The Day the Music Died
Encyclopedia
On February 3, 1959, a small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa
, killed three American rock and roll
pioneers: Buddy Holly
, Ritchie Valens
, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson
, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson
. The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean
, in his song "American Pie". The plane crash has been called the first and greatest tragedy rock and roll has ever suffered.
cities in three weeks. A logistical problem with the tour was the amount of travel, as the distance between venues was not a consideration when scheduling each performance. Adding to the disarray, the tour bus used to carry the musicians was not equipped for the weather; its heating system broke shortly after the tour began.
The condition of the bus and the grueling pace of the tour are evidenced by the fact that Holly's drummer, Carl Bunch
, had been hospitalized in Ironwood, Michigan
, due to a severe case of frostbitten
feet that developed when the bus broke down enroute to Appleton, Wisconsin
during the overnight trip following the January 31, 1959, show in Duluth, Minnesota
. As Holly's group had been the backing band for all of the acts, Holly, Valens and Dion DiMucci
(of Dion and the Belmonts
) took turns playing drums for each other at the Green Bay, Wisconsin
, and Clear Lake, Iowa, shows.
The Surf Ballroom
in Clear Lake, Iowa, was never intended to be a stop on the tour, but promoters, hoping to fill an open date, called Surf Ballroom manager Carroll Anderson and offered him the show. He accepted and the show was set for Monday, February 2.
By the time Buddy Holly arrived at the Surf Ballroom that Monday evening, he was frustrated with the tour bus. According to VH-1's Behind the Music
episode, "The Day the Music Died", Holly was also upset that the laundromat in Clear Lake was closed that day, and he would need time before the next performance to finally clean some undershirts, socks, and underwear. Holly told his remaining band mates, Waylon Jennings
and Tommy Allsup
, that they should try to charter a plane to save time and to avoid the cold bus ride of 380 miles to the tour's next stop – Moorhead, Minnesota
.
Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, a 21-year-old local pilot who worked for Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa
. A fee of $36 per passenger was charged for the single-engined 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza 35 (V-tail)
, registration (later reassigned). The Bonanza could seat three in addition to the pilot.
Richardson had developed a case of flu
during the tour and asked Waylon Jennings for his seat on the plane. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up" and Jennings responded, also in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes". This exchange of words would haunt Jennings for the rest of his life.
Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small plane before, and, in spite of his own fear of flying, asked Tommy Allsup for his seat on the plane. Tommy said "I'll flip ya for the remaining seat". Contrary to what is seen in La Bamba
, the coin toss did not happen at the airport shortly before takeoff, nor did Buddy Holly toss it. 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, and with it a seat on the flight.
Dion had been approached to join the flight, although it is unclear exactly when he was asked. Dion decided that, since the $36 cost of the flight was the same as the monthly rent his parents paid for his childhood apartment, he couldn't justify the indulgence.
Hubert Dwyer, owner of the plane and the flight service company, watched from a platform outside the tower and "saw the tail light of the aircraft gradually descend until out of sight", just after 1:00 AM. Peterson had earlier told Dwyer he would file a flight plan with Air Traffic Control
by radio after takeoff. When he did not call the tower personnel with his flight plan, Dwyer requested that they continue to attempt to establish radio contact, but all attempts were unsuccessful. By 3:30 AM, when Hector Airport in Fargo, North Dakota
, had not heard from Peterson, Dwyer contacted authorities and reported the aircraft missing.
Around 9:15 AM, Dwyer took off in his own Cessna 180 to fly Peterson's intended route. Within minutes he spotted the wreckage less than 6 miles northwest of the airport, (43°13′13"N 93°22′53"W) in a cornfield then 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 miles per hour (76 m/s). The plane tumbled and skidded another 570 feet (173.7 m) across the frozen landscape before the crumpled wreckage came to rest against a wire fence at the edge of Juhl's property. The bodies of Holly and Valens lay near the plane, Richardson was thrown over the fence and into the cornfield of Juhl's neighbor Oscar Moffett, and Peterson's body remained entangled inside the plane's wreckage. With the other participants on "The Winter Dance Party" enroute to Moorhead, it fell to Surf Ballroom manager Carroll Anderson, who drove the musicians to the airport and witnessed the plane's takeoff, to make positive identifications of the musicians. All four had died instantly from "gross trauma
" to the brain, the county coroner
Ralph Smiley declared.
