February 3rd, the day the music died

One hour after midnight on February 2-3, 1959, a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza B35 took off in a heavy snowstorm from the airport in Mason City, Iowa, bound for Moorhead, Minnesota. Passengers - apart from the pilot - were three great rock and roll stars:Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. A few minutes later, the helicopter fell and crashed into the ground at a speed of 270 km/h.

The investigation attributed the crash to human error and bad weather, while the dead plunged the orphaned US music scene into mourning. 12 years later, New York composer Don McLean wrote "American Pie", a song - a tribute to the tragic "day the music died". The strange thing is that there is not a single direct reference to the three dead musicians, although the entire - eponymous - album is dedicated to Buddy Holly, McLean's teenage idol.

The composer himself never gave an explanation for his lyrics, saying that "they are not subject to analysis, since they are poetry". Anyway, "American Pie" is one of the most special songs in folk music and for fifty years it held a unique record:it was the longest - 8'42" - Number 1 in the history of the American chart (it broke it in 2021 (Taylor Swift's 10 minute and 13 second "All too well") But let's start from the beginning.

THE CHRONICLE OF THE TRAGEDY

In November 1958, Buddy Holly ended his collaboration with the Crickets (the group that had accompanied him in his recordings and live performances until then) and organized a tour called "The Winter Dance Party" in the Midwestern States of the USA, which would last three weeks. He would be joined by musicians Waylon Jennings (bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar) and Carl Bunch (drums). Ritchie Valens, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Dion DiMucci, the latter with his band, the Belmonts.

Holly signed with the General Artists Corporation, a concert and tour company, because he knew that a tour of Europe was in her immediate plans and he did not want to miss such an opportunity. He urgently needed money, on the one hand because the Crickets' manager, Norman Petty, had "emptied" the band's coffers with various scams, and on the other hand, because he wanted to move to New York with his wife, Maria Helena, who was pregnant.

The tour started on January 23, 1959, but the distances between the places where they would play, were too long and the movements very difficult in the winter. The problem was made even bigger because GAC's design was the worst possible. Instead of organizing the series of concerts at close distances from each other, he forced the musicians to travel hundreds of kilometers every day to distant destinations, leaving no time for any real rest.

Here we should add that the road network in the vast area of ​​the Central Western States was mostly wretched country roads, which turned every trip (from 500 to 700 kilometers every day, lasting ten to twelve hours each) into a real nightmare. And of course there were no days off, since GAC had arranged a concert in a different city every day. There was also no support staff at all, which meant that the musicians unloaded, set up, set up and reloaded all the equipment themselves at each live.

The transportation was done with old buses (mainly modified old school buses), which were constantly breaking down, typical of which is the fact that in the first eleven days of the tour, they had to change five! Another big problem was the rudimentary heating inside the buses, at a time when the temperatures outside ranged from -6 to -38 degrees Celsius! As a result, most of the members caught the flu, while Holly's drummer, Carl Bunch, suffered frostbite!

On February 2nd the band arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa, to play at the local Surf Ballroom. Buddy Holly, exhausted from suffering and the deep winter, decided to charter a private plane to take him from Iowa to his next destination, Moorhead, Minnesota. It was a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza B35, to be flown by 21-year-old Roger Peterson, who, however, was not trained to fly aircraft on an IFR basis, which would prove fatal due to the fog, blizzard and very limited visibility.

THE SHARING OF JOY

There were four seats on the plane. The two of them were captured by the pilot and Buddy Holly. In the other two, it was luck (and bad luck) that played its part. Jennings, who was due to fly on the plane, became furious when he learned that the ticket cost 36 dollars (about 250 euros in today's money). He found it too expensive and immediately agreed to give up his seat to Richardson, who had the flu and wanted to avoid the long bus journey.

When Holly was told Jennings wouldn't be flying with him, he joked, "I hope your ol' bus freezes up," only to elicit the response from his bassist, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes" A phrase that has since haunted Jennings for the rest of his life...

At the same time, Valens, who was noticeably aerophobic, begged Allsup to give him his own slot, and Holly's guitarist agreed to play her crown - letters. It was Bob Hale, a local DJ who had introduced the concert at the Surf Ballroom, who flipped the coin, with Valens taking the seat from Allsup and saying immediately after:"This is the first time in my life that I won something". The Beechcraft Bonanza B35 had now found "victims" and the squadron's doom clock began to count down. Once the live was over, the foursome headed to the Mason City airport.

THE CRASH AND DEATH

Roger Peterson took off the helicopter at 12:55 a.m. from Runway 17 in heavy snow and high winds. It was now Tuesday, February 3, and a few minutes after take-off the pilot lost his orientation, unable to understand what altitude he was at, after the plane's specific instrument malfunctioned.

Unable to see a fixed bright object in the blizzard to use as a reference point, Peterson maintained - incorrectly - a slight descent angle, causing the aircraft to crash into a field shortly afterwards at 270 kilometers per hour. The Beechcraft Bonanza B35 hit the ground first with the right wing and then dragged through the snow for about 160 meters before coming to rest next to a wire fence.

The next morning, airline owner Hubert Dwyer, who had been trying in vain for hours to radio Roger Peterson, reported the aircraft missing to authorities and took a Cessna 180 to fly over the Beechcraft's supposed path Bonanza B35 and do reconnaissance. A little later, at 9.35, he located the wreckage, about ten kilometers northwest of the airport.

The bodies of Holly and Valens were next to the plane, while that of the Big Bopper had been thrown over the fence into a neighboring property. The pilot's body was the only one found inside the plane. The forensic examination spoke of the instant death of all four passengers upon impact with the ground, while the investigation into the causes of the accident assigned responsibility both to the pilot's human error and to a malfunction of the aircraft's instruments.

AFTER THE TRAGEDY

Holly's pregnant wife, Maria Helena (married to him only six months ago), learned of his new accident on television. A little later she miscarried, and she didn't even attend the funeral. Since then, it has been decided in the USA, after air tragedies, not to allow the names of the dead to be mentioned in mass media, before their families have been informed first. Holly's mother collapsed and was hospitalized.

Despite the tragedy, "The Winter Dance Party" tour continued. 15-year-old Bobby Vee (later a teen idol in the early 60s) replaced Holly on vocals for the next show in Moorhead, Minnesota, and for the rest of the tour, for the next two weeks, it was Jennings who took over role of lead singer. At the same time, the funerals of the four victims took place, Holly and Richardson in Texas, Valens in California and Peterson in Iowa.

THE THREE STARS

The first song written about the tragic event was Tommy Dee's "Three Stars" (1959). Soon after it was recorded by Eddie Cochran, who a year later (in April 1960) was killed in a car accident on his way to an airport. Twelve years later, in 1971, it was Don McLean's turn to write the masterpiece "American Pie", which became known as "The day the music died", which symbolized for the composer the loss of the innocence of the first generation of rock and roll.

McLean's song became so identified with the Mason City crash that the event itself has since been referred to simply by these words, i.e. "The day the music died". Before we get to the amazing lyrics of "American Pie", let's first see who the three unfortunate passengers of the Beechcraft Bonanza B35 were on that snowy night of February 3rd, 1959, exactly 63 years ago today.

BUDDY HOLLY (1936-1959)

Charles Hardin Holley was born in 1936 in Texas and was one of the most important performers, composers and virtuosos of rock and roll. In his short recording career, he managed to "marry" country with rhythm &blues in a unique way, creating the foundations of the "twelve-meter madness" that swept the USA in the following decade with rock and roll. He influenced major artists of the 60s and beyond, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Don McLean and many others. He released 3 LPs, the most important being the second titled "Buddy Holly". His biggest hits were "That'll be the day" and "Peggy Sue".

* Video:"Peggy Sue" - Buddy Holly (1957)

RICHIE VALENS (1941-1959)

Richard Steven Valenzuela, of Mexican origin, was born in 1941 in California and was the pioneer of chicano rock, influencing artists such as Carlos Santana, Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and many others. He adapted classic Latin musical forms and rhythms to the modern demands of rock and roll and rhythmic ballads. His recording career lasted only 8 months and released 2 LPs, the most important of which was the first titled "Ritchie Valens", which contained his big hits "La Bamba" and "Donna".

* Video:"La Bamba" - Ritchie Valens (1959)

J.P. "THE BIG BOPPER" RICHARDSON (1930-1959)

Jiles Perry Richardson Jr was born in 1930 in Texas and was a disc jockey, composer and performer of country and rock and roll, as well as one of the pioneers of rockabilly. He began his career as a radio DJ and in 1957, after seeing college students doing a dance they called "the Bop", adopted the moniker The Big Bopper. In May 1957 he broke the record for continuous stay in a radio studio, playing 1821 records in five days, two hours and eight minutes! His biggest hits were "Chantilly Lace" and "White Lightning", while in 1958 he became the first artist to make a video clip.

* Video:"Chantilly Lace" - The Big Bopper (1958)

"AMERICAN PIE" (1971)

In November 1971, New York composer Don McLean's LP "American Pie" was released. The eponymous song of the record is definitely one of the masterpieces of folk music and refers to the death of the three of the fatal flight. "American Pie" is part autobiography and part history of America in the 1950s and 1960s. The original inspiration came from 14-year-old Don's memories of working as a newsboy in 1959 when he learned of the death of his great idol, Buddy Holly.

The lyrics present an abstract story of Don McLean's life from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, while also narrating the evolution of music and politics over the years, though through his symbolism, the song continues to evolve to this day. According to McLean himself, this is not a nostalgia song. "American Pie" is changing, as America itself is changing.

As we wrote at the beginning of the text, McLean, despite the fact that he dedicated the entire LP "American Pie" to Buddy Holly, never gave an explanation for his lyrics, saying that "they are not subject to analysis, since they are poetry". There are countless symbolisms and references that have been "deciphered" over the years. Let's see the main "hidden" points of the song by first pressing "play" on the video below.

* Video:"American Pie" - Don McLean (1971)

A long, long time ago
(the song was written 12 years after the accident)
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance, that I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while.
But February made me shiver,
with every paper I'd deliver
(the accident happened on February 3rd and Don McLean learned about it from the front pages of the newspapers he sold as a newsboy)
Bad news on the doorstep,
I couldn't take one more step.
I can't remember if I cried,
when I read about his widowed bride
(reference to Holly's widow, Maria Helena)
But something touched me deep inside,
the day the music died