Remembering Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens

51 years ago on February 3, 1959. The Day the Music Died. Buddy was offered the Winter Dance Party by the GAC agency, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, with other notable performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. The tour was a disaster for the musicains, who had to endure long overnight bus rides and freezing temperatures, and a broken heater on the bus. After a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy decided to charter a plane to fly to their next destination. The Big Bopper (JP Richardson) pleaded with another artist on the tour, Waylon Jennings, for his seat on the plane because he was suffering from the flu, and Ritchie Valens won a coin toss over Crickets' member Tommy Allsup. The plane flew into a blinding snowstorm and soon thereaftrer, crashed. All three musicians were early pioneers in Rock and Roll and also major influences on rock music as we know it today. Buddy Holly has been described as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll." He was one of the first artists to write, produce and perform his own songs. I wish these artists survived their ordeal because I believe they had much more music to give us, and their stay on this Earth was definitely too short.