Investigators concluded that the crash was due to a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error
, resulting in spatial disorientation
. Peterson, working on his Instrument Rating
at the time, was still taking flight instrumentation tests
and was not yet certificated for flight into weather that would have required operation of the aircraft solely by reference to his instruments
rather than by means of his own vision
. The final Civil Aeronautics Board report noted that Peterson had taken his instrument training on airplanes equipped with an artificial horizon attitude indicator
and not the far-less-common Sperry Attitude Gyro
the Bonanza was equipped with (it was further discovered that Peterson had failed his instrument checkride shortly before the incident). Critically, the two instruments display aircraft pitch attitude but depict such information in a visual manner opposite of one another; therefore, the board considered that this could have caused Peterson to think he was ascending when he was, in fact, descending. They also concluded that Peterson was not given adequate warnings about the weather conditions of his route, which, given his known limitations, might have caused him to postpone the flight out of prudence.
undertook the procedure and confirmed Smiley's original report. The body of Richardson was well-preserved, but showed "massive fractures", showing that he, too, had died on impact.
fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records
bearing the names of each of the three performers. The monument is located on private farmland, about one quarter of a mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, five miles (8 km) north of Clear Lake. A large plasma-cut-steel set of Wayfarer-style glasses, similar to those which Holly was known for wearing, sits at the access point to the crash site. Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians located outside the Riverside Ballroom
in Green Bay, Wisconsin
, where Holly, the Big Bopper and Valens played on the night of February 1, 1959. This second memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003. In February 2009, a new memorial made by Paquette for pilot Roger Peterson was unveiled at the crash site. A road originating near The Surf Ballroom and extending north past the west of the crash site is now known as Buddy Holly Place.
Clear Lake, Iowa
Clear Lake is a city in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 8,161 at the 2000 census. The city is named for the large lake on which it is located. It is the home of a number of marinas, state parks and tourism-related businesses. Clear Lake is also a major stop on Interstate...
, killed three American rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
pioneers: Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
, Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson
The Big Bopper
Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson, Jr. also commonly known as The Big Bopper, was an American disc jockey, singer, and songwriter whose big voice and exuberant personality made him an early rock and roll star...
, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson
Roger Peterson (pilot)
Roger Arthur Peterson was a 21-year-old pilot of the aircraft whose crash took the lives of rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson as well as himself...
. The day was later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...
, in his song "American Pie". The plane crash has been called the first and greatest tragedy rock and roll has ever suffered.
Events leading to the crash
"The Winter Dance Party" was a tour that was set to cover twenty-four MidwesternMidwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
cities in three weeks. A logistical problem with the tour was the amount of travel, as the distance between venues was not a consideration when scheduling each performance. Adding to the disarray, the tour bus used to carry the musicians was not equipped for the weather; its heating system broke shortly after the tour began.
The condition of the bus and the grueling pace of the tour are evidenced by the fact that Holly's drummer, Carl Bunch
Carl Bunch
Carl Bunch was an American musician.Carl Bunch was born in Big Spring, Texas and began playing drums as a teenager, in order to recover from extensive surgery on his right leg. By age seventeen, he was recording with Ronnie Smith and the Poor Boys, in Clovis, New Mexico...
, had been hospitalized in Ironwood, Michigan
Ironwood, Michigan
Ironwood is a city in Gogebic County in the U.S. state of Michigan, about south of Lake Superior. The population was 6,293 at the 2000 census. The city is on US 2 and is situated opposite the Montreal River from Hurley, Wisconsin. It is the westernmost city in Michigan, situated on the same line...
, due to a severe case of frostbitten
Frostbite
Frostbite is the medical condition where localized damage is caused to skin and other tissues due to extreme cold. Frostbite is most likely to happen in body parts farthest from the heart and those with large exposed areas...
feet that developed when the bus broke down enroute to Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton, Wisconsin
Appleton is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is situated on the Fox River, 30 miles southwest of Green Bay and 100 miles north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the county seat of Outagamie County. The population was 78,086 at the 2010 census...
during the overnight trip following the January 31, 1959, show in Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
. As Holly's group had been the backing band for all of the acts, Holly, Valens and Dion DiMucci
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
(of Dion and the Belmonts
Dion and the Belmonts
Dion and the Belmonts was a leading American vocal group of the late 1950s. The group formed when Dion DiMucci, lead singer , joined The Belmonts - Carlo Mastrangelo, baritone , Freddie Milano, second tenor , and Angelo D'Aleo, first tenor , in late 1957.-History:After an unsuccessful first single,...
) took turns playing drums for each other at the Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
, and Clear Lake, Iowa, shows.
The Surf Ballroom
Surf Ballroom
The Surf Ballroom is a Historic Rock and Roll Landmark at 460 North Shore Drive, Clear Lake, Iowa. The Surf is closely associated with The Day the Music Died - early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson gave their last performances at the Surf on...
in Clear Lake, Iowa, was never intended to be a stop on the tour, but promoters, hoping to fill an open date, called Surf Ballroom manager Carroll Anderson and offered him the show. He accepted and the show was set for Monday, February 2.
