FLASHBACK: 'THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED' - BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS, & 'THE BIG BOPPER' REMEMBERED - 93.3 WMMR
February 3, 2015
FLASHBACK: 'THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED' - BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS, & 'THE BIG BOPPER' REMEMBERED
It was 56 years ago today (February 3rd, 1959) that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson died in a plane crash after a performance in Clear Lake, Iowa. The three had been performing along with Dion & The Belmonts as part of the Winter Dance Party Tour, which would cover 24 cities in a short three-week period from January 23rd to February 15th. Holly, who had parted ways with longtime backing group the Crickets the previous year, was backed up by a then-unknown Waylon Jennings on bass and Tommy Allsup on lead guitar.
 
Dion DiMucci says that although the shows were always hot, his favorite moments from the tour were jamming on the near freezing bus on the way to the next town: "Well, we used to play in the back of the bus -- Ritchie Valens, myself and Buddy Holly. The Big Bopper didn't join in, he sat in the front with his beer. But we would rock in the back of the bus. You talk about tapes -- I wish there was a tape going on."
Throughout the tour, the musicians' bus was either breaking down or often without heat. At one point, it was so cold that the tour's drummer developed frostbite, resulting in the Belmonts' Angelo D'Aleo -- as well as Valens -- serving double-duty by filling in on drums. When the tour finally arrived at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2nd, 1959, Holly had made plans to fly out to the next city directly after the show, rather than brave the unheated 430-mile bus trip to Moorhead, Minnesota. He had hoped to get to their next stop with time to rest and do his laundry.
Dion says that the time he spent with Holly has left a deep and lasting impression on him, and he remembers him as a man wise beyond his years: "I spent two weeks with him. And he was very mature for his age. I mean, I was 19 -- he was 22. He was a very decisive guy. I don't know if it was his upbringing, but I couldn't make decisions that fast. I mean... Well, he rented a plane! At 22 years old, 'O.K. listen' -- you know, he was recruiting people -- 'Let's fly out and we'll just split it.' But you think of a 22-year-old chartering a plane, that was his kind of personality."
Holly chartered a plane to fly him and his band to Fargo, North Dakota, near Moorhead. Jennings and Allsup gave up their seats to Richardson and Valens. Dion was supposed to be on the plane rather than Valens, but balked when he heard that his share would be a whopping $36 -- the exact amount of his parents' monthly rent back home in the Bronx. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up!" Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your plane crashes!" This friendly banter would haunt Jennings for years. Valens, who was sick, told Allsup, "I'll flip you for the remaining seat." On the toss of a coin, Allsup lost the seat -- but won the rest of his life.
The red Beechcraft Bonanza took off from Mason City, Iowa, ten miles east of Clear Lake, at around 1:50 a.m. on February 3rd, 1959. A cold wind immediately gave way to a snow, which drastically reduced visibility. The ground was already blanketed in white. The pilot may have been inexperienced with the instrumentation.
The plane never made it to Minnesota.
Minutes after takeoff, one wing hit the ground and the small plane corkscrewed over and over. The three young stars and pilot Roger Peterson died immediately on impact. Over the years there has been speculation as to whether a gun was accidentally fired inside the plane, disabling or killing the pilot. The most logical explanation suggests that encased in a sea of white snow, with only white below, Peterson simply flew the plane into the ground.
At the time of the crash, Buddy Holly was 22 years old. Ritchie Valens was 17, and the Big Bopper was 28.
Buddy Holly was born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7th, 1936 as Charles Hardin Holley. Although many of his greatest hits from the 1950s, such as "Peggy Sue," "Not Fade Away," "Every Day," "Maybe Baby" "Well... Alright," and "That'll Be The Day" have stood the test of time, Buddy's ultimate influence was not as a performer but as a songwriter. Buddy Holly helped spearhead a whole new genre, serving as a main inspiration for the next generation of rock songwriters including, most importantly, John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Paul Simon, Pete Townshend, Brian Wilson & Mike Love, Ray Davies, and Bob Dylan.
Paul McCartney has long cited Buddy Holly as his main songwriting influence went on to purchase Holly's songwriting catalogue. He recalled the scene for him on February 3rd, 1959: "I remember being in my old school playground, getting there in the morning, and we used to have a little thing called 'Smoker's Corner,' where those of us who were about 15, 16, or something, would, y'know, think we were real hoods, smoke a quick Woodbine (cigarette) before we went to class early in the morning. And someone had a Daily Mirror -- and there, on the headline: 'Buddy Holly Died.' Oh my God. The rug was pulled out from underneath us. It was quite shocking. It's one of those events where people can remember where they were."
