Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper A Tragic Day In Music History
On this day in 1959, 22 year old Buddy Holly, 17 year old Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson Jr.) aged 28, died in a plane crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa, the pilot of the single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza plane Roger Peterson was also killed. Holly hired the plane after heating problems developed on his tour bus. All three were travelling to Fargo, North Dakota, for the next show on their Winter Dance Party Tour which Holly had set - covering 24 cities in three weeks, to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, last year. The accident was famously referred to as "The Day the Music Died" in Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie."
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