Buddy Holly: Fifty Years After The Music Died

Gone but not forgotten, February 3rd marks the day that rock'n'roll pioneer Buddy Holly died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa in 1959. The bespectacled singer and guitarplayer would have been 72 years old. Born as Charles Hardin Holley, Buddy Holly became one of the most popular names in rock'n'roll in the 1950s, and had a big influence on world-famous artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan. With chart-topping songs such as "That'll Be the Day" (#1 single in the US in 1957), "Peggy Sue", and "Oh Boy!" (#3 and 10, respectively), the Lubbock, Texas native changed the sound of pop music forever.

As the story goes, New York City's teen idols Dion and The Belmonts, Texan disc jockey The Big Bopper, up and coming heartthrob Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly were on the "Winter Dance Party" tour in the Midwest together, when Buddy Holly decided to charter a plane from Clear Lake, Iowa to Moorhead, MN instead of traveling by tourbus. Waylon Jennings of Buddy Holly's band The Crickets gave up his seat to JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson because he was ill and needed rest, and Tommy Allsup (also of The Crickets) flipped a coin with Ritchie Valens for the remaining seat. Sadly, 17-year old Valens won the bet but paid with his life.

While immortalized through his own songs, Buddy Holly's life and untimely death (Holly was only 22 years old) have always been an inspiration to other artists. Friend and fellow rock'n'roll musician Eddie Cochran recorded the song 'Three Stars', as a tribute to Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, before his own tragic death (he died in a car crash a year later). In 1971 singer-songwriter Don McLean recorded and released the #1 hit song 'American Pie' (later to be covered by Madonna), famously calling the fateful day of the crash "the day the music died". Buddy Holly was in the first group of people to ever be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the #13 of the 100 Greatest Artist of All Time.

Playlist: The Day the Music Died.

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