The Day the Music Died

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Don McLean~ "American Pie" [The Day That The Music Died]

Don Mclean American Pie 1972 The Day the Music Died

The Day the Music Died

The Day the Music Died, dubbed by Don McLean's song "American Pie", was an aviation accident that occurred on February 3, 1959, near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson.

After terminating his partnership with The Crickets, Buddy Holly assembled a new band consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch to play on the Winter Dance Party tour.

The tour also featured rising artist Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper Richardson, who were promoting their records, as well.

The tour was to cover twenty-four Midwestern cities in three weeks. The distance between venues, and the poorly equipped buses, affected the performers and their bands.

Cases of flu spread among them and Holly's drummer was hospitalized due to frostbite.

Frustrated by the conditions, Holly decided to charter a plane when they stopped for their performance in the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Carroll Anderson, owner of the Surf Ballroom, chartered the plane from the Dwyer Flying Service.

Big Bopper Richardson, who was affected by the flu, swapped Waylon Jennings' place on the plane, while Tommy Allsup lost his place to Ritchie Valens on a coin toss.

Meanwhile Dion DiMucci decided to not board the plane for the US$36 fee.

The investigation of the incident determined that soon after takeoff, a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error caused spatial disorientation that made pilot Roger Peterson lose control of the plane.

Hubert Dwyer, owner of the flight service company, could not establish radio contact and reported the aircraft missing the next morning.

He took off in his own Cessna 180 and spotted the wreckage less than 6 miles (9.7 km) northwest of the airport in a cornfield belonging to Albert Juhl.

He notified the authorities who dispatched Deputy Bill McGill, who drove to the wreck site and found the bodies of the passengers and pilot.

They were later identified by Carroll Anderson.

The Day the Music Died
Accident summary
Monument at the crash site, September 16, 2003.
Date	Tuesday February 3, 1959
Type	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	near Clear Lake, Iowa, United States 43°13′12″N 93°23′0″W
Passengers	3
Crew	1
Fatalities	4 (all)
Aircraft type	Beechcraft Bonanza
Operator	Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa
Registration	N3794N
Flight origin	Mason City Municipal Airport

Background and beginning of the tour

Buddy Holly terminated his association with The Crickets and his manager Norman Petty during a reunion in Lubbock, Texas, on November 3, 1958.

For the start of the "The Winter Dance Party" tour, he assembled a band consisting of Waylon Jennings (bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drummer).

The tour was set to cover twenty-four Midwestern cities in as many days.^[1]^[2]

In addition the new hit artist Ritchie Valens,^[3], J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Dion DiMucci, joined the tour to promote their recordings and to make an extra profit.^[4]

The tour began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 23, 1959.

The amount of travel created a logistical problem with the tour.

The distance between venues had not been considered when scheduling each performance.

Adding to the disarray, the tour bus that carried the musicians was not equipped for the weather. Its heating system broke shortly after the tour began, in Appleton, Wisconsin.

While flu spread among the rest of the performers, Holly's drummer, Carl Bunch, was hospitalized in Ironwood, Michigan for severely frostbitten feet.

The musicians replaced the bus with a school bus and kept traveling.^[4]

As Holly's group had been the backing band for all of the acts, Holly, Valens, and Dion DiMucci (of Dion and the Belmonts) took turns playing drums for each other at the Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Clear Lake, Iowa, shows.^[5]

On February 2, the tour arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa, where they were to play at the Surf Ballroom.

The Surf Ballroom had not been a scheduled stop, but the tour promoters, hoping to fill an open date, called Surf Ballroom manager Carroll Anderson and offered him the show.

He accepted and they set the show for Monday, February 2. By the time Holly arrived at the venue that Monday evening, he was frustrated with the tour bus.

Holly decided to charter a plane to take him to the next stop in Moorhead, Minnesota, to avoid traveling in the bus, and to have enough time to do laundry.^[4]

The plane

Carroll Anderson called Hubert Dwyer, owner of the Dwyer Flying Service, a company of Mason City, Iowa, to charter the plane to get to Fargo, North Dakota.^[6]

Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, a 21-year-old local pilot.

