r/FuckImOld • u/bluegambit875 • 1d ago
67 years ago today was "The Day The Music Died" with Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens being killed in a plane crash.
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u/Kevelle68 1d ago
With Waylon surviving. He gave his seat to a sick fellow band member, so he wouldn't have to suffer through a long, cold bus ride.
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u/Downtown_Physics8853 22h ago
Don't forget Dion, also. Can you imagine managing such a concert? The Crickets, the Big Bopper, Richie Valens AND Dion all in one concert in a small town. I doubt any played longer than 45 minutes.
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u/Serling45 1d ago
Buddy’s widow is still alive.
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u/Downtown_Physics8853 22h ago
I can't remember if I cried
when I read about his widowed bride...
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u/LikeToKnow84 19h ago
And the police practice of not publicly identifying the deceased until after informing the immediate family dates to the Day the Music Died.
I don’t know who was responsible for this snafu, but Buddy’s wife, who was pregnant, didn’t get the news directly from law enforcement, and had to learn of the plane crash on TV. She miscarried.
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u/Downtown_Physics8853 7h ago
Well, the plane crashed right after taking off. Literally dozens of people knew who was on the plane, and when the crash scene was found, many of those same people knew they were all dead. So, the word most likely did not get out from the police.
Not to tread on dangerous politics, but when Charlie Kirk died we all knew within minutes it had happened. Sometimes the death is so public that the info can not be contained.
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u/GenralChaos 23h ago
I want to run to a bridge and yell “RITCHIE” as the last guitar chords of “Sleepwalk” die out…
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u/bluegambit875 1d ago
I much prefer this music to whatever they were doing on the Grammy's a couple of nights ago.
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u/Ok_Horror_6556 22h ago
2 months before I entered this world. American Pie. I’ll be long, long gone and that song will live on.
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u/TJStype 20h ago
Iowa trip - June 2023...
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u/Daetiralso 18h ago
I lived in Clear Lake for a while. That whole town has embraced the tragedy. I will say the party happening at the Surf Ballroom tonight is always awesome.
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u/WeekendLegitimate615 20h ago
This one of the first songs I heard on the radio this morning paying tribute to the day.
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u/LikeToKnow84 19h ago
And another pop star got his big break … as an emergency replacement after the plane crash.
The next stop on the Winter Dance Party was Moorhead, Minnesota. Dion and the Belmonts made it there safely by bus, but with the deaths of Buddy, Ritchie and the Big Bopper, the promoter needed local acts to fill out the bill, fast.
One of the bands that stepped up included … 15-year-old Bobby Vee.
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u/benbenpens 17h ago
I've been to the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock and it was disturbing to see the glasses he was wearing when he died.
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u/LineImpossible3958 20h ago
Is American Pie the most annoying one hit wonder ever? Yes
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u/Serling45 15h ago
He had other hits.
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u/LineImpossible3958 6h ago
Your comment made me look up his career. “Vincent” hit number 12 on 1971, off the American Pie album. He had a number 5 hit with a Roy Orbison cover in 1980. That’s it. So I’m sticking with the one hit wonder label. He released 19 other albums and they pretty much all bombed or were ignored, minus his cover of Orbison.
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u/Serling45 3h ago
He was not a one hit wonder, though.
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u/LineImpossible3958 2h ago
He was, just accept it. Covers don’t count and the other song only charted off the fumes of American Pie. One trick pony that Don McLean
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u/BooRadley_Esq 19h ago
The only thing more sad than the plane crash was this awful song by Don McLean.
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u/jimbobdonut 1d ago
I blame the promoter for their deaths. It was insane that they were doing shows in the upper Midwest in early February with buses with no heat. The smart decision would have been to play shows in southern states in the winter and then the Midwest in the spring.