THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

The Day the Music Died

Fifty years ago this month three travelling entertainers boarded a small single -engined aeroplane outside Clear Lake in the state of Iowa.  The plane was bound for Fargo in North Dakota.  It was never to complete its journey. The 21-year old pilot Roger Peterson and his three passengers did not survive the crash.  The three musicians were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the "Big Bopper", Jiles P Richardson.
Charles Hardin Holley – Buddy Holly and his band The Crickets had a number one hit with That’ll be the Day in 1957. Holly was slightly built and wore thick glasses. He didn’t have the smouldering looks of Elvis Presley or the wild man reputation of Jerry Lee Lewis but he still took America and the world by storm to carve out his own place in the rock’n’roll hall of fame. This success was reinforced by two more great hits; Peggy Sue and Peggy Sue got Married. Half a century later, Holly’s music is still played and appreciated by millions.
The youngest victim of the crash was only 17. Richie Valenzuela had been discovered by the well-known record producer Bob Keane the previous year. Under the name Ritchie Valens, the youngster recorded Come on, Let’s go and followed it up with a song he wrote for his girlfriend, Donna. On the B side, Valens recorded a very popular rock’n’roll version of the old Mexican standard La Bamba. After a successful appearance on the television programme American Bandstand, it looked as if Valens was going to go all the way to the top.
The Big Bopper, Jiles P Richardson was a Texas DJ who had found success in the music charts with the catchy Chantilly Lace.
The entertainers were only on the plane because the heater in their tour bus had broken down. They had been part of the way through a well-received winter dance party tour which had been intended to cover 24 cities in the space of three weeks.. On their way to the Surf Ballroom venue in Clear Lake they were cold, exhausted and disgusted.  The headline act in the touring troupe was Buddy Holly. He decided that he had had enough of the freezing bus. He would charter an aeroplane to get some of the party to the next venue in time to get some laundry done.
According to the official accident report, the accident was the fault of the pilot.
"The aircraft was observed to take off toward the south in a normal manner, turn and climb to an estimated altitude of 800 feet, and then head in a northwesterly direction. When approximately 5 miles had been traversed, the tail light of the aircraft was seen to descend gradually until it disappeared from sight. Following this, many unsuccessful attempts were made to contact the aircraft by radio. The wreckage was found in a filed later that morning.
 "This accident, like so many before it, was caused by the pilot's decision to undertake a flight in which the likelihood of encountering instrument conditions existed, in the mistaken belief that he could cope with en route instrument weather conditions, without having the necessary familiarization with the instruments in the aircraft and without being properly certificated to fly solely by instruments."
The Civil Aeronautics board concluded,
“At night, with an overcast sky, snow falling, no definite horizon, and a proposed flight over a sparsely settled area with an absence of ground lights, a requirement for control of the aircraft solely by reference to flight instruments can be predicated with virtual certainty.
  “The Board concludes that pilot Peterson, when a short distance from the airport, was confronted with this situation. Because of fluctuation of the rate instruments caused by gusty winds he would have been forced to concentrate and rely greatly on the attitude gyro, an instrument with which he was not completely familiar. The pitch display of this instrument is the reverse of the instrument he was accustomed to; therefore, he could have become confused and thought that he was making a climbing turn when in reality he was making a descending turn. The fact that the aircraft struck the ground in a steep turn but with the nose lowered only slightly, indicates that some control was being effected at the time. The weather briefing supplied to the pilot was seriously inadequate in that it failed to even mention adverse flying conditions which should have been highlighted.

  ”The Board determines that he probably cause of this accident was the pilot's unwise decision to embark on a flight which would necessitate flying solely by instruments when he was not properly certificated or qualified to do so. Contributing factors were serious deficiencies in the weather briefing, and the pilot's unfamiliarity with the instrument which determines the attitude of the aircraft.

This tragic event was recalled by Don Maclean in his hit ballad American Pie as 'the day the music died'.  No new songs would ever come from these fine talents.  However, the songs they wrote and recorded are still played and covered today. These fine artiistes died tragically young but the music that they had already recorded will never die. In this respect, Don McClean got it wrong.