Yesterday was the 54th anniversary of the plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, The Big Booper and Richie Valens. Here is the entire story at Wikipedia. The name of the link is, of course, is from the Don McLean song American Pie, which references the tragedy.

Above is Holly (Charles Hardin Holley) performing Peggy Sue on Arthur Murray’s Dance Party in late 1957. The Big Bopper — Jiles Perry “J. P.” Richardson, Jr. — performs Chantilly Lace on The Dick Clark Show in 1958. I couldn’t find any video of Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela), but here is La Bamba which, of course, was the signature song of a career ended far too early. The Des Moines Register offered some thoughts on the influence of the three in 2009.

by