50 years ago, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson

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passed away in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 3, 1959.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/4441000/Fans-mark-50th-anniversary-of-Buddy-Hollys-death.html

[whistler162]

1. 9 months 1 day later I was born... hmmmmm.....

[johnnie]

2. Although Richie and "The Big Bopper" dying was also tragic..

I can only imagine what Buddy would have/could have done had that plane not went down. He was indeed an innovator and on his way to legendary.

Dion (another of my favorites) was on that tour also. Luckily his addiction to smack saved his life. He didn't want to blow the 35 bucks on the plane ride, he needed the cash.

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5. Didn't know that... thanks

[whistler162]

16. Yup and Waylon Jennings gave his seat to the Big Bopper

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/crash.htm

[Left Is Write]

3. My parents had tickets for what would have been the next show.

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6. Oh... sad.

[abq e streeter]

13. That's amazing...and terribly sad too... my god they must've been devastated

Interestingly ,to me at least, Bob Dylan( while still in high school) was at the 3rd to last show ( actually 4th--they'd done 2 shows, Appleton and Green Bay, the day before the Clear Lake show ) on Jan 31st in Duluth...

[Left Is Write]

17. I asked my mother once how/when she heard the news.

She and dad were in college at the time, and she said she doesn't remember when they found out. It was obviously big news, but at that point, no one realized what a lasting impact that tragedy would have.

[Condem]

4. To the Great Buddy Holly.

A toast. 50 years. You are still missed.

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7. Hear hear.

[texanwitch]

8. I do not remember them, I was to young.

We lost so much talent.

Wish I could have known them and their music.

[Wapsie B]

9. And they celebrate Holly's life and music every year this time

at the Surf Ballroom.

http://www.surfballroom.com/index-2.html

[kwassa]

10. Wasn't that the day that music died? Bye, bye, miss American Pie .....

and all that?

so, I don't know what I've been listening to for the past 50 years ...



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.

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12. Yes, that's what they say.

[abq e streeter]

11. Buddy, Ritchie and the Bopper died , but not the music...

and RIP to the kid that was flying the plane too....I was just a little too young( 7 yrs old) to remember the crash, but I started listening to rock and roll in '61; WLS Chicago, and I remember even as as a 10 year old kid, being struck by how emotional one of the WLS jocks, Bob Hale, would sound on the air whenever he'd spin an "oldie" by Buddy. Of course many years later I found out he'd been the MC that night at the Surf Ballroom and saw the guys off at the airport..... Switching gears a little: Saw a friend I hadn't seen in several years play in Santa Fe weekend before last, and he's an old West Texas boy, and is playing ( or played--was it last night or tonight?) at the anniversary show at the Surf . I was under the impression that the show is at the Surf, not in Des Moines (??) Wish I could have been there , but just couldn't ....I will make a pilgrimage there ( Clear Lake) some day though. Just saw Wapsie's link, guess it is at the Surf...

[Wapsie B]

14. Yes it is at the Surf.

An interesting note, Waylon Jennings did finally come back there to do a concert. He had stayed away for years because of the bad memories that tragic night brought back. But he finally played there once again. It's as if he came full circle.

[Skittles]

15. 50 years ago right now they were all lying frozen in a cornfield

they weren't found until morning :cry:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

19. Death by coin toss

That's the worst part of the story. The musicians who won the toss to get on that plane lost their lives.

Life works that way sometimes. That's the tragedy on top of the tragedy. Sometimes you go into the Baskin-Robbins of life and order one scoop and they hand you back a double.

[Tsiyu]

18. I love that picture

:)