By the time Buddy Holly arrived at the Surf Ballroom that Monday evening, he was frustrated with the tour bus. According to VH-1's Behind the Music
Behind the Music
Behind the Music is a television series on VH1. It originally ran from 1997 to 2006, before it was stopped and only aired new episodes sporadically. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became...
episode, "The Day the Music Died", Holly was also upset that the laundromat in Clear Lake was closed that day, and he would need time before the next performance to finally clean some undershirts, socks, and underwear. Holly told his remaining band mates, Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
and Tommy Allsup
Tommy Allsup
Tommy Allsup is an American musician.He worked with entertainers such as Buddy Holly and Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys...
, that they should try to charter a plane to save time and to avoid the cold bus ride of 380 miles to the tour's next stop – Moorhead, Minnesota
Moorhead, Minnesota
Moorhead is a city in Clay County, Minnesota, United States, and the largest city in northwest Minnesota. The population was 38,065 at the 2010 Census. It is the county seat of Clay County....
.
Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, a 21-year-old local pilot who worked for Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa
Mason City, Iowa
Mason City is the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 28,079 in the 2010 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties....
. A fee of $36 per passenger was charged for the single-engined 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza 35 (V-tail)
Beechcraft Bonanza
The Beechcraft Bonanza is an American general aviation aircraft introduced in 1947 by The Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. , it is still being produced by Hawker Beechcraft, and has been in continuous production longer than any other airplane in history...
, registration (later reassigned). The Bonanza could seat three in addition to the pilot.
Richardson had developed a case of flu
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
during the tour and asked Waylon Jennings for his seat on the plane. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up" and Jennings responded, also in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes". This exchange of words would haunt Jennings for the rest of his life.
Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small plane before, and, in spite of his own fear of flying, asked Tommy Allsup for his seat on the plane. Tommy said "I'll flip ya for the remaining seat". Contrary to what is seen in La Bamba
La Bamba (film)
La Bamba is a 1987 American biographical film written and directed by Luis Valdez. The picture features Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Rosanna DeSoto, Elizabeth Peña, Danielle von Zerneck, and Joe Pantoliano...
, the coin toss did not happen at the airport shortly before takeoff, nor did Buddy Holly toss it. Bob Hale, a DJ with KRIB-AM
KRIB
KRIB is a radio station licensed to serve Mason City, Iowa. The station is owned by Three Eagles Communications and licensed to Three Eagles of Mason City, Inc. It airs an Oldies music format....
, 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, and with it a seat on the flight.
Dion had been approached to join the flight, although it is unclear exactly when he was asked. Dion decided that, since the $36 cost of the flight was the same as the monthly rent his parents paid for his childhood apartment, he couldn't justify the indulgence.
Crash
The plane departed from the ramp and taxied to then-Runway 17 at around 12:55 AM Central Time on Tuesday, February 3. Contrary to popular belief, there was no blizzard at the time but a very light snowfall with winds out of the south at 20 knots, gusting to 30 knots and a cloud ceiling of 3,000 feet above sea level. Since Mason City Municipal Airport was at 1,200 feet, this left 1,800-foot of airspace between the ground and cloud cover. It is unknown whether or not Peterson intended to file a Special-rules VFR flight plan in spite of the obvious weather.Hubert Dwyer, owner of the plane and the flight service company, watched from a platform outside the tower and "saw the tail light of the aircraft gradually descend until out of sight", just after 1:00 AM. Peterson had earlier told Dwyer he would file a flight plan with Air Traffic Control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
by radio after takeoff. When he did not call the tower personnel with his flight plan, Dwyer requested that they continue to attempt to establish radio contact, but all attempts were unsuccessful. By 3:30 AM, when Hector Airport in Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
, had not heard from Peterson, Dwyer contacted authorities and reported the aircraft missing.
Around 9:15 AM, Dwyer took off in his own Cessna 180 to fly Peterson's intended route. Within minutes he spotted the wreckage less than 6 miles northwest of the airport, (43°13′13"N 93°22′53"W) in a cornfield then 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 miles per hour (76 m/s). The plane tumbled and skidded another 570 feet (173.7 m) across the frozen landscape before the crumpled wreckage came to rest against a wire fence at the edge of Juhl's property. The bodies of Holly and Valens lay near the plane, Richardson was thrown over the fence and into the cornfield of Juhl's neighbor Oscar Moffett, and Peterson's body remained entangled inside the plane's wreckage. With the other participants on "The Winter Dance Party" enroute to Moorhead, it fell to Surf Ballroom manager Carroll Anderson, who drove the musicians to the airport and witnessed the plane's takeoff, to make positive identifications of the musicians. All four had died instantly from "gross trauma
Blunt trauma
In medical terminology, blunt trauma, blunt injury, non-penetrating trauma or blunt force trauma refers to a type of physical trauma caused to a body part, either by impact, injury or physical attack; the latter usually being referred to as blunt force trauma...
