A freezing, broken-down tour bus led Buddy Holly to charter his final flight
In the winter of 1959 Buddy Holly's package tour zigzagged across the Midwest in buses whose heaters kept failing, during the coldest winter in 30 years. His drummer ended up in hospital with frostbite. Fed up, Holly chartered a small plane, and on February 3 it crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa.
Holly needed money. He had split from the Crickets and was fighting his former producer Norman Petty for control of his royalties, so he signed on to the Winter Dance Party, twenty-four Midwestern cities in as many days, with an advance of 2,500 dollars. Alongside him were J. P. Richardson, the Big Bopper, riding high on Chantilly Lace; Ritchie Valens, whose Donna and La Bamba were both hits; and Dion and the Belmonts. His backing band included a young Waylon Jennings on bass.
Holly quickly saw that the route made no sense, forcing long back-and-forth drives on two-lane roads before the interstates were finished. The cheaply leased buses stalled far from gas stations. Musicians slept in baggage racks, ate vending-machine sardines and pretzels, and sang to keep spirits up. On February 1 a bus died near Pine Lake, Wisconsin, in temperatures as low as minus 40; the performers burned newspapers in the aisle until a passing trucker raised the alarm. Drummer Carl Bunch was hospitalised with frostbite in both feet, and the remaining stars took turns drumming for one another.
After the show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Holly booked a Beechcraft Bonanza to reach Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, sick with flu, took Jennings's seat, and guitarist Tommy Allsup lost his place to Valens on a coin toss. Soon after takeoff, late at night in wintry weather, pilot Roger Peterson lost control and the plane came down in a field, killing all four aboard.
The loss got its enduring name in 1971, when Don McLean called it the day the music died in American Pie. Monuments now stand at the crash site, and the Surf Ballroom, where the three played their last show, hosts a memorial concert every year.
Source: The Day the Music Died