All three fallen stars, Holly, Valens, and Richardson, became far bigger in death than during their short careers. Although talented in his own right, Valens -- who had only one double A-sided hit with "La Bamba" and "Donna" -- was not yet a major star on Holly's level. The "Big Bopper" -- who in 1959 had written and produced Johnny Preston's 1960 Number One hit "Running Bear" -- was a novelty act whose day job was as an outlandish disc jockey. Although Valens' career might have gone on to reach further heights, it's more than likely that "The Bopper" would have remained more a rock "personality" than a musical force for the ages. Dying along with Holly made them both rock immortals.
Graham Nash recalls how he and fellow Hollies co-founder Allan Clarke dealt with the news of Holly's sudden death: "I remember being on the street corner with my friend Allan Clarke, who later formed the Hollies with me -- my best friend at the time -- crying our eyes out. I mean we lost -- not only Buddy, but the 'Big Bopper' and Ritchie Valens. Y'know, I wasn't as much into their music, although I knew it, but I was totally involved in Buddy's music and we were crying our eyes out."
Several films featuring the tragedy have been made over the years, including 1978's Oscar-nominated, but historically inaccurate, The Buddy Holly Story, and La Bamba, the 1987 biopic which chronicled Valens' life.
According to several sources, including Jennings, Holly's post-tour plans were to reconvene with the Crickets -- drummer Jerry "J.I." Allison and bassist Joe B. Mauldin -- and carry on with Allsup on lead guitar. Holly was also planning on starting his own record label -- Prism Records -- and signing Jennings as its first artist. J.I. Allison recalled the deal that he and Holly made prior to him moving to New York City in 1958: "The last time I saw Buddy as a matter of fact he said, 'O.K., if you're not gonna move to New York, y'all just work as 'the Crickets' and I'll work as 'Buddy Holly' and if it doesn't work out for either one of us we'll get back together, okay?' And we said 'Fine.' And Waylon told me that Buddy was talking to him on that last tour and said 'I'm going to get J.I. and Joe B. back.'"
Holly's widow, Maria Elena, who miscarried their child shortly after his death, recalls their time living in New York City as being an eye-opener for him as he explored the Greenwich Village folk scene and jammed most mornings with musicians at Washington Square Park, which was practically right outside his apartment building the Brevoort: "He really liked the excitement, and at that time that's where -- as they say, where the action was. New York at that time was for musicians. On top of that, that's where I'm from. That's where the Brevoort is on Fifth Avenue, close to Washington Square Park. And that was something that Buddy really enjoyed, because that's where he saw that he could start a new career."
She remembers Buddy performing for free, almost daily, with local musicians at the Park: "Right in the fountain -- y'know, they'd have the benches there in the morning. We'd walk to Washington Square Park, and that's where a lot of musicians congregated. Bud would sit with a guitar and start playing, and then all of a sudden you see all these people gravitating towards him. They'd say, 'Are you Buddy Holly -- 'That'll Be The Day'?' And then. . . little by little, we did that every day."
We asked Graham Nash what he made of Holly upon first hearing him in 1957: "Unbelievable. He was one of us, he was a rock star that had glasses. It wasn't a sex thing, y'know, like Elvis (Presley) was with his swiveling hips. Buddy Holly touched people's hearts in how simple his music was and how attainable it was for everybody. I mean, who doesn't know a Buddy Holly song? I was looking the other day at The Rolling Stone 500 Best Songs Of All Time and he's got four of them in there! We called ourselves the Hollies for God sake. And he definitely without question influenced the Beatles."
The Everly Brothers frequently hit the road with the other forefathers of rock n' roll, and both Don and Phil Everly struck up an immediate and close relationship with Buddy Holly. The late-Phil Everly, who was a pallbearer at Holly's funeral in 1959, recalled the scene of rock's earliest tours in an upcoming documentary called Inventing Rock N' Roll, produced by Everly Films: "The first time I met Buddy Holly was. . . Don and I joined a big package tour, y'know. . . I believe it was the Fats Domino tour. Everybody was on it -- it was something. And, what it was, everybody was down in the, like, locker rooms, like at a sports event y'know, with a -- everybody had a hook (laughs), y'know, for your wardrobe, and we all sat on benches and we were all in the same room and that's when we first met him. I was 18 at the time, so it was like going to college. Everybody was a contemporary and all that. It was like being in a fraternity (laughs), it was really, really something. We rode buses together on the tour and just was the best of. . . I always call it the golden age of rock."
