The Tragic Explanation Of The Day The Music Died

On Feb. 3, 1959, a chartered plane left Clear Lake, Iowa, and headed for the nearby Moorhead, Minn. The pilot was 21-year-old Roger Peterson, and according to Biography, he had no idea there was a severe weather warning in place when he took off with his passengers.

On Feb. 3, 1959, a chartered plane left Clear Lake, Iowa, and headed for the nearby Moorhead, Minn. The pilot was 21-year-old Roger Peterson, and according to Biography, he had no idea there was a severe weather warning in place when he took off with his passengers.

Buddy Holly was just 22 years old at the time, but he'd been performing since he was 16. He was a regular on his local radio station when he was in high school, and things seriously took off when, in 1955, he opened for Elvis. Just two years later, he and his band — Buddy Holly and The Crickets — scored a hit with "That'll Be The Day." Over the next year, they had a whopping seven Top 40 singles, and the world, as they say, was his oyster.

Ritchie Valens (left) was just 17 years old, but he was already known as rock's first Latino headliner. He'd hit it big with "La Bamba," "Donna," and "Come On, Let's Go," which is even more impressive considering he'd only joined his first band just a year before. 

And then there was J.P. Richardson (right), a Texas native like Holly. He, says Bullock Museum, got his start — and moniker — as a DJ in Beaumont, Texas. A songwriter and performer, he had his own hit with "Chantilly Lace" and — having written several other number one hits of 1959 — ended up on the fateful tour.

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