On a cold winter’s night of on Feb. 3, 1959, a small private plane took off from Clear Lake, Iowa bound for Fargo, N.D. The plane carrying Holly, Richardson and Valens took off in a snowstorm
with strong winds. But the plane traveled only a few miles before
crashing, killing all four men instantly. It never made its destination.When that plane crashed, it claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson and the pilot, Roger Peterson. Three of Rock and Roll’s most promising performers were gone. As Don McLean wrote in his classic music parable, American Pie, (annotated) it was “the day the music died.”
Performing in concert was very profitable and Buddy Holly needed the money it provided. “The Winter Dance Party Tour” was planned to cover 24 cities in a short 3 week time frame (January 23 – February 15) and Holly would be the biggest headliner. Waylon Jennings, a friend from Lubbock, Texas and Tommy Allsup would go as backup musicians.
Ritchie Valens, probably the hottest of the artists at the time, The Big Bopper, and Dion and the Belmonts would round out the list of performers.The tour bus developed heating problems. It was so cold onboard that reportedly one of the drummers developed frostbite riding in it. When they arrived at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, they were cold, tired and disgusted.Buddy Holly had had enough of the unheated bus and decided to charter a plane for himself and his guys. At least he could get some laundry done before the next performance!
That night at the Surf Ballroom was magical as the fans went wild over the performers.Jiles P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper to his fans, was a Texas D.J. who found recording success and fame in 1958 with the song Chantilly Lace.
Richie Valenzuela was only 16 years old when Del-Fi record producer, Bob Keane, discovered the Pacoima, California singer. Keane rearranged his name to Ritchie Valens, and in 1958 they recorded Come On, Let’s Go. Far more successful was the song Valens wrote for his girlfriend, Donna, and its flip side, La Bamba, a Rock and Roll version of an old Mexican standard. This earned the teenager an appearance on American Bandstand and the prospect of continued popularity.
Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holley (changed to Holly due to a misspelling on a contract) and his band, The Crickets, had a number one hit in 1957 with the tune That’ll Be The Day. This success was follwed by Peggy Sue and an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. By 1959, Holly had decided to move in a new direction. He and the Crickets parted company. Holly married Maria Elena Santiago and moved to New York with the hope of concentrating on song writing and producing.
Dwyer Flying Service got the charter. $36 per person for a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza.
Waylon Jennings gave his seat up to Richardson, who was running a fever and had trouble fitting his stocky frame comfortably into the bus seats.
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 of friends would haunt Jennings for years.
Allsup told Valens, I’ll flip you for the remaining seat. On the toss of a coin, Valens won the seat and Allsup the rest of his life. The plane took off a little after 1 A.M. from Clear Lake and never got far from the airport before it crashed, killing all onboard.
A cold N.E 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. One wing hit the ground and the small plane corkscrewed over and over. The three young stars were thrown clear of the plane, leaving only pilot Roger Peterson inside.
Over the years there has been much speculation as to whether a shot was fired inside the plane which disabled or killed the pilot. Logic suggests that encased in a sea of white snow, with only white below, Peterson just flew the plane into the ground.
Since the death of Buddy Holly, there has been no shortage of rumours, conspiracy theories, books, not to mention that song, about the plane crash that robbed rock’n’roll of one of its most promising stars one frigid February morning.
Rock ‘n’ roll was still in its infancy when it suffered its first tragedy. On Feb. 3, 1959, three of the biggest stars of the day — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, known as the Big Bopper — were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
The three acts, along with Dion and the Belmonts, were on a package tour called the Winter Dance Party, which was to play 24 Midwestern cities in as many days. But the bus’ heating system was ill-equipped and broke down a few days later, which caused some musicians to catch the flu and Holly’s drummer Carl Bunch to be hospitalized for frostbite. By the time they reached the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake on Feb. 2, about a week and a half into the tour, Holly, after the show, decided to charter a plane from nearby Mason City to Fargo, N.D., just across the state line from their next gig in Moorhead, Minn. As a bonus, Holly would be able to do his laundry, which had been neglected since the tour began.
