On 3rd February, 1959, 22 year-old Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, aged 17, died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa.
The pilot of the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza plane was also killed in the crash. Holly hired the plane after heating problems developed on his tour bus. All three were travelling to Fargo, North Dakota, for the next show on their Winter Dance Party Tour which Holly had set – covering 24 cities in three weeks. Buddy needed to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, in the previous year.
The date became etched in the minds of all Rock & Roll fans as the day when their first musical hero died and, as Don McLean later wrote, “the day the music died”.
We will never forget Buddy and we have a dedicated station where you’ll hear all his music.
EXCLUSIVELY BUDDY HOLLY LISTEN LIVE
