#THE BEST SONG BUDDY HOLLY DIE SERIES#

The artists themselves were responsible for loading and unloading equipment at each stop, as no road crew assisted them. Griggs estimates that five separate buses were used in the first eleven days of the tour-'reconditioned school buses, not good enough for school kids'. The entire company of musicians traveled together in one bus, although the buses used for the tour were wholly inadequate, breaking down and being replaced frequently. The tour from hell-that's what they named it-and it's not a bad name. GAC-Super Productions, the organization that booked the tour, later received considerable criticism for their seemingly total disregard for the conditions they forced the touring musicians to endure: Most of the Interstate Highway System had not yet been built, so the routes between tour stops required far more driving time on narrow two-lane rural highways than would now be the case on modern expressways. As there were no off days, the bands had to travel most of each day, frequently for ten to twelve hours in freezing mid-winter temperatures.

#THE BEST SONG BUDDY HOLLY DIE SERIES#

Instead of systematically circling around the Midwest through a series of venues in close proximity to one another, the tour erratically zigzagged back and forth across the region, with distances between some tour stops exceeding 400 miles (640 km). The distances between venues had not been properly considered when the performances were scheduled. The amount of travel required soon became a serious problem. The 1959 tour began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 23, with the performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2 being the eleventh of the twenty-four scheduled events. Richardson, and the vocal group Dion and the Belmonts joined the tour to promote their recordings and make an extra profit. New hit artist Ritchie Valens, 'The Big Bopper' J.

The tour was set to cover twenty-four Midwestern cities in as many days-there were no off days. įor the start of the 'Winter Dance Party' tour, Holly assembled a band consisting of Waylon Jennings (bass), Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums), with the opening vocals of Frankie Sardo.

Holly signed up with General Artists Corporation (GAC) because 'he knew they were planning a British tour and he wanted to be in on that'. According to Paul Anka, Holly realized he needed to go back on tour again for two reasons: he needed cash because the Crickets' manager Norman Petty had apparently stolen money from him, and he wanted to raise funds to move to New York City to live with his new wife, María Elena Holly, who was pregnant. In November 1958, Buddy Holly terminated his association with The Crickets. Various monuments have been erected at the crash site and in Clear Lake, where an annual memorial concert is also held at the Surf Ballroom, the venue that hosted the artists' last performances. The event has since been mentioned in several songs and films. Soon after takeoff, late at night and in poor, wintry weather conditions, the pilot lost control of the light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which subsequently crashed into a cornfield, killing all four on board. Richardson, suffering from flu, swapped places with Jennings, taking his seat on the plane, while Allsup lost his seat to Valens on a coin toss. The long journeys between venues on board the cold, uncomfortable tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of flu and even frostbite.Īfter stopping at Clear Lake to perform, and frustrated by the conditions on the tour buses, Holly chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Rising artists Valens, Richardson, and vocal group Dion and the Belmonts had joined the tour as well. 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'.Īt 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 Midwest. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson.

On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and 'The Big Bopper' J. Class=notpageimage| Location in the United States

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