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From the Archives
The Day the Music Died
Fifty years ago today, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in the fields of Iowa. Yes, I’m way too young to claim being alive at the time (my mom was only four when it happened!), but I’ve been a Buddy Holly fan since I was eleven. Picture it: hot, muggy Michigan summer, weeks spent in a smelly 1969 Winnebago, and a pre-teen girl with nothing but time on her hands and her parents’ collection of cassette tapes to keep her company. Ritchie Valens was a master of the guitar, and the Big Bopper’s “Well, Hello Baby!” never fails to make me smile, but it was Buddy that won my eleven-year-old heart. “That’ll Be the Day” is still one of the few songs that I absolutely must sing, at the top of my lungs, if possible.
Even today, I find that when I’m feeling stressed or annoyed, I can pull Buddy Holly up on the ol’ iPod, blast the volume as high as it goes, and end up feeling pretty good after a song or two.
I’ve seen a bunch of clips (there are several on You Tube) and I’ve read at least one Holly biography, and what never ceases to amaze me is how incendiary his music was. People honestly hated this guy. These songs seem so tame now. He was a pioneer, and his legacy lives on, without a doubt.
To honor the Texan in the horn-rimmed glasses, enjoy this clip from when Buddy Holly and the Crickets played the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1958.
Despite the way everyone refers to this day (“the day the music died” from Don McLean’s “American Pie”) the fact of the matter is that the three artists who left us that day have never stopped inspiring other musicians. The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and even Nirvana have all paid homage to Buddy Holly in their own ways. Nothing great ever dies. It lives on in those who were changed by it.
More Holly goodness: There’s a fantastic diary up at DailyKos right now about all three artists, but especially about Holly—check out the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, and Linda Ronstandt covering Holly songs—plenty of YouTube goodness if you’re into that kind of thing 
3 comments
3 comments to “The Day the Music Died”
Nancy Bond, February 3rd, 2009 at 8:12 am:
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The music died, for me, the day Lennon was shot. But Buddy Holly was certainly popular, and his death, no less tragic.
Annie in Austin, February 4th, 2009 at 9:21 pm:
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It’s sweetly sad to think of you listening to those old records, Colleen – turning into a Buddy Holly fan so many years after he sang them.
Apparently I’m way past “old enough to be your mother”! I was already in grammar school when the plane went down and have vague memories of the event and my mom trying to explain who Buddy Holly was – didn’t appreciate him at the time.
Is “Peggy Sue Got Married”, named after a Buddy Holly song, a movie that you like? It’s an old favorite of mine.Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Colleen Vanderlinden, February 6th, 2009 at 6:53 am:
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Nancy—for many of the people my age (myself included) it was the day we found out Kurt Cobain had killed himself. I still remember my friends walking around in absolute shock.
Annie–I do like the movie “Peggy Sue Got Married”–I hadn’t seen it before, but my MIL was watching it a couple weeks ago when we went to visit and I ended up watching with her. I am very thankful for those old cassette tapes—that would have been a very, very long vacation without them!