February 3, 1959
 

If they were alive today, Buddy Holly would be 88, Ritchie Valens would be 83, and the Big Bopper would be 94.

I remember that plane going down as I was in high school. We teens were devastated. I happen to be the same age Ritchie Valens would be today. Brrr...

Quite a loss. We seem to lose a lot of talent to crashes of various kinds

For bragging rights, without looking it up ...

Who played the gig the boys were going to, when the Beechcraft Bonanza they were riding in, went down over Mason City Iowa?

I did not know that.

Pretty good article about the tour and the crash.

Winter Dance Party

There's a field in Iowa, close to the Minnesota border, where you can walk out to a small shrine at the point of impact.

here

You can see a video on You Tube where Dion talks about being on that tour and he was suppose to be on that plane but it cost too much and gave his seat away. The price was the same price his parents were paying for their apartment in the Bronx. I saw him give the lecture live. It's very interesting.

Winter Dance Party. I was in grammar school and was so upset..I loved their music.

Yep
 

John Denver, Keith Green etc.

As a native North Dakotan, I know it was Bobby Vee.

I think he was only 15 at the time. Had a few guys that had been jammin' in his garage, including his brother I think.

The day the music died!

I was a rock-n-roll DJ for many years. My 2nd job was at KRIB radio in Mason City, Iowa. I did numerous ‘sock-hops’ at ‘The Surf Ballroom’ in nearby Clear Lake, Iowa … the venue that those played before their fatal crash.

Still a toddler, so music would have been nonexistent for any of the names