Died on this date:

The Music

According to the song "American Pie"
By Don McLean

Buddy Holly

Sept. 7, 1936-Feb. 3, 1959

(Age 22)

Ritchie Valens

May 13, 1941-Feb. 3, 1959

(Age 17)

The Big Bopper

Oct. 24, 1930-Feb. 3, 1959

(Age 28)

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were the first rock star deaths when Rock was still an infant.  


"Chantilly Lace" and "La Bamba" (The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens's hits respectively) are early Rock and Roll classics.  Would The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens  have become more than one hit wonders?  We'll never know.  Buddy Holly, on the other hand, is universally acknowledged as a rock pioneer.  Cited as an influence by The Beatles and pretty much every other rock great of the sixties (Elvis Costello even stole his glasses, for god's sake), Buddy Holly's songs "Not Fade Away", "Words of Love", "That'll Be the Day" and others comprise a pretty amazing catalog for someone so young.  


All died in what would become a rock star death only surpassed by drug overdoses.  A small plane crash leaving a show in Clear Lake, Iowa.