On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later became known as "The Day the Music Died" after singer-songwriter Don McLean referred to it as such in his 1971 song "American Pie".
At the time, Holly and his band, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, were playing on the "Winter Dance Party" tour across the American Midwest. Rising artists Valens, Richardson, Frankie Sardo and vocal group Dion and the Belmonts had joined the tour as well. The long journeys between venues in poorly heated tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of flu and even frostbite.
After performing in Clear Lake, and frustrated by the conditions on the tour buses, Holly chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, suffering from the flu, swapped places with Jennings, taking his seat on the plane, while Allsup lost his seat to Valens on a coin toss. Shortly after takeoff, late at night and in poor, wintry weather conditions, the pilot lost control of the light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which crashed into a field, killing all four on board.
The event has since been mentioned or referenced in various media. Various monuments have been erected at the crash site and in Clear Lake, where an annual memorial concert is held at the Surf Ballroom, the venue that hosted the artists' last performances.
Background
Early in 1957, Buddy Holly was dropped by Decca Records after his singles sold poorly. He then moved back to Lubbock, Texas, and started a new band with drummer Jerry Allison and guitarist Niki Sullivan. Holly and his new band, The Crickets, started recording with producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico. Petty signed the group to Coral Records, Holly as a soloist and The Crickets as a band. By the end of 1957, the group was enjoying success: Holly's solo release "Peggy Sue" sold one million copies by December, while the same month the band made their first televised appearance on The Arthur Murray Party. Holly and the Crickets started 1958 with a tour through the northeastern United States in January, followed by an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and a week-long tour of Australia. The band then toured England for 15 days in March.
By that summer after the end of his latest tour, Holly married María Elena Santiago. Following their honeymoon, they settled in New York City. Holly would then return to Clovis for his recordings, and in September 1958 he produced a single for KLLL DJ Waylon Jennings. As he toured, Holly's interests expanded to the business side of his career: he considered that moving full-time to New York City would bring him closer to his label, his publisher, and the major tour booking agencies. Meanwhile, the singer grew unhappy with the management of Petty, who opposed Holly and the Crickets appearing on Hollywood magazine promotions and the popular rock-and-roll movies of the time. Additionally, Petty controlled the finances of Holly and the Crickets and all of their expenditures were paid by him upon approval. María Elena Holly later stated: "any money you got had to go through Norman".
After their performance with Holly on American Bandstand, The Crickets flew on their own to New Mexico to finish their business dealings with Petty. The band members were not fully convinced to move to New York City, and Petty persuaded them to keep him as their manager. As the band communicated their decision to Holly, the singer let them retain the name and he continued as a soloist. Holly desired to stop touring, but while he was easily released from his management contract, he had to hire attorney Harold Orenstein to dispute the control of his royalties with an unresponsive Petty, who had full access to the funds.
While the contest with Petty paralyzed Holly's plan to build his own studio in Lubbock to produce new artists, he took classes at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and he worked on his physique and personal image to shift the focus of his career. In need of money, Holly turned to promoter Irving Feld, who convinced him to join on a package tour of the ballrooms of the Upper Midwest organized by the General Amusement Corporation. Holly then assembled a band consisting of Jennings (bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar) and Carl Bunch (drums), with the opening vocals of Frankie Sardo. Despite the agreement with his former band, the tour's publicity agency often billed Holly's new backup band as the Crickets.
Headlining the tour with Holly was J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, whose single "Chantilly Lace" peaked at number 3 on November 3, 1958. The success of the song led Richardson to quit his job as a DJ for KTRM in Beaumont, Texas, to dedicate himself to performing and touring full-time. Richardson had appeared twice on The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show.
The Winter Dance Party also included Ritchie Valens, who had a double hit with his single "Donna" and its flipside, "La Bamba", which reached number 2 and number 22 on the Billboard Hot Singles chart, respectively. Valens had recently appeared on American Bandstand and NBC's The Music Shop to perform "Donna" and "La Bamba", and had filmed a small part in the rock-and-roll movie Go, Johnny, Go!.
The fourth act billed in the package show was Dion and the Belmonts: The band had originally been on tour with Holly for three weeks in late 1958 on the Biggest Show of Stars, during which they befriended the singer. That year, they appeared in American Bandstand singing "I Wonder Why", and they later were signed to appear on the Winter Dance Party.
The tour
The tour was set to cover twenty-four Midwestern cities in as many days, and it was originally planned with no nights off. Analyzing the schedule, Holly became frustrated by what he considered to be poor organization: he discovered that the arrangement of the dates and the location of the venues was poorly coordinated, and that it required the bands to zig-zag throughout the region. Holly called the General Amusement Corporation to try to call off the contract, but the company refused and a financially troubled Holly saw himself forced to comply, having received an advance of US$2,500 (equivalent to $28,000 in 2025).
At the time, the Midwest region was going through the coldest winter in 30 years. The General Artists Corporation leased the buses for the tour from a company in Chicago that offered a low bid, with units that would often stall and leave the traveling party far away from gas stations. Additionally, the heating systems were seldom functional. Holly, Valens and the rest of the musicians would often sing to lift up the spirits of the crew under the bad conditions. The passengers often slept in the baggage racks or stretched out across two seats. As the Interstate Highway System was still under construction, the distances were at the time longer and the two-lane country roads harder to travel.
