly told by his mother that if he went to the circus when she told him he couldn’t, she hoped it burned down. It did. More than 150 people died in Hartford CT, 1944 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_circus_fire
Some things should not be joked about, if for no other reason it would haunt someone forever if it came true.
Waylon Jennings was in the Highwaymen with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. I saw them once, it was the only time I ever got to see Waylon or Johnny and they were quite distant.
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