TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Fans Remember 'Day The Music Died' 50 Years Ago

The Associated Press

Buddy Holly and the Crickets' first hit record was 'That'll Be the Day,' released in 1957.

ADVERTISEMENT

A Staff, Wire Report

Published: February 3, 2009

Updated: 02/03/2009 12:45 pm

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - Today marks 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.

The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with the night of Feb. 3, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens boarded the plane after a performance for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes.

"It was really like the first rock 'n' roll landmark; the first death," said rock historian Jim Dawson, who has written several books about music of that era. "They say these things come in threes. Well, all three happened at the same time."

The Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa, reported that "musical royalty" came out Monday night to the Surf Ballroom to honor the three musicians. Among those performing, Delbert McClinton, Dave Mason, Graham Nash and Wanda Jackson.

The newspaper reported that Holly's widow Maria Elena Holly and brothers and sisters of Valens thanked the crowd for coming, and J.P. Richardson's son sang some of his father's hit songs.

The Surf Ballroom, said Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, "was the locus point for that last performance by these great artists."

Clear Lake is an unlikely spot for a rock 'n' roll pilgrimage — especially in winter. The resort town of about 8,000 people borders its namesake lake, and on winter days the cold and wind make the community 100 miles north of Des Moines anything but a tourist destination.

The crash site is on private property, a five-mile drive from Clear Lake and half-mile walk off the road. Corn grows high in adjacent fields during the summer, but in winter the fields are covered with snow, and a path to the small memorial is often thick with ice. The memorial features a small cross and thin metal guitar and records, all of which are draped in flowers during the summer.

"It's a much nicer trip in the summer," said Jeff Nicholas, a longtime Clear Lake resident who heads the Surf Ballroom's board of directors. "But in the winter, you get more of a feel of what it was like."

No one tracks the number of visitors, but fans stop by throughout the year, and on some summer days visitors to the crash site can create the oddity of a corn field traffic jam.

Stewart said the deaths still resonate because they occurred at a time when rock 'n' roll was going through a transition, of sorts. The sounds of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Holly was making way for the British Invasion of the mid-1960s.

"The music was shifting and changing at that point," he said. "The crash put a punctuation point on the change."

All three musicians influenced rock 'n' in their own way.

Holly's career was short, but his hiccup-vocal style, guitar play and songwriting talents had tremendous influence on later performers. The Beatles, who formed about the time of the crash, were among his early fans and fashioned their name after Holly's band, The Crickets. Holly's hit songs include "That'll Be the Day," "Peggy Sue" and "Maybe Baby."

Richardson, "The Big Bopper," is often credited with creating the first music video with his recorded performance of "Chantilly Lace" in 1958, decades before MTV.

And Valens was one of the first musicians to apply a Mexican influence to rock 'n' roll. He recorded his huge hit "La Bamba" only months before the accident.

The plane left the airport in nearby Mason City about 1 a.m., headed for Moorhead, Minn., with the musicians looking for a break from a tiring, cold bus trip through the Upper Midwest.

It wasn't until hours later that the demolished plane was found, crumpled against a wire fence. Investigators believe the pilot, who also died, became confused amid the dark, snowy conditions and rammed the plane into the ground.

The crash set off a wave of mourning among their passionate, mostly young fans across the country. Twelve years later, the crash was immortalized as "the day the music died" in Don McLean's 1971 song, "American Pie."

Vonnie Amosson, who manages the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Clear Lake, said that ever since the plane crash, the community has embraced the tragedy. It's a continued stream of tourism dollars, and the town's chamber of commerce estimates this year's events, dubbed " '50s in February," were expected to generate more than $4 million for Clear Lake's economy.

"It's kind of sad that that is what we are known for," Amosson said. "But on the other part of it, I think the whole ' '50's in February' weekend is a huge memorial, and it's an honor to them."

In part because of its role in rock history, the Surf Ballroom has retained its vintage look, with a 6,000-square-foot dance floor, ceiling painted to resemble a sky and original cloud machines on either side of the room. Ten Buddy Holly banners line the wall opposite the stage. The 2,100-capacity ballroom still hosts many national and regional performers, most of whom add their names to a backstage wall that is crowded with drawings and signatures.

"It's quite a special place," said Nicholas. "This place looks just like it did in 1959."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT