The Day The Music Died

Hollymonument
February 3, 1959 . . .

The day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash.

Later immortalized in the Don Maclean song American Pie.

Ritchie Valens only ended up on it because of a coin toss.

Waylon Jennings almost ended up on the plane, too.

GET THE SAD, SAD STORY.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

19 thoughts on “The Day The Music Died”

  1. The Day the Music Died…

    Jimmy Akin reminded me that today is a very sad day. From his blog: The day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash. Later immortalized in th e Don Maclean song

  2. I think it was the singer Dion DiMucci who also was almost on the flight. He said that what saved him was that he was still so new to fame and fortune that he couldn’t justify spending a month’s rent just to get to the next gig quicker than it would take by bus. In Dion’s case, he ended up coming home to Catholicism many years later and had his story published in Envoy, found online here.

  3. Interesting that today is the Feast of St Blaise, patron of throats & throat maladies. Singers often pray for his intercession. I have in the past.
    And I’ll hafta dig out my Buddy Holly’s Greatest Hits collection & put it on my iPod tonight. True Love Ways can practically make me cry, it’s so pretty. And, Jimmy, as you must know . . . he’s a Texan!

  4. Do I remember Buddy Holly – I was a rabid fan back then – a callow youth of 17 years. Used to hyperventilate when his music came on the radio, or better still, a cobber worked in a record store and collected all his 45 singles. I literally wept when I heard of his death, along with Valens and The Big Bopper.
    “Chantilly Lace” by JPR was the number I used to immitate, and really impressed one of the lovely young women of that day that I was able to regularly date because of my masterful impression.
    Richie Valens and “La Bamba” was the huge hit of the day, along with “Oh Donna” and others.
    But Buddy Holly – “Rave On”, “Peggy Sue” – its endless. And the same as Moochie, have a 2 disc CD set of his greatest hits that I still put on at times. He was a trend setter of the day – in those days I used to wear glasses, and insisted on the same frames as Buddy Holly’s.
    Oh how we all miss our disappeared youth – probably for the better to enable us to teach our children, and now in my case, grandchildren, how to keep things in perspective.

  6. Okay, I was too young to remember Buddy Holly when he was still alive, but I remember very well playing Don Maclean’s “The Day the Music Died” on my little 45 rpm record player over and over when I was in the sixth grade. I didn’t understand all the lyrics, but I could tell it was something more significant than the usual pop music fodder.
    The music of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper (barely in his twenties) represented a more innocent time. Trite, but true.

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