The Day The Music Died

I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried

when I read about his widowed bride

but something touched me deep inside,

the day the music died.

-- Don McLean, American Pie

Things were literally rocking and rolling that night at Clear Lake, Iowa. The thunderous applause and cheering of over a thousand fans that had packed the Surf Ballroom to see The Winter Dance Party and it's three headline performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P."The Big Bopper"Richardson were causing the very building to shudder.

While the assembled talent were heating things up inside, a harsh Midwestern winter was taking it's toll on all those involved in the multi-city tour. It was 1959, and a far cry from how Rock stars are catered to and pampered today, with roadies, high-end hotel suites, and hordes of hangers-on and groupies.

Instead, Holly, Valens, Richardson, and the others were made to contend with endless, sleepless nights on a dilapidated bus, sore from being jostled about on bad shocks and half-frozen because a heater had gone bust. One of the drummers had even developed frostbite.

To add to the already miserable conditions, the promoters had scheduled no open dates along the tour, choosing instead to fatten their wallets with a show-a-day routine than allow the musicians a days rest. So scarse was any semblance of free time that most of the performers were wearing clothes that had gone unlaundered for days.

Buddy Holly had had enough. Six days, six gigs, and the prospects of another night on the road were too much. With two of his band members, Holly decided to charter a plane and fly on ahead to Fargo, get everyone's stage clothes washed, and spend the night in a warm hotel room.

When word of Holly's plans reached The Big Bopper, he approached one of the band members, a close friend, and persuaded him to give up his seat on the plane. Richardson had been nursing a cold, and wanted to arrange to see a doctor when they arrived in Fargo. The fates of two famed musicians would forever change that night. One would perish, the other would live on to fullfill a brilliant career. That band members name, Buddy's bass player, was Waylon Jennings.

Likewise, Ritchie Valens also wanted to make the flight and avoid the long, cold trip by bus. He talked Tommy Allsup, Holly's other backup musician, into a coin toss to determine who got dibs to the last remaining seat. Valens won the toss.

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