Words of Buddy Holly

LONDON - MARCH 25: Buddy Holly And The The Crickets, (L-R) Joe B Mauldin, Buddy Holly (with Fender Stratocaster guitar) and Jerry Allison, pose for a group shot on the set of the BBC television show 'Off The Record' during their UK tour. (Photo by John Rodgers/Redferns)

It's February 3.

This will always be "The Day The Music Died."

It was late on the night of Feb 2, 1959 that Charles Hardin Holley decided he'd had enough of the freezing temperatures, dirty clothes, rickety school buses, and a zig-zagging tour that General Artist Corp. had organized.

He wanted a warm bed and looked into chartering a plane to get him out of Clear Lake, IA.

Their destination was Fargo, ND en route to a show in Moorhead, MN where the next show was to be played.

Of course, the plane never made it.

The crash site, Clear Lake, IA (Edward Fink, courtesy Google Street View)

Holly (his given surname had an "e"), JP Richardson (known as "The Big Bopper"), and Richard Valenzuela (better known as Ritchie Valens), along with pilot Roger Peterson all died shortly after 1:00 a.m. on Feb 3 when the Beechcraft Bonanza airplane crashed not long after takeoff.

Holly was 22. The Big Bopper was 28. Valens was 17. Peterson was 21.

All gone.

The weather and "the pilot's unwise decision" to fly that night were blamed. Peterson appeared to lack the experience to command a flight that required instrument flying skills.

They died a mere 6.4 miles (per Google maps) from the Surf ballroom, where they last played.

Near the crash site, (J Dolezal, courtesy Google Street View)

The tour, shockingly, continued for a stretch because these shows were often caravans featuring a "cavalcade of stars."

There are countless other facts about the three lost stars, the tour, the night, the famous coin flip that put Valens on the ill-fated plane, and so on.

But as I sit here listening to Holly's music, I think of the incredible influence he's had on, well, everybody.

You see, in 1959, this 22-year-old who mixed rock, "Tex-Mex," Country (and Western), and Gospel already had a remarkable impact on music. He wrote and recorded his own music, which was unheard of.

Holly, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Billy Haley* (and His Comets) were a supernova that had taken everything listed above, thrown a hint of jazz and bluegrass into the mix and whipped up Rock and Roll.

(*My father once told me he drank with Bill Haley in Atlantic City. I wish I had more details on this tidbit, but it was sort of an "Oh yeah" story that he told me when we heard Haley had died in 1981. Sadly, all lost to memory.)

Taking note in England were four Liverpudlians, a couple of whom were messing around with a style of music called skiffle. One of them, a Mr. John Winston Lennon (along with former bandmate Stu Sutcliffe), decided that his band should evolve from The Quarrymen to take a name in honor of Holly and his band, The Crickets.

After a few different iterations, including "Silver Beetles" and "Beatals," the band became, simply, "The Beatles." Holly's influence, along with those of others, was obvious. Plus The Beatles covered Holly's music early on.

Incidentally, Paul McCartney is the steward of Holly's musical legacy, as he owns the publishing rights.

Just one example of how Holly lives on. The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Elton John are just some others.

The Big Bopper -- fair or unfair -- was seen as a novelty act, while he was successful as a songwriter and even a disc jockey (on KTRM). His biggest hit, "Chantilly Lace," went to number 6, and was more of a fun song than the serious fare that Holly made.

Richardson was said to be looking into buying a radio station and building a recording studio, which gives credence to the notion that perhaps he saw his future from behind different microphones. Fun fact: depending on who you believe, Richardson created the first music video and is even said to have coined the phrase. With more, let's head to NPR.

Valens was a fascinating case. Only eight months into his recording career, he found a way to mold Mexican music into the Chicano style. "La Bamba" was the most famous example of this, while "Donna," was a pure love song. One can only wonder what his career would have been like, and Carlos Santana is a prominent example of his influence.

Don McLean, of course, sang of "The Day The Music Died," though he has since said the song isn't specifically about the three deceased artists, though the day is used as a jumping off point for a song that, he says, is about America.

Thus, "American Pie." Truth is, if you review the lyrics, I always thought that seemed pretty obvious. February 3, 1959 is the base of the song, with plenty of other references sprinkled throughout, such as "And while Lennon read a book on Marx." Yes. That Lennon.

So as I sit here processing the thoughts of the morning (and I wish I could say they are all good), and not thinking about the Super Bowl or the godawful halftime show (an offense to Buddy Holly, that's for sure), it was nice to remember the pure, but intricate works of Holly, Valens, and Richardson.