The musicians traveled by train from Chicago to Milwaukee, where the tour started at the Million Dollar Ballroom on January 23. The previous day, the city had experienced its heaviest snowfall in 12 years, 13 inches (33 cm). Despite the cold weather, the audience showed up in good numbers. The musicians found the stage conditions to be consistently under-delivered throughout the tour, such as poorly lit stages and dated sound systems. On January 24, they played the Eagles Club in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Holly was receiving US$500 (equivalent to $6,000 in 2025) each night. Upon seeing the amount of cash that Holly was carrying, Allsup gave him a .22 caliber revolver for protection, which the singer kept loaded in the bottom of his toilet kit. Holly phoned his wife twice a day, and he often had Valens hold the phone for her to listen to his on-stage performance of "True Love Ways". In the early hours of January 25, they drove 350 miles (560 km) to their next engagement in Mankato, Minnesota. Following their route to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the troupe had a meal consisting of sardines, chips, pretzels, and cheese they bought from vending machines.
Shortly before the Eau Claire concert on January 26, the temperatures dropped to −25 °F (−32 °C). Drummer Carl Bunch realized he lost one of the two costumes he had, leaving the band forced to wear only one for the remainder of the tour. For the next show in January 27, they had to travel 250 miles (400 km) to Montevideo, Minnesota. The tour bus was left behind for repairs while the Winter Dance Party personnel were driven to the next date in St. Paul, Minnesota on a unit of the Montevideo Charter Bus Company, where their original bus would move them to the next venue. As the temperatures continued to drop, the musicians played St. Paul on January 28, and then continued to Davenport, Iowa. A cold front moved toward the state of Iowa at the time: winds started blowing, while the rain turned to snow and the conditions lead to several traffic accidents on the road and the closure of the local airport. The musicians had to huddle close together during the 200-mile ride, as the heating failed and they drank spirits to keep themselves warm. Snowfall of 4 inches (10 cm) was expected for the next date in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
The bus traveled the ice-covered roads at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h). As they reached Tipton, Iowa, all of the nine heaters the unit was equipped with had frozen. The crew stopped for fuel and repairs, and during a meal at a local diner, Holly started to propose the idea of chartering a plane to make the next few dates. The chartering of planes was discouraged by the General Artists Corporation, considering it too dangerous. Initially, Holly wanted to charter the aircraft for himself and his band, but Allsup could not afford it. Bunch was losing coordination in his feet, as they became further swollen from the onset of frostbite.
The musicians were dirty, hungry, and tired. Holly changed his own suit for the performance in Fort Dodge, while his musicians played with the same suits they had since the beginning. In Fort Dodge, Holly spoke to local DJ Bill McCollough, who initially offered to fly him and his band to the next venue. The DJ phoned his flight instructor, Larry Geer, but the veteran of 22 years told him that the darkness in the region, plus the sub-zero temperatures and changing weather, made it too risky. Holly continued on the bus. The troupe then traveled 350 miles (560 km) to Duluth, Minnesota.
The bus again broke down in Duluth and Holly re-floated the idea of chartering a plane, but a replacement bus arrived on time to continue 330 miles (530 km) to Appleton, Wisconsin. In the early hours of February 1, the bus broke down close to Pine Lake, Wisconsin on U.S. Route 51, without functioning heating amid temperatures as low as −40 °F (−40 °C). According to a local mechanic, a piston went through the engine block of the bus. The performers tried to flag down cars while burning newspaper in the bus aisles for warmth. A passing truck driver alerted the sheriff's office and the musicians were rescued two hours later. Bunch was rushed to the local Grand View Hospital, where he was admitted after being diagnosed with frostbite in both feet. The show in Appleton was canceled, and the musicians moved on to their next date at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, taking a Chicago and North Western Railway train from Hurley. Previous to their appearance, Richardson bought a sleeping bag as he was beginning to suffer from the flu. Due to the reduced personnel, Carlo Mastrangelo of the Belmonts had to play drums for Holly, while Valens was playing the drums for Richardson and Holly drummed for Dion and the Belmonts.
While in either Duluth or Green Bay, Valens phoned his manager Bob Keane, who was in California, and informed him of the precarious conditions of the tour. Keane suggested that Valens leave that night, but Valens continued with the troupe. After the show, their planned day off on February 2 was canceled after the agency arranged a last-minute appearance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, 350 miles (560 km) away from Green Bay. The bus that previously broke down was repaired with a replacement engine. They continued the trip, but the unit malfunctioned multiple times again until it was abandoned in the highway and replaced by a rented school bus that featured a functioning heating system. As they arrived in Clear Lake, Holly decided to charter a plane to make the trip to Fargo, North Dakota, as the city had the nearest airport to their next stop in Moorhead, Minnesota. Holly called his wife from the lobby of the ballroom and told her of the broken promises of the promoters, and that he desired to take the flight to have some time to rest and do laundry and cleaning. From the start of the tour, the musicians had changed buses seven different times.