The flying service charged a fee of $36 per passenger for the single-engined, 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza 35 (V-tail), (N3794N).

The Bonanza sat three passengers and the pilot.^[7]

Richardson had contracted flu during the tour and asked Waylon Jennings for his seat on the plane.

When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up."

Jennings responded, also in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes," a humor-driven but ill-considered response that haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.^[8]

Meanwhile, Ritchie Valens, who had once had a fear of flying, asked Tommy Allsup for his seat on the plane.

Allsup and Valens decided to toss a coin to decide.^[6]

Bob Hale, a DJ with KRIB-AM, was working the concert that night and flipped the coin in the ballroom's sidestage room shortly before the musicians departed for the airport.

Valens won the coin toss for the seat on the flight.

Dion had been approached to join the flight, although it is unclear exactly when he was asked.

Dion decided that since the $36 fare (approximately $270 in today's money) equaled the monthly rent his parents paid for his childhood apartment, he couldn't justify the indulgence.^[9]

Memorial

Signpost near the Clear Lake crash site

In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument that depicts a guitar and a set of three records that bear the names of each of the three performers.

The monument is on private farmland, about one quarter of a mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, five miles (8 km) north of Clear Lake.

A large plasma-cut-steel set of Wayfarer-style glasses, similar to those Holly wore, sits at the access point to the crash site.

Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians that is located outside the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Holly, the Big Bopper, and Valens played on the night of February 1, 1959.

This second memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.^[24]

In February 2009, a new memorial made by Paquette for pilot Roger Peterson was unveiled at the crash site.^[25]

A road originating near The Surf Ballroom and extending north past the west of the crash site is now known as Buddy Holly Place.^[26]

Picture taken during the investigation of the crash by the Civil Aeronautics Board

^{Source: Wikipedia.org}

^{Much more Info Located on Wikipedia on the Day that the Music Died}

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Ritchie Valens~ "We Belong Together" (Original Demo Tape)

Ritchie Valens (born Richard Steven Valenzuela; May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959) was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist.

A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted only eight months.^[1]

During this time, however, he scored several hits, most notably "La Bamba", which was originally a Mexican folk song, transformed by Valens with a rock rhythm and beat, that became a hit in 1958,^[2]^[3] making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement.

On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as "The Day the Music Died", Valens died in a small-plane crash in Iowa, a tragedy that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Background information
Ritchie Valens
Birth name	Richard Steven Valenzuela
Born	May 13, 1941
Origin	Pacoima, California, United States
Died	February 3, 1959 (aged 17) Grant Township, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States
Genres	rock and roll, chicano rock
Occupations	singer, songwriter and guitarist
Instruments	guitar, vocals
Years active	1957–1959
Labels	Del-Fi Records
Website	www.ritchievalens.com

Early life

Ritchie Valens was born in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, on May 13, 1941.^[4]

His parents were Joseph Steven Valenzuela and Concepcion Reyes. Brought up hearing traditional Mexican mariachi music, as well as flamenco guitar, R&B and jump blues, he expressed an interest in making music of his own by the age of 5.

He was encouraged by his father to take up guitar and trumpet, and later taught himself the drums.

One day, a neighbor came across Ritchie trying to play a guitar, that had only two strings.

He re-strung the instrument, and taught Ritchie the fingerings of some chords.

While Ritchie was left-handed, he was so eager to learn the guitar that he mastered the traditionally right-handed version of the instrument.^{[citation needed]}

Valens had attended Pacoima Junior High School (now Pacoima Middle School).^[5]

By the time he was attending junior high school, his proficiency on the guitar was such, that he brought the instrument to school and would sing and play songs to his friends on the bleachers.^{[citation needed]}

When he was sixteen years old, he was invited to join a local band named 'The Silhouettes' as a guitarist.

Later, the main vocalist left the group and Ritchie assumed this position as well.

In addition to the performances with The Silhouettes, he would play solo at parties and other social events.

Career

A completely self-taught musician, Valens was an accomplished singer and guitarist.

At his appearances, he often improvised new lyrics and added new riffs to popular songs while he was playing.

This is an aspect of his music that is not heard in his commercial studio recordings.

In May 1958, Bob Keane, the owner and President of Del-Fi Records, a small Hollywood record label, was given a tip by San Fernando High student Doug Macchia about a young performer from Pacoima by the name of Richard Valenzuela (Little Richard of the Valley).

Keane, swayed by the Little Richard connection, went to see Valenzuela play a Saturday morning matinée at a movie theater in San Fernando.

Impressed by the performance, he invited Ritchie to audition at his home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, where he had a small recording studio in his basement.

The recording equipment comprised an early stereo recorder (a two-track Ampex 601-2 portable), and a pair of Neumann U-47 condenser microphones. He also had a nephew named Magdalena Joya in Sacramento, California.

After this first audition, Keane decided to sign Ritchie to Del-Fi, and a contract was prepared and signed on May 27, 1958.

It was at this point that he took the name Ritchie, because, as Keane said, "There were a bunch of 'Richies' around at that time, and I wanted it to be different."

Similarly, it was Keane who decided to shorten his surname to Valens from Valenzuela, in order to broaden his appeal.

Several songs, that would later be re-recorded at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, were first demoed in Keane's studio.

The demos primarily consisted of Ritchie singing and playing guitar, but some of them also featured drums. These original demos can be heard on the Del-Fi album Ritchie Valens — The Lost Tapes'.'

As well as the aforementioned demos, two of the tracks laid down in Keane's studio were taken to Gold Star Studios and had additional instruments dubbed over to create full-band recordings.

"Donna" was one track (although there are two other preliminary versions of the song, both available on The Lost Tapes), and the other was an instrumental entitled "Ritchie's Blues."

After several songwriting and demo recording sessions with Keane in his basement studio, Keane decided that Ritchie was ready to enter the studio with a full band backing him.

Amongst the musicians were Rene Hall, Carol Kaye, and Earl Palmer.

The first songs recorded at Gold Star Studios, at a single studio session one afternoon in July 1958, were "Come On, Let's Go," an original (credited to Valens/Kuhn, Keane's real name), and "Framed," a Leiber and Stoller tune.

Pressed and released within days of the recording session taking place, the record was a success.

Valens' next record, a double A-side, which was the final record to be released in his lifetime, had the songs "Donna" (written about a real girlfriend), coupled with "La Bamba."

At this point, in the autumn of 1958, Valens quit high school to concentrate on his career.

Keane booked appearances at venues all across the United States and performances on television programs. Valens, however, had a fear of flying brought on by a freak accident at his Pacoima Junior High School, when two airplanes collided over the playground, killing or injuring several of his friends.^[6]

Valens was not at school that day as he was attending his grandfather's funeral.

He eventually succeeded in overcoming his fear enough to travel by airplane.

One of his first stops was Philadelphia to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand television show on October 6, where he sang "Come On, Let's Go."

In November Ritchie traveled to Hawaii and performed alongside Buddy Holly and Paul Anka.

Valens found himself a last-minute addition on the bill of legendary disc jockey Alan Freed's Christmas Jubilee in New York City, singing with some of those who had greatly influenced his music, including Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, the Everly Brothers, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran and Jackie Wilson.

December 27 saw a return to American Bandstand, this time for a performance of "Donna."

Upon his return to Los Angeles, Valens filmed an appearance in Alan Freed's movie Go Johnny Go! In the film he appears in a diner miming his song "Ooh! My Head" using a Gretsch 6120 guitar, the same model Eddie Cochran owned.

In between the live appearances Ritchie returned to Gold Star Studios several times, recording the tracks that would comprise his two albums.

In early 1959, Valens was traveling the Midwest on a multi-act rock-and-roll tour dubbed "The Winter Dance Party."

Accompanying him were Buddy Holly with a new back-up band including Tommy Allsup on guitar, Waylon Jennings on bass and Carl Bunch on drums. Dion and the Belmonts, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Frankie Sardo.

None of the other performers had backing bands so Buddy's backup band filled in for all the shows.

Conditions for the performers on the tour buses were abysmal and the bitterly cold Midwest weather took its toll on the party.

Carl Bunch had to be hospitalized with severely frostbitten feet and several others, including Valens and the Big Bopper, caught colds.

The show was split into two acts with Ritchie closing the first act.

After Bunch was hospitalized, a member of the Belmonts, who had some drum experience (Carlo Mastrangelo), took over the drumming duties.

When Dion and the Belmonts were performing the drum seat was taken by either Valens or Buddy Holly.

There is a surviving color photograph of Ritchie at the drum kit.

Death

Main article: The Day the Music Died

After the February 2, 1959, performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly, Richardson and Valens flew out of the Mason City airport in a small plane that Holly had chartered. Valens was on the plane because he had won a coin toss.

The plane, a three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza, departed for Fargo, North Dakota, and crashed shortly after takeoff in a snow storm.

The crash killed all three passengers and the pilot. At 17, Valens was the youngest to die on the flight.

The event, along with Buddy Holly's death, inspired singer Don McLean's popular 1971 ballad "American Pie," and immortalized February 3 as "The Day the Music Died."

Ritchie Valens is interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

Tributes

In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless-steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers.

It is located on private farmland, about one quarter mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, approximately eight miles north of Clear Lake.

He also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

That memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.^[8]

A park in Pacoima was renamed in Ritchie Valens' honor.^[9]

"Boogie With Stu" from Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album was inspired by Valens' song "Oooh, My Head."

It did not credit Ritchie Valens or Bob Keane. Eventually, a lawsuit was filed by Bob Keane and half of the award went to Valens' mother, although she was not part of the suit.^[10]

Monument at Crash Site, September 16, 2003.

^{Source: Wikipedia.org}

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Gene Chandler~ "Duke of Earl"

Gene Chandler (born Eugene Dixon, July 6, 1937)^[1] also known as "The Duke of Earl" or simply "The Duke", is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, producer and record executive.

He is one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene.^[1]

He is best known for his million-selling hits, "Duke Of Earl," and "Groovy Situation," and his associations with the Dukays, the Impressions and Curtis Mayfield.

A Grammy Hall Of Fame inductee, and winner of the National Association of Television and Radio Announcers Producer of the Year Award, and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award, and one of the few artists to chart hit records during the doo-wop, rhythm and blues, soul, and disco eras.

Between 1961 and 1986 Chandler has had forty Pop and R&B chart hits.

"Duke of Earl"

Single by Gene Chandler
B-side	Kissin' In The Kitchen^[1]
Released	January 13, 1962
Format	7" vinyl
Recorded	1961^[2]
Genre	Soul, doo-wop
Length	2:23
Label	Vee-Jay Records
Writer(s)	Gene Chandler, Earl Edwards, Bernice Williams

Gene Chandler
Birth name	Eugene Dixon
Born	July 6, 1937 (age 75) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	R&B, soul
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, record producer, record company executive
Years active	1957–present
Website	www.genechandler.com

Early years

Chandler attended Englewood High School on Chicago's south side.

He began performing in the early 1950s with the Gay-tones.

In 1957, he joined a doo-wop group, The Dukays, with James Lowe, Shirley Jones, Earl Edwards and Ben Broyles, soon becoming their lead singer.

After his draft into the US Army he returned to Chicago in 1960 and rejoined the Dukays.

Career

The Dukays were offered a recording contract by Nat Records and recorded a single with producers Carl Davis and Bill "Bunky" Sheppard, "The Girl Is a Devil" (1961).

This recording was followed with a session in August 1961 with four sides, most notably "Nite Owl" and "Duke of Earl."

Nat Records chose to release "Nite Owl," and it became a sizable r&b hit at the end of 1961.

Meanwhile, Davis and Sheppard shopped the "Duke of Earl" recording to Vee-Jay Records, which picked it but released it as by a solo artist, Eugene Dixon, who was renamed "Gene Chandler."

"Duke of Earl" sold a million copies in just over one month.^[2]

After spending three weeks at number one on the Billboard Magazine charts, Chandler purchased a cape, a monocle, a top hat and a cane and became "The Duke of Earl".

Chandler can be seen in the full 'Duke' outfit singing "The Duke of Earl" in the movie Don't Knock the Twist 1962, starring Chubby Checker.

His concerts became popular and he performed encores, usually "Rainbow '65," one of his collaborations with Curtis Mayfield.

This song was recorded by Chandler three times during his career, becoming a hit each time.

Chandler left Vee Jay in the fall of 1963 and recorded for Constellation Records.

After Constellation went under in 1966, he was signed first to Chess Records and then Brunswick Records.

For a time Chess and Brunswick alternated with each other when releasing Chandler's recordings.

He had a Top 20 Pop hits on Constellation with "Just Be True" (1964) and "Nothing Can Stop Me" (1965), both songs written by Curtis Mayfield and produced by Carl Davis.

Other hits included "What Now", "Rainbow", "I Fooled You This Time", "Think Nothing About It"', "A Man's Temptation", "To Be A Lover", "Rainbow '65" (recorded live at Chicago's Regal Theater), "Bless Our Love", and "You Can't Hurt Me No More."

These songs enabled Gene to successfully shed his "Duke Of Earl" typecasting, and go on to become a major R&B star.^[3]

Chandler also had success with his hit cover of James Brown's "There Was A Time" and "You Threw A Lucky Punch", which was released as an "answer" song to Mary Wells's Motown hit "You Beat Me To The Punch".

In 1970, Chandler recorded the album Gene and Jerry: One on One, with Jerry Butler.

After a number of years on the road, Chandler decided to become more involved with production of music.

He produced, wrote, and had a major hit with "Groovy Situation", arranged by Richard Evans (of "Soulful Strings" fame), Mercury Records (1970), which reached #12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #8 on the Billboard R&B chart, becoming his second biggest hit since "Duke Of Earl".

"Groovy Situation" sold more than a million copies, and received a gold disc awarded by the R.I.A.A. in November 1970.^[4]

The hits he recorded and produced earned him The National Association of Television and Radio Announcers Producer of the Year Award in 1970, against competition from other nominees including Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Norman Whitfield.^[5]

He also appeared with The Impressions and Curtis Mayfield on the live album Curtis in Chicago (1973).

Chandler appeared on Arthur Louis's album Knocking on Heaven's Door (1974) alongside Eric Clapton.

Later he had success with disco music, creating hits such as "Get Down" (1978), "When You're #1", "Does She Have A Friend?" and "Rainbow '80".^[1]

During this time he was also the Executive Vice President of Chi Sound Records and worked with reggae star Johnny Nash. In the late 1970s, an interest in older musicians inspired the US DJ Wolfman Jack to put together a tour including vintage acts such as Chandler.

"Duke of Earl" was sampled by Cypress Hill, on the song "Hand on the Pump" from their album Cypress Hill (1991); plus Chandler's song "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" was sampled on their album Black Sunday (1993).

In Argentina, where Cris Morena was the host of a popular teenage programe Jugate Conmigo, the song was included on the main intro on the fiction novel, inside the program called: "Life College" (1994).

In 1997, Chandler was inducted as a Pioneer Award honoree into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

Chandler's "Tomorrow I May Not Feel the Same" was sampled by Reflection Eternal on the song "Ghetto Afterlife" from Train of Thought (2000).

In 1988, "Duke of Earl" was included on the soundtrack of Hairspray. "Groovy Situation" appeared on Anchorman: Music from the Motion Picture (2004).

In 2002, "Duke Of Earl" was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame.^[6] Groovemaster K. and 88-Keys sampled Chandler's "When You're #1" for their song "Frisco Disco".^[7]

His smash # 1 hit "Duke Of Earl" has also been selected by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll . ^[8] ^[9]

Chandler still performs in Chicago, Las Vegas and elsewhere in the US.

Source: Wikipedia.org

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