The Day The Music Died

Aug 11, 2008
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Buddy Holly died on 3rd Feb 1959 - 50 years ago.

From This Day in Music.com

A young Bob Dylan attended the Duluth National Guard Armory show on 31st January 1959, two nights before Holly's death.

The family name was "Holley". When Buddy received his first recording contract from Decca Records in 1956, they inadvertently spelled his last name as "Holly". He kept it that way for the rest of his career.

Buddy failed his draft physical because of his poor eyesight.

Many groups from the era named themselves after insects, they did the same and choose "Crickets" as it was the only insect, which made its own "music", by chirping. (They almost named themselves the Beetles!).

Buddy had watched the John Wayne movie The Searchers. Each time that Wayne became disgruntled with something someone said, he'd mutter "That'll be the day". That catch phrase became the title of the first hit record by Buddy.

"Peggy Sue" was an actual person. Peggy Sue Gerron attended Lubbock High School and was the girlfriend and eventual wife of Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly's drummer.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets were the first all-white group to perform at New York's famed Apollo Theatre.

He was one of the first rock 'n' rollers to use overdubbing when one-track recording was the rule, and one of the first to use strings on a rock 'n' roll record.

Their tour busses kept breaking down and when they arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa to perform at the Surf Ballroom the evening of February 2, 1959, Buddy decided to charter a small plane to their next stop.

The Beechcraft Bonanza, named "Miss American Pie," took off from Mason City, at around 1:50 AM on February 3, 1959. The weather was cold and snowy. The plane crashed just after taking off. The pilot, Valens, Richardson and Holly were all killed.

Don McLean's 1971 "American Pie" is inspired by the day of the plane crash.

Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Holly No.13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Paul McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.

The 1992 Nirvana video for "In Bloom" is filmed in Black and white using 1950s era television cameras and shows the band appearing in 1950s attire, (including Kurt Cobain wearing Buddy Holly style glasses) in an apparent tribute.

Weezer's self-titled debut album features the single "Buddy Holly."

On Feb 29th 1980, the glasses that Buddy Holly had been wearing when he died were discovered in a police file in Mason, Iowa after being there for over 21 years.
 
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I remember the moment that I heard about this plane crash.

I was 8 and my sister 12. She was devastated.

I remember going to the teen hangout, a place called "The Spot" where the kids played Rock and Roll and danced to the tunes of the day while they drank 10 cent cokes and ate 75 cent pizzas (a relatively new food in those days, BTW).

It was like attending a wake that day.

No poodle skirts flaring so I could see the young girls shaplely legs, no greasers mouthing off, no fun at all that day the music died.

I didn't care, but I sure as hell understood that the big kids did.
 
Today is my mom's birthday and I always tell her she is a curse when it comes to muscians. For along with today being her birthday she also saw Elvis, John Denver, and Ricky Nelson all within months of them dying.
I might have to watch La Bamba today!
 
I remember the moment that I heard about this plane crash.

I was 8 and my sister 12. She was devastated.
It was like attending a wake that day.


I remember the day: I was an 18 year old Junior in High School, and that morning we were all at the usual gathering place across the street from the school. The talk was very subdued.

We all had waited for the next Buddy Holly recording to come out with almost the same excitement as we waited for the new car styles, and suddenly we realized it was over. That's how for us, "The Music Died." Afterwards we "reincarnated" Buddy with our hopes in sound-alikes like Bobby Vee, and hopes for un-released singles and albums to be discovered.

..
 

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