The official explanation for the crash on 3 February 1959 – that a relatively inexperienced pilot made mistakes in difficult, snowy conditions – has always seemed too mundane for many people to accept. That such a huge musical force, aged just 22, should have been silenced before he had barely started, together with Ritchie Valens, 17, of La Bamba fame, and JP Richardson, aka the Big Bopper, 28, surely demanded a more dramatic narrative than mere pilot error.
Hence the frenzied speculation concerning the discovery of a gun supposedly owned by Holly in the same Iowa cornfield where the mangled wreck of the Beechcraft Bonanza was found. Hence the unproven rumours that the pilot’s seat had a bullet hole through it, and that two chambers of the recovered pistol were empty.
Now the issue of what happened that cold midwestern morning looks set to be opened up all over again. Federal safety investigators have indicated that they are considering a request to re-examine the accident.
The request came from LJ Coon, a pilot who has made his own investigation into the crash and has approached the National Transportation Safety Board’s cold case unit urging them to take another look. Coon believes that the finding of the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1959 that the accident was primarily caused by pilot error amounts to an injustice for Roger Peterson, the 21-year-old pilot who was at the controls of the Beechcraft Bonanza and who died alongside the three musicians.
Roger would have flown out and about this airport at night, under multiple different conditions. He had to be very familiar with all directions of this airport in and out.
The flight expert is encouraging federal investigators to consider other factors that could help explain the disaster. He points to a possible weight imbalance in the craft – Peterson and Holly upfront weighed about 160lbs each, while Valens and Richardson were considerably heavier – newly installed flight instruments, as well as a possible commotion among the passengers shortly after take-off.
Whatever comes out of this renewed spotlight on the accident, the tragedy is certain to continue to obsess Holly fans, imbued as it was with so many searing details. The plane went down just four minutes into its flight from Clear Lake, Iowa, en route for Fargo, North Dakota.
Holly, fresh out of his breakup with the Crickets, had teamed up with Valens, Richardson and the rest of their band and had been playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake as part of their midwestern “winter dance party” tour. Holly was fed up with the grim bus rides between tour stops and couldn’t face the bone-jangling journey to the next scheduled appearance in Moorhead, Minnesota, so arranged for the plane ride instead.
Other members of the band had chillingly narrow escapes. Waylon Jennings, playing bass on the tour, had given up his seat to Richardson who was sick and wanted to get speedily to a doctor. Tommy Allsup, on guitar, had tossed a coin with Valens for the final seat – Valens had won.
In 2007 the rumour-mongering around the crash prompted Richardson’s son Jay - the Big Bopper Jr, as he calls himself – to arrange for his father’s body to be exhumed and subjected to forensic testing. No indication of foul play was found.
The plane, a Beechwood Bonanza, had room for only three passengers — Holly and his band — and the pilot, Roger Peterson. Holly’s bass player, future country legend Waylon Jennings, gave up his seat to Richardson, who was ill. According to Jennings’ autobiography, Holly teased his bass player by saying, “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up.” To which Jennings responded, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes.”
There are conflicting stories as to how Valens wound up in the third seat. Tommy Allsup, Holly’s guitarist, claimed that he lost a coin flip to Valens in the dressing room. In 2010, Dion DiMucci, who had been silent about that night for 51 years, claimed that he, not Allsup, was slated for the third seat because he was one of the headliners. But after winning the coin toss, he balked at paying $36 for the flight — the amount his parents paid in monthly rent for the apartment where he grew up — and gave Valens the seat. Local DJ Bob Hale, who was the MC for the concert, agrees that it was between Allsup and Valens, but that he, not Allsup, flipped the coin.
There were several contradictions with the reports following the accident that happened on Feb. 3. The federal investigation ruled that even though the weather played a large role in the accident, the 21-year-old Peterson was too inexperienced to have been flying in such conditions. In addition, he had most likely misread the altitude indicator, which was different than the one on which he had trained, and inadvertently brought the plane down instead of up.
At the time, Holly’s wife of six months, Maria Elena, was two weeks pregnant. The day after the crash, she suffered a miscarriage from the emotional trauma.