Over the years, Buddy Holly's legend has continued to grow, with his music paving the way for the British Invasion and the burgeoning singer/songwriter movement of the late '60s and the early '70s. In 1971 Don McLean's Number One hit "American Pie" opened with the narrator learning the news of Holly's tragic death, coining the phrase "The Day The Music Died."
It's come to light in recent years that Ritchie Valens had a direct effect on the Southern, California rock scene of the 1960's. In the late-'50s Valens gave guitar lessons to Hawthorne's John Maus. Maus -- who later changed his name to John Walker upon forming the Walker Brothers -- in turn gave guitar lessons to future Beach Boys Carl Wilson and David Marks.
Buddy Holly's music has lived on through various reissues over the years as well, with Paul McCartneybuying his music copyrights in 1976 and starting the annual "Buddy Holly Week" every September 7th on Holly's birthday.
The Crickets have continued to record and tour and now feature early member Sonny Curtis on guitars and vocals.
"J.I." Allison says the group might spruce up Holly's final recordings that he recorded in his New York City apartment, in the weeks before he died. The 14 tunes include "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and others that have been overdubbed by additional musicians over the years: "I think it would be great fun to go do that, and, and I think those are some of the best songs Buddy ever wrote. The tape machine he did that on was the same machine that we recorded 'That'll Be The Day' and 'Peggy Sue' and, you know, all those things (on). The quality of 'The Apartment Tapes' was great!"
SIDE NOTES
After years of speculation about a gun being fired on the plane, the Bopper's son Jay Richardson had his father exhumed and used the opportunity to see if there was any foul play involved in the crash. Jay, who stars in a Big Bopper tribute act, was born three months after his father's death, and first laid eyes on his father during the recent exhumation.
Out now is Down The Line: Rarities, the latest Buddy Holly & The Crickets collection featuring rare undubbed classic performances, along with Holly's final demos taped only weeks before his death. The 59-track collection features the original rehearsal tapes of Buddy and friends -- including the Crickets -- tearing though Chuck Berry's "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," Little Richard's "Rip It Up," Fats Domino's "Blue Monday," Elvis Presley's "Good Rockin' Tonight," Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes," Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley."
Other highlights include previously unreleased takes and alternate versions of such Crickets-era classics as "Peggy Sue," "Fool's Paradise," "Think It Over," "Love's Made A Fool Of You," and "That'll Be The Day," among many others.
The main draw of the set is the unadorned full "Apartment Tape," featuring Buddy's final demos recorded in late 1958 and early 1959 in Manhattan. The remastered tapes include such future Holly standards as "Peggy Sue Got Married," "What To Do," "Learning The Game," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," and "Dearest," which made its debut in 2008 in the independent hit film Juno.
WHAT DO YOU THINK??
The world has changed so drastically since 1959, and the changes that have occurred in art, politics, and social culture are literally a world away from when Buddy Holly played that night at Clear Lake, Iowa's Surf Ballroom. When you think about how long ago Buddy Holly walked this Earth, think about this: his death was only 13 years after Hiroshima and six months after the formation of NASA. Buddy Holly missed it all -- the Kennedys, the Beatles, dope, Bob Dylan, Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, the sexual revolution -- but he nearly made it.
What do you think he would have accomplished? Would he have eased into record production and developing new artists? At 22 would he have been deemed too old for the burgeoning new light pop of Neil Sedaka, Fabian, and Frankie Avalon -- or would he have led the pack with his pocket-sized rock masterpieces? Would Holly have gone the Nashville or Bakersfield route and helped redefine country music for a generation? The possibilities are as saddening as they are endless.
One thing's for certain, Holly was a songwriter first and because of that it's hard to ever imagine him becoming the all-but-forgotten dinosaurs that his peers -- and fellow inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Famers -- Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, and Fats Domino -- had all become by 1965. Although Jerry Lee still feebly kicks over the piano stool at the end of his shows, and Chuck Berry is still duckwalking through tunes he wrote in 1957, it's hard to imagine Holly ever evolving into a grotesque parody of himself while wearing the signature horned rims with the curly forelock, hiccupping his way through "Peggy Sue" at age 79. What do you think?
CHECK IT OUT: Buddy Holly on December 29th, 1957 performing "Peggy Sue" on The Arthur Murray Dance Party:
CHECK IT OUT: Ritchie Valens performing "Ooh! My Head" in 1958's Go, Johnny Go!:
CHECK IT OUT: "The Big Bopper" in 1958 performing "Chantilly Lace" live on American Bandstand: