I’m not sure how historical the day is; unless of course, you are a big music historian. But ever since I was old enough to know and understand the significance of the day, I have had a fascination with February 3, 1959.
I not only share a birthday with Elmo, I share a birthday with that day.
The term “The Day the Music Died” refers to the death of three young up and coming musicians died in a plane crash.
The story begins a few days earlier with a large group of artists touring together around the Midwest of the U.S. in the middle of the winter. The heater on the bus fails leaving the musicians in a very cold state.
On February 2nd, a young performer from Lubbock, Texas by the name of Buddy Holley had had his fill of a freezing bus and chartered a small plane to take them to the next stop on the tour.
Holley, Waylon Jennings, and Tommy Allsup were going to fly on ahead.
But things quicky changed when JP Richardson – better known as The Big Bopper – stuck his head in the door of the plane; Jennings gave up his seat.
An 18 year old Richie Valens had never flown on a plane and Allsup agreed to flip a coin to decide which of the two drivers would get the final seat in the plane. Valens won.
Shortly before midnight local time (central time) the plane was ready to take off. The pilot Roger Peterson was the only person available to fly the plane but he was not qualified to fly the plane VFR – visual flight rules. The ground was covered in snow and the low clouds in the night sky were laden with more snow.
Shortly before 1am a short distance from the airfield in an Iowa cornfield. the plane went down when Peterson could not distinguish how close they were to the ground.
It wasn’t until after dawn the next morning – some time after 8am – that authorities found the plane with no survivors.
Upon learning about the death of Buddy Holley, his young pregnant wife Maria lost their baby.
Holley’s band was known as The Crickets…a name that later inspired the name of another band of four mop topped lads from Liverpool.
Allsup died a few years ago in his 80’s and Waylon Jennings died in 2002 after a long and successful career.