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February 3, 1959 – the day when a chartered, 4-passenger, 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza 35 carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” RIchardson crashed in a cornfield in Iowa.
The trio was on their “Winter Dance Party” tour and scheduled to hit 25 Midwestern cities in 3-weeks. Fed up by rough, unreliable bus rides that left band members sick and one hospitalized with frostbite (and to get laundry done), Holly decided to charter a plane from Iowa to Minnesota.
Twenty-two year old Buddy Holly was reluctant to join the tour but did as his finances were tied up due to a split with his manager. To Holly’s surprise and disappointment The Crickets stayed with the manager.
Waylon Jennings, of “Dukes of Hazzard” fame, was a then-new addition to Buddy Holly’s band. He elected to take the bus so he gave up his seat on the plane to The Big Bopper (Ritchie Valens won his seat on the plane after guitarist Tommy Allsup lost a coin toss). The Big Bopper was a Texas disc-jockey who wrote Johnny Preston’s million-selling hit “Running Bear” (1960). The body of The Big Bopper was thrown about 40-ft beyond the wire fence and about 40-ft beyond the wreckage.
An official investigation determined that a combination of weather related conditions and pilot error caused the pilot to lose control of the plane.
Don McLean’s “American Pie” is often cited as the first song to memorialize the fateful event. However, the first song was actually Eddie Cochran’s “Three Stars.”
Classic Buddy Holly Recordings Include: 
- “That’ll Be The Day” (1957)
- “Peggy Sue” (1957)
- “Oh, Boy” (1958)
- “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (1959)
- “True Love Way” (1960)
Some songs were credited to The Crickets.
“That’ll Be The Day” – became the title of The Crickets’ first hit. The song went to No. 1 in the summer of ’57.
“Peggy Sue,” written by Holly, was originally titled “Cindy Lou.”
Buddy Holly, who asked his wife to marry him on their first date, was born Charles Hardin Holley. He dropped the “E” in 1956.
Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenzuela had hits with “Donna,” Come On Let’s Go” and “La Bamba.”
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