Buddy Holly, Ricthie Valens and J. P. Richardson Died Today.

Rock idols die in plane crash 50 years ago this morning
Les Knutson Worthington Daily Globe
Published Tuesday, February 03, 2009

MASON CITY, Iowa — Fifty years ago, the calendar was exactly the same as this year.

The legendary Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa was jam-packed on Monday evening, Feb. 2, 1959 to hear three rock'n roll stars — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, known as the "Big Bopper" — perform in concert as part of the famous Midwest Winter Dance Tour.

Holly, 22, was the most famous of the three. The Lubbock, Texas native had hit the charts big in '57 and '58 with "That'll Be The Day," "Peggy Sue," "Oh, Boy," "Maybe Baby" and "Rave On."

Valens, 17, was from Los Angeles and was just rising to fame with his recently released hits "LaBamba" and "Donna" — which legend says he sang to his girlfriend over the telephone. "Donna" would get as high as No. 2 in the country later in 1959.

The "Big Bopper" was the oldest of the trio at 28. His most famous song was "Chantilly Lace," which was on the charts for 22 weeks, beginning Aug. 4, 1958.

While "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by the Platters was the top song in the nation the night of the concert, Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" was climbing Billboard.

It must have been quite a show that night in Clear Lake, and now — every year there is a memorable concert at the Surf the first weekend in February.

For on that "ground hog" day evening 50 years ago, those three rock idols sang for the last time. Scheduled to play in Moorhead the next night, the trio opted not to take the long bus ride northwest, but chose to fly instead.

But shortly after take-off from the Mason City airport, the small plane crashed in the early morning hours of Feb. 3rd — the day "the music died" Don McLean would sing later in his 1972 classic "American Pie."

Here is something else that happened later that same day.

While the nation was hearing the tragic news of the small crash in northern Iowa, a big crash happened in New York City's East River.

"Airliner Plunges into Icy NY River, 65 Perish" ran the banner headline in the Wednesday, Feb. 4, 1959 issue of the Daily Globe.

Unlike, the recent (Jan. 15) plane which went down on Manhattan's west side — in the Hudson River — with all 155 aboard surviving, this "glistening new turboprop American Airlines plane with 73 persons aboard plunged into the chilling, fog-covered waters of the East River with a shattering crash late Tuesday night. Sixty-five apparently perished despite rescue efforts by harbor craft."

A day earlier — Tuesday, Feb. 3 — a front page headline had read:

"3 Rock 'n' Roll Idols Killed in Plane Crash"

"Find Wreckage on Iowa Farm" was the sub headline.

With the temperature at 18 degrees and blowing snow being driven by a 35 mph southerly wind, the Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in a field 15 miles northwest of Mason City shortly after 1:00 a.m., killing the pilot and all three passengers.

It is hard to imagine both those crashes happening less than 24 hours apart, and how could it have been 50 years ago already?