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KF5JRV > TODAY 03.02.19 17:22l 49 Lines 2335 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 30592_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 03
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N3HYM<N3IP<NS2B<KF5JRV
Sent: 190203/1515Z 30592@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On this day in 1959, rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie
Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopperö Richardson are killed when their
chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashes in Iowa a few minutes after
takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Moorehead, Minnesota.
Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error. Holly and
his band, the Crickets, had just scored a No. 1 hit with “That’ll Be the
Day.ö
After mechanical difficulties with the tour bus, Holly had chartered a
plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance Party Tour.
However, Richardson, who had the flu, convinced Holly’s band member
Waylon Jennings to give up his seat, and Ritchie Valens won a coin toss
for another seat on the plane.
Holly, born Charles Holley in Lubbock, Texas, and just 22 when he died,
began singing country music with high school friends before switching to
rock and roll after opening for various performers, including Elvis
Presley. By the mid-1950s, Holly and his band had a regular radio show
and toured internationally, playing hits like “Peggy Sue,ö “Oh, Boy!,ö
“Maybe Babyö and “Early in the Morning.ö Holly wrote all his own songs,
many of which were released after his death and influenced such artists
as Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney.
Another crash victim, J.P. “The Big Bopperö Richardson, 28, started out
as a disk jockey in Texas and later began writing songs. Richardson’s
most famous recording was the rockabilly “Chantilly Lace,ö which made
the Top 10. He developed a stage show based on his radio persona, “The
Big Bopper.ö
The third crash victim was Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenzuela in a
suburb of Los Angeles, who was only 17 when the plane went down but had
already scored hits with “Come On, Let’s Go,ö “Donnaö and “La Bamba,ö an
upbeat number based on a traditional Mexican wedding song (though Valens
barely spoke Spanish). In 1987, Valens’ life was portrayed in the movie
La Bamba, and the title song, performed by Los Lobos, became a No. 1
hit. Valens was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 2001.
Singer Don McLean memorialized Holly, Valens and Richardson in the 1972
No. 1 hit “American Pie,ö which refers to February 3, 1959 as “the day
the music died.ö
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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