In March 1980, a long-missing piece of the plane crash was discovered. Holly’s signature black-rimmed glasses had landed in a snow bank and were discovered in the spring of 1959, after the snow melted. They were brought to the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s office, sealed in a manila envelope and forgotten about for 21 years. Upon discovery, the glasses were returned to his widow and are currently on permanent display at the Buddy Holly Center in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.
Performing in concert was very profitable and Buddy Holly needed the money it provided. “The Winter Dance Party Tour” was planned to cover 24 cities in a short 3 week time frame (January 23 – February 15) and Holly would be the biggest headliner. Waylon Jennings, a friend from Lubbock, Texas and Tommy Allsup would go as backup musicians.
Ritchie Valens, probably the hottest of the artists at the time, The Big Bopper, and Dion and the Belmonts would round out the list of performers.The tour bus developed heating problems. It was so cold onboard that reportedly one of the drummers developed frostbite riding in it. When they arrived at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, they were cold, tired and disgusted.Buddy Holly had had enough of the unheated bus and decided to charter a plane for himself and his guys. At least he could get some laundry done before the next performance!
That night at the Surf Ballroom was magical as the fans went wild over the performers.Jiles P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper to his fans, was a Texas D.J. who found recording success and fame in 1958 with the song Chantilly Lace.
Richie Valenzuela was only 16 years old when Del-Fi record producer, Bob Keane, discovered the Pacoima, California singer. Keane rearranged his name to Ritchie Valens, and in 1958 they recorded Come On, Let’s Go. Far more successful was the song Valens wrote for his girlfriend, Donna, and its flip side, La Bamba, a Rock and Roll version of an old Mexican standard. This earned the teenager an appearance on American Bandstand and the prospect of continued popularity.
Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holley (changed to Holly due to a misspelling on a contract) and his band, The Crickets, had a number one hit in 1957 with the tune That’ll Be The Day. This success was follwed by Peggy Sue and an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. By 1959, Holly had decided to move in a new direction. He and the Crickets parted company. Holly married Maria Elena Santiago and moved to New York with the hope of concentrating on song writing and producing.
Dwyer Flying Service got the charter. $36 per person for a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza.
Waylon Jennings gave his seat up to Richardson, who was running a fever and had trouble fitting his stocky frame comfortably into the bus seats.
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 of friends would haunt Jennings for years.
Allsup told Valens, I’ll flip you for the remaining seat. On the toss of a coin, Valens won the seat and Allsup the rest of his life. The plane took off a little after 1 A.M. from Clear Lake and never got far from the airport before it crashed, killing all onboard.
A cold N.E 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. One wing hit the ground and the small plane corkscrewed over and over. The three young stars were thrown clear of the plane, leaving only pilot Roger Peterson inside.
Over the years there has been much speculation as to whether a shot was fired inside the plane which disabled or killed the pilot. Logic suggests that encased in a sea of white snow, with only white below, Peterson just flew the plane into the ground.
Since the death of Buddy Holly, there has been no shortage of rumours, conspiracy theories, books, not to mention that song, about the plane crash that robbed rock’n’roll of one of its most promising stars one frigid February morning.
Rock ‘n’ roll was still in its infancy when it suffered its first tragedy. On Feb. 3, 1959, three of the biggest stars of the day — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, known as the Big Bopper — were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
The three acts, along with Dion and the Belmonts, were on a package tour called the Winter Dance Party, which was to play 24 Midwestern cities in as many days. But the bus’ heating system was ill-equipped and broke down a few days later, which caused some musicians to catch the flu and Holly’s drummer Carl Bunch to be hospitalized for frostbite. By the time they reached the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake on Feb. 2, about a week and a half into the tour, Holly, after the show, decided to charter a plane from nearby Mason City to Fargo, N.D., just across the state line from their next gig in Moorhead, Minn. As a bonus, Holly would be able to do his laundry, which had been neglected since the tour began.
The official explanation for the crash on 3 February 1959 – that a relatively inexperienced pilot made mistakes in difficult, snowy conditions – has always seemed too mundane for many people to accept. That such a huge musical force, aged just 22, should have been silenced before he had barely started, together with Ritchie Valens, 17, of La Bamba fame, and JP Richardson, aka the Big Bopper, 28, surely demanded a more dramatic narrative than mere pilot error.
