"the day the music died."

[Mugwump]

Where were you that day???....


Dance Party Tour. However, Richardson, who had the flu, convinced Holly's band member Waylon Jennings to give up his seat, and Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for another seat on the plane.

Holly, born Charles Holley in Lubbock, Texas, and just 22 when he died, began singing country music with high school friends before switching to rock and roll after opening for various performers, including Elvis Presley. By the mid-1950s, Holly and his band had a regular radio show and toured internationally, playing hits like "Peggy Sue," "Oh, Boy!," "Maybe Baby" and "Early in the Morning." Holly wrote all his own songs, many of which were released after his death and influenced such artists as Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney.

Another crash victim, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28, started out as a disk jockey in Texas and later began writing songs. Richardson's most famous recording was the rockabilly "Chantilly Lace," which made the Top 10. He developed a stage show based on his radio persona, "The Big Bopper."

The third crash victim was Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenzuela in a suburb of Los  Angeles, who was only 17 when the plane went down but had already scored hits with "Come On, Let's Go," "Donna" and "La Bamba," an upbeat number based on a traditional Mexican wedding song (though Valens barely spoke Spanish). In 1987, Valens' life was portrayed in the movie La Bamba, and the title song, performed by Los Lobos, became a No. 1 hit. Valens was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Singer Don McLean memorialized Holly, Valens and Richardson in the 1972 No. 1 hit "American Pie," which refers to February 3, 1959 as"the  day the music died."

[wsantia1]

Wow!  I was only 4.5 years old.  I guess I was at the baby sitter while my parents were working.

[PaulineMi]

I was most likely sitting in my 6th grade class room that day.

I remember all those songs..... "Chantilly lace and a pretty face and a ponytail hangin' down....."   Waylon Jennings sure was lucky he gave up that seat. 

[Mugwump]

I was about 14, and we lived in Warsaw, New York. I remember walking past Reagan's soda fountain, the guys all hung out there, and that was the talk...You could here the jukebox playing from inside,.."La Bamba"...then the flip side "Donna"....over and over....the girls were all misty eyed....

[BallAquatics]

I lacked a couple months of being 2 years old.....

Dennis

[JR]

I was not here yet.

[Ron Sower]

I don't specifically remember the day, but I was 12, and like Pauline, probably in Mrs. Creasy's 6th grade class, trying to get thru another boring history test!!!

And I think about it now.....that WAS history!