FORTY-EIGHT years ago, Feb. 3, 1959, the news services reported that three stars of early rock ’n’ roll — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper — had died during the night when their plane crashed in a snowy farm field in Iowa.
Their music can still be heard on oldies radio. Buddy Holly — really Charles Holley — was a prolific songwriter and a tireless performer. People who were born a generation after his death still recognize his songs, which included “Peggy Sue,” “That’ll Be the Day” and “Every Day.”
As Ritchie Valens, Richard Valenzuela took Latin rhythms and Spanish lyrics and crossed over into rock ’n’ roll fame with “La Bamba.”
The Big Bopper was the novelty act of the group. He was a Texas disc jockey named Jiles P. Richardson who had started performing his own music. His hit was “Chantilly Lace.”
Their music survives on its own, but their deaths might have passed from public memory if not for another singer and songwriter. About 10 years after the plane crash, Don McLean recorded “American Pie,” a tribute to Buddy Holly and rock ’n’ roll. The song, all eight minutes and 27 seconds of it, is still played every day on radio stations around the country. Almost everybody who knows the song knows what McLean meant when he sang:
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.
So the singers have not been forgotten.
Buddy Holly may have been the most famous of the three, but the Big Bopper is getting the most attention this year.
Richardson had a gun with him on the plane and that has led some people to think that shots could have been fired before the plane crashed. Richardson’s son, Jay Richardson, has hired a forensic anthropologist to examine his father’s exhumed bones for bullet debris. The examination is sure to lead to even more speculation and more attempts to solve the “mystery” of the crash.
But there is not really much mystery about what happened that night. The plane crashed.
And no, the music didn’t die.
Turn your radio on and listen.