Hence the frenzied speculation concerning the discovery of a gun supposedly owned by Holly in the same Iowa cornfield where the mangled wreck of the Beechcraft Bonanza was found. Hence the unproven rumours that the pilot’s seat had a bullet hole through it, and that two chambers of the recovered pistol were empty.
Now the issue of what happened that cold midwestern morning looks set to be opened up all over again. Federal safety investigators have indicated that they are considering a request to re-examine the accident.
The request came from LJ Coon, a pilot who has made his own investigation into the crash and has approached the National Transportation Safety Board’s cold case unit urging them to take another look. Coon believes that the finding of the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1959 that the accident was primarily caused by pilot error amounts to an injustice for Roger Peterson, the 21-year-old pilot who was at the controls of the Beechcraft Bonanza and who died alongside the three musicians.
Roger would have flown out and about this airport at night, under multiple different conditions. He had to be very familiar with all directions of this airport in and out.
The flight expert is encouraging federal investigators to consider other factors that could help explain the disaster. He points to a possible weight imbalance in the craft – Peterson and Holly upfront weighed about 160lbs each, while Valens and Richardson were considerably heavier – newly installed flight instruments, as well as a possible commotion among the passengers shortly after take-off.
Whatever comes out of this renewed spotlight on the accident, the tragedy is certain to continue to obsess Holly fans, imbued as it was with so many searing details. The plane went down just four minutes into its flight from Clear Lake, Iowa, en route for Fargo, North Dakota.
Holly, fresh out of his breakup with the Crickets, had teamed up with Valens, Richardson and the rest of their band and had been playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake as part of their midwestern “winter dance party” tour. Holly was fed up with the grim bus rides between tour stops and couldn’t face the bone-jangling journey to the next scheduled appearance in Moorhead, Minnesota, so arranged for the plane ride instead.
Other members of the band had chillingly narrow escapes. Waylon Jennings, playing bass on the tour, had given up his seat to Richardson who was sick and wanted to get speedily to a doctor. Tommy Allsup, on guitar, had tossed a coin with Valens for the final seat – Valens had won.
In 2007 the rumour-mongering around the crash prompted Richardson’s son Jay - the Big Bopper Jr, as he calls himself – to arrange for his father’s body to be exhumed and subjected to forensic testing. No indication of foul play was found.
The plane, a Beechwood Bonanza, had room for only three passengers — Holly and his band — and the pilot, Roger Peterson. Holly’s bass player, future country legend Waylon Jennings, gave up his seat to Richardson, who was ill. According to Jennings’ autobiography, Holly teased his bass player by saying, “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up.” To which Jennings responded, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes.”
There are conflicting stories as to how Valens wound up in the third seat. Tommy Allsup, Holly’s guitarist, claimed that he lost a coin flip to Valens in the dressing room. In 2010, Dion DiMucci, who had been silent about that night for 51 years, claimed that he, not Allsup, was slated for the third seat because he was one of the headliners. But after winning the coin toss, he balked at paying $36 for the flight — the amount his parents paid in monthly rent for the apartment where he grew up — and gave Valens the seat. Local DJ Bob Hale, who was the MC for the concert, agrees that it was between Allsup and Valens, but that he, not Allsup, flipped the coin.
There were several contradictions with the reports following the accident that happened on Feb. 3. The federal investigation ruled that even though the weather played a large role in the accident, the 21-year-old Peterson was too inexperienced to have been flying in such conditions. In addition, he had most likely misread the altitude indicator, which was different than the one on which he had trained, and inadvertently brought the plane down instead of up.
At the time, Holly’s wife of six months, Maria Elena, was two weeks pregnant. The day after the crash, she suffered a miscarriage from the emotional trauma.
In March 1980, a long-missing piece of the plane crash was discovered. Holly’s signature black-rimmed glasses had landed in a snow bank and were discovered in the spring of 1959, after the snow melted. They were brought to the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s office, sealed in a manila envelope and forgotten about for 21 years. Upon discovery, the glasses were returned to his widow and are currently on permanent display at the Buddy Holly Center in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas.