" to the brain, the county coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
Ralph Smiley declared.
Investigators concluded that the crash was due to a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error
Pilot error
Pilot error is a term used to describe the cause of an accident involving an airworthy aircraft where the pilot is considered to be principally or partially responsible...
, resulting in spatial disorientation
Spatial disorientation
Spatial disorientation is the inability to correctly interpret aircraft attitude, altitude or airspeed, in relation to the Earth or point of reference. Spatial disorientation is a condition in which an aircraft pilot's perception of direction does not agree with reality...
. Peterson, working on his Instrument Rating
Instrument rating
Instrument rating refers to the qualifications that a pilot must have in order to fly under IFR . It requires additional training and instruction beyond what is required for a Private Pilot certificate or Commercial Pilot certificate, including rules and procedures specific to instrument flying,...
at the time, was still taking flight instrumentation tests
Instrument rating
Instrument rating refers to the qualifications that a pilot must have in order to fly under IFR . It requires additional training and instruction beyond what is required for a Private Pilot certificate or Commercial Pilot certificate, including rules and procedures specific to instrument flying,...
and was not yet certificated for flight into weather that would have required operation of the aircraft solely by reference to his instruments
Instrument meteorological conditions
Instrument meteorological conditions is an aviation flight category that describes weather conditions that require pilots to fly primarily by reference to instruments, and therefore under Instrument Flight Rules , rather than by outside visual references under Visual Flight Rules . Typically, this...
rather than by means of his own vision
Visual meteorological conditions
In aviation, visual meteorological conditions is an aviation flight category in which visual flight rules flight is permitted—that is, conditions in which pilots have sufficient visibility to fly the aircraft maintaining visual separation from terrain and other aircraft. They are the opposite of...
. The final Civil Aeronautics Board report noted that Peterson had taken his instrument training on airplanes equipped with an artificial horizon attitude indicator
Attitude indicator
An attitude indicator , also known as gyro horizon or artificial horizon, is an instrument used in an aircraft to inform the pilot of the orientation of the aircraft relative to earth. It indicates pitch and bank or roll and is a primary instrument for flight in instrument meteorological conditions...
and not the far-less-common Sperry Attitude Gyro
Gyroscope
A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
the Bonanza was equipped with (it was further discovered that Peterson had failed his instrument checkride shortly before the incident). Critically, the two instruments display aircraft pitch attitude but depict such information in a visual manner opposite of one another; therefore, the board considered that this could have caused Peterson to think he was ascending when he was, in fact, descending. They also concluded that Peterson was not given adequate warnings about the weather conditions of his route, which, given his known limitations, might have caused him to postpone the flight out of prudence.
2007 investigation
In 2007, Richardson's son had his father's body exhumed and an autopsy performed to verify the original finding. In part this was done because of the long known discovery of Holly's .22 caliber pistol by Juhl in the cornfield two months after the wreck, giving rise to the question of whether or not an accidental firearm discharge had caused the crash, and whether or not Richardson was not hurt as badly and able to try to crawl for help, because his body was found farther from the crash site. William M. BassWilliam M. Bass
William Marvin Bass III is an American forensic anthropologist, best known for his research on human osteology and human decomposition. He has also assisted federal, local, and non-U.S. authorities in the identification of human remains...
undertook the procedure and confirmed Smiley's original report. The body of Richardson was well-preserved, but showed "massive fractures", showing that he, too, had died on impact.
Memorial
In 1988, Ken Paquette, a WisconsinWisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
bearing the names of each of the three performers. The monument is located on private farmland, about one quarter of a mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, five miles (8 km) north of Clear Lake. A large plasma-cut-steel set of Wayfarer-style glasses, similar to those which Holly was known for wearing, sits at the access point to the crash site. Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians located outside the Riverside Ballroom
Riverside Ballroom
The Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is a ballroom that hosts weddings and small concerts. In the past, it has also held boxing matches.- History :...
in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
, where Holly, the Big Bopper and Valens played on the night of February 1, 1959. This second memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003. In February 2009, a new memorial made by Paquette for pilot Roger Peterson was unveiled at the crash site. A road originating near The Surf Ballroom and extending north past the west of the crash site is now known as Buddy Holly Place.
See also
- John F. Kennedy, Jr. plane crash, also found by The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to be a result of spatial disorientation, among related additional factors
- 1977 Convair CV-300 crash, killing members of the rock band Lynyrd SkynyrdLynyrd SkynyrdLynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...
External links
- http://www.fiftiesweb.com/crash.htm
- Bakotopia Magazine's 50th Anniversary memorial article