On this day in 1959, The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens played to their last crowd ever at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.. While tomorrow most people will mark the date these guys all perished in a plane crash (a plane Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on), I choose to remember the last night they were alive, sharing their gifts with the world... The music DIDN'T die. It lives on..

(02-02-2017, 03:03 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: On this day in 1959, The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens played to their last crowd ever at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa..  While tomorrow most people will mark the date these guys all perished in a plane crash (a plane Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on), I choose to remember the last night they were alive, sharing their gifts with the world...  The music DIDN'T die.  It lives on..

Waylon struggled for years with this.....after saying he hoped their plane crashed when Buddy told him he hoped their bus broke down and they froze their asses off.  Selfishly, I'm glad Waymore didn't make the flight.

(02-02-2017, 04:29 PM)WychesWarrior Wrote: Waylon struggled for years with this.....after saying he hoped their plane crashed when Buddy told him he hoped their bus broke down and they froze their asses off.  Selfishly, I'm glad Waymore didn't make the flight.

Oh ya! I don't know what I would do without Mr. Jennings. By far and away my favorite 'Outlaw.' I think it was the Big Bopper or Richie Valens had a terrible cold that night and Waylon gave up his seat to him so he could get to their next destination sooner and not have to be out in the cold as long.

(02-02-2017, 04:42 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: Oh ya!  I don't know what I would do without Mr. Jennings.  By far and away my favorite 'Outlaw.'   I think it was the Big Bopper or Richie Valens had a terrible cold that night and Waylon gave up his seat to him so he could get to their next destination sooner and not have to be out in the cold as long.

Yep....pretty sure it was the Big Bopper.

I've always wanted to go to the Surf Ballroom for a concert.  They still hold them every now and then.  But I've never made it yet.  I think the last big name show they had that I can remember was Aaron Lewis from Staind.....which by the way, would have been an awesome show to go see.  But that was last year some time.  I just checked their schedule of events and they don't have much yet.  Delbert McClinton is the only artist I've heard of. 

This will be posted at 12:55 am, Central time on Feb. 3. That is when the plane departed. 57 years ago today.

The "Winter Dance Party" tour played at The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on Feb. 2, 1959. The tour included Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and Dion & The Belmonts.

The time leading up to the show found everybody on the tour on a bus that didn't have a working heater. The distance between venues and the conditions prevalent aboard the poorly equipped tour buses adversely affected the performers. Cases of flu and frostbite spread among the band members.

In Clear Lake, frustrated by the conditions, Buddy Holly decided to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Carroll Anderson, owner of the Surf Ballroom, chartered the plane from the Dwyer Flying Service. The Big Bopper, who was affected by the flu, swapped places with Waylon Jennings, (who was in Holly's band) taking the latter's place on the plane, while Tommy Allsup (also in Holly's band) lost his place to Ritchie Valens on a coin toss.

Ritchie Valens, who had once had a fear of flying, asked Tommy Allsup for his seat on the plane. Allsup and Valens decided to toss a coin to decide. Bob Hale, a DJ with KRIB-AM, was working the concert that night and flipped the coin in the ballroom's sidestage room shortly before the musicians departed for the airport. Valens won the coin toss for the seat on the flight.

Dion has said that he had been approached to join the flight, although it is unclear exactly when he was asked. Dion decided that since the $36 fare (equivalent to US $298.20 in 2016) equaled the monthly rent his parents paid for his childhood apartment, he could not justify the indulgence.

The Bonanza sat three passengers and the pilot. When Buddy Holly learned that Jennings was not going to fly, he said in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes," a humorous but ill-fated response that haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.

When the show ended, Carroll Anderson drove Holly, Valens, and Richardson to the airport. The plane departed from the ramp and taxied to then-Runway 17 at around 12:55 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday, February 3. The weather report indicated light snow with a ceiling of 3,000 feet MSL and winds from 20 to 30 mph. Though there were indications of deteriorating weather along the route, the weather briefings that the pilot, Peterson received failed to relay the information. It is believed that soon after takeoff, Peterson became disoriented due to the unfamiliar way the aircraft's attitude indicator depicted pitch, combined with an inability to find a point of visual reference on a starless night with no visible lights on the ground and the inability to detect the horizon. He lost control of the plane, and the aircraft cartwheeled across a cornfield belonging to Albert Juhl. The Bonanza was at a slight downward angle and banked heavily to the right when it struck the ground at around 170 mph. The plane appears to have crumpled and then skidded another 570 feet across the frozen landscape before the broken wreckage came to rest against a wire fence at the edge of Juhl's property.

There were no survivors.

It was one of the most tragic events in the history of Rock and Roll.

In November of 1971, singer Don Mclean released his song "American Pie". In it he sings about 'The day the music died" referring to this plane crash. Since the release of that song, Feb. 3, 1959, is referred to as "The Day The Music Died".

It was never called that prior to McLean's song.

RIP J.P, Buddy, Ritchie and Roger. The artists died. The music never did.

(02-02-2017, 05:20 PM)WychesWarrior Wrote: Yep....pretty sure it was the Big Bopper.

In the movie LaBamba, it's Richie Valens who was sick.

(02-03-2017, 01:47 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: I've always wanted to go to the Surf Ballroom for a concert.  They still hold them every now and then.  But I've never made it yet.  I think the last big name show they had that I can remember was Aaron Lewis from Staind.....which by the way, would have been an awesome show to go see.  But that was last year some time.  I just checked their schedule of events and they don't have much yet.  Delbert McClinton is the only artist I've heard of. 

Delbert wouldn't be a bad show. :andy:

(02-04-2017, 08:09 PM)jason Wrote: In the movie LaBamba, it's Richie Valens who was sick.

Yeah, I recall that.  As you can see by Hawk's post above, he won a coin toss against Tommy Allsup and the Bopper had the flu.  What is it you call that in movies based on historic events?  Creative liberties?