the day the music died
Buddy Holly, the iconic rock and roll singer, died today in 1959 when his tour plane crashed after a show he performed in Iowa. The death was paid tribute to in Don McLean's "American Pie" with the line, "the day the music died". He was a mere 22 years old but he was still able by that age to have affected the entire landscape of rock and roll with his work
Fellow American rock stars Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson lives were also taken in the crash when the chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Moorehead, Minn. Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error. Holly and his band, the Crickets, had just scored a No. 1 hit with "That'll Be the Day."
So tributes to the legendary music star will be made by many artists across the musical spectrum today as they mourn the loss of such an important artist.
