The Day the Music Died

The Day the Music Died, February 3, 1959, when an airplane crash resulted in the deaths of American musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), as well as pilot Roger Peterson. The plane crashed in a cornfield outside Clear Lake, Iowa. The tragedy was memorialized in the lyrics of the song “American Pie” (1971), written by Don McLean.

Holly, Valens, and the Big Bopper were in the middle of a tour known as the Winter Dance Party, wherein the group was scheduled to play 24 shows in 24 days across the U.S. Midwest; the tour began on January 23, 1959. Other musicians on the tour included Carl Bunch, Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, Tommy Allsup, and Waylon Jennings. The touring musicians shared a converted school bus that transported them to and from each venue. The bus lacked heating, and the winter weather presented them with numerous obstacles along the two-lane rural highways that crossed the region at the time; in some instances, travel from city to city lasted as long as 12 hours. The bus suffered repeated mechanical issues and even stalled at one point, resulting in Bunch incurring severe frostbite on his feet.

Almost midway through the tour, the musicians played at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. After the show Holly, tired of the abysmal conditions on the bus, chartered a four-seat flight to Fargo, North Dakota. The flight was expected to land in time for Holly to do laundry and rest before the group’s next show, which was in Moorhead, Minnesota. Jennings was initially offered a spot on the flight but gave his seat to the Big Bopper, who was suffering from illness. Allsup and Valens flipped a coin for the third seat, which Valens won.

The flight took off from Mason City Municipal Airport at 12:55 am on February 3. There was a light snowfall on the runway, but Peterson was not alerted to worsening weather conditions and received clearance for takeoff. Only a few minutes later the plane encountered high winds and snow. Peterson quickly lost control of the aircraft, which dipped low to the ground, catching the aircraft’s right wing tip. Air traffic control attempted to make radio contact with Peterson after observing the plane’s taillight descend. It was too late, however; the plane had crashed in a cornfield five miles (eight km) from the airport. The wreckage was found later that morning by a search and rescue team.

The other musicians on the tour traveled to Fargo by bus and arrived later that morning. Tour manager Sam Geller met them in the lobby of a hotel and informed them of the crash. Following the deaths of the tour’s major headliners, other groups were added to the lineup, including Bobby Vee and the Shadows, Fabian and Frankie Avalon, and Jimmy Clanton. Dion and the Belmonts remained through the tour’s conclusion, along with Sardo.