Thoughts on the Day the Music Died

I was born the day the music died. Just hours after that fateful plane crash and less than two before the remains of the plane was found.

It was some years before this revelation presented itself to me; however. But once it did, I became fascinated by the events of that day. For a number of years I searched for any piece of data I could find on the course of events that took the lives of Ritchie "Valens" Valenzuela, Jiles P "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley along with the plane's pilot Roger Peterson.

Country music legend Waylon Jennings was originally on the plane but gave his seat up to Richardson after the "Chantilley Lace" singer had stuck his head in the door of the plane.

Valens was in the plane after winning a coin toss with Tommy Allsup.

Holley chartered the plane after the tour bus had developed mechanical problems. Holley and a few of the guys were going on ahead while the others would follow later after the bus was repaired.

Before departure Holley and Jennings carried on a friendly banter in which Jennings told Holley, "I hope your plane crashes." Those words haunted the singer for years.

The plane barely made it off the airstrip. But it was not discovered until after dawn the next morning.

The crash not only killed four people, it also killed the careers of three very promising rock stars on that fatefull morning on the third day of February in 1959.

Over the year there has been other stars killed in plane crashes - Glen Miller, Jim Croce, Ricky Nelson, and John Denver - among them. But none have been recalled so well as the February third crash thanks to singer songwriter Don McLean.

McLean wrote a hit song titled "American Pie" which coined the phrase the day the music died.

But for many in the music business during those early days of rock and roll truly believed that when Valens, The Big Bopper, and Holley died so did this new form of music they created.

Fortunately for rock and rockabilly fans around the world the music lives on; even that of those three young stars of fifties rock and roll.