"The Day The Music Died" Feb 3, 1959

Most of us can remember where we were when JFK was assassinated, RFK was assassinated, MLK,Jr was assassinated, the moon landing, and the destruction of two space shuttles. But can you recall where you were"The Day The Music Died?"


The tragic death of Buddy Holly (22), Ritchie Valens (17) and The Big Bopper (28) in an aircraft crash in Iowa, Feb 3, 1959,  prompted the Beattles to write, years later, the song "The Day The Music Died" in their memory.


I will always recall where I was and who was with me. Donnie Malcomb, Garnett Sparkman, Joann Thomas and I were traveling to the Tea Creek Baptist Church to borrow their popcorn popper for a home basketball game that night. We were in Donnie's parents car and we got out of school to go get the popcorn popper. I am not sure why Mr. Harris, Principal, selected this quartet to make the journey.


We were listening to the radio when the news announcement was made of the crash. We commented to each other how terrible this was and we speculated whether or not we should have a moment of silence at the game that night in their memory. (We broke the news to our classmates when we returned to school and our hoped for moment of silence was not observed.)

Rock 'n Roll was still very young and the untimely death of these early super stars hit teenagers very hard. Buddy Holly was the more famous of the three with hits like "Peggy Sue", "Oh Boy", "Rave On" and "That'll Be The Day." Big Bopper was something of a one hit wonder with an early Rap type song "Chantilly Lace."  Ritchie Valens will forever be known as the pioneer Latino of Rock 'n Roll with his "La Bamba" hit. He also performed "Donna."

In future Posts I'll cover some of the music that I liked during those wonderful, hormone-filled, coming of age days at PCHS. 


Side Note: My brother, Gary, calls me Mr. Peabody who was a cartoon character on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Cartoon Show. I earned that title because Mr. Peabody had a Way Back Machine that enabled him to visit historical events in the past. Gary defers questions about the 1950's to this almost 70 years old Mr. Peabody. In a strange way they seem like yesterday to me.