Buddy Holley/Richie Valens

Buddy Holley
The Big Bopper
Richie Valens
Perhaps the most tragic rock-n-roll plane crash of all time. Buddy Holley, 22, The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) 28, and Richie Valens, 17, all perished when they boarded a plane in Clear Lake Iowa and in a blinding snow storm crashed shortly after take-off on February 3rd, 1959. It is also the most widely debated plane crash as to the exact details of the circumstances of how all three ended up on the plane. Needing money Buddy reluctantly signed on for the “Winter Dance Party Tour”. Traveling by bus the trip was marred with frequent mechanical breakdowns and a heater that didn’t work. After what was to be their final concert in Clear Lake Iowa, a plane was chartered to the next gig. Buddy wanted to get his laundry done and claimed a seat on the plane. Legend has it that Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to a persistent Buddy Holly. Waylon jokingly told Holly, “I hope you crash”, Something that has haunted Waylon ever since “the day the music died”. Richie Valens fate was decided by a coin toss. Agruing over the remaining seat with Holly band member Tommy Allsup they flipped a coin. Valens called “heads”! The coin came up heads and Valen’s took the ill-fated last seat in the plane. It has also been claimed that Allsup was not on the tour and that Jennings was involved in the coin toss. However pictures collected from the winter tour show Allsup present in the band. The Big Bopper camp claims that “Big Bopper” was sufering from the flu and needed to see a doctor and because of this Waylon gave his seat to the bopper. And on and on it goes with varying accounts from site to site, book to book, rock and roll historian to rock and roll historian. One thing is for sure, the plane took off in a blinding snowstorm and crashed shortly after takeoff into a cornfield and came to rest on a barbed wire fence. The cause of the crash : The pilot was relatively inexperienced and new instruments had recently been installed in the control panel. With no clear visibility the pilot would need to rely on the gauges to properly pilot the plane. After the crash the plane was hauled in for investigation. No evidence of mechanical failure was found. The final conclusion was determined to be pilot error. After analyzing the gauge positions on the instrument panel it was determined that the pilot misread the altimeter gauge, thinking he was actually ascending he was actually descending and crashed. The reference to the plane being christened “The American Pie”, immortalized in the Don McClean song, is also claimed to be false. Records show the aircraft was unamed.