Buddy Holly remembered
Sixty years on from the death of Buddy Holly and three others in a plane crash, Katharine Wootton considers the events of that historically tragic day
The snow fell silently as Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper stepped on board the Beechcraft 35 Bonanza plane. All were tired, weary and under the weather after weeks of a gruelling, badly-planned tour which saw them zig-zag miles back and forth around the American midWest. This had not quite turned out to be the fresh start Buddy Holly had planned.
Buddy had started out his career in Lubbock, Texas as Buddy Holly and The Crickets, warming up the crowds at Elvis concerts. Together they’d had a catalogue of hits, setting the template for bands that would follow, including The Beatles.
But for Buddy, this wasn’t enough. He longed to escape Lubbock and hit the Big Apple to build his own recording studio and label. He even hankered after parts in the movies. Plus, he’d already met the love of his life, Maria Elena Santiago, in New York, who he would marry just two months after their first date.
In December 1958, he officially split from The Crickets as well as his long-standing manager, Norman Petty. Norman responded by withholding Buddy’s royalty cheques and without any money coming in and a baby on the way, Buddy started a Winter Dance Party tour, hiring Tommy Allsup, Waylon Jennings and Carl Bunch to be his backing group. Dion DiMucci from Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper also joined the tour as support artists.
The tour was well received but with such a punishing schedule, Buddy and his fellow artists were flagging, just like their tour bus which kept breaking down at every opportunity – not helping their already frayed nerves.
On February 2 they had trailed 350 miles to Clear Lake, Minnesota for an extra gig their tour promoters squeezed in at the last minute. Straight after, they were to get back onto that pesky bus to travel 325 miles to Iowa. Buddy just couldn’t face the thought.
So instead he chartered a single plane with a pilot to fly him to Hector Airport in Fargo which would give him the time to get
cleaned up and have some rest before the next concert.
There were two spare seats in the plane which were originally reserved by the band. Ritchie Valens asked Tommy Allsup for his place and they tossed a coin to see who would get it – Ritchie won. Waylon Jennings gave his seat to The Big Bopper who was poorly
Without any money coming in and a baby on the way, Buddy started a Winter Dance Party tour
with the flu and could do with the extra rest.
So it was that the three of them set off into the snowy night with the pilot 21-year-old Roger Peterson at 12.55am on February 3. Five minutes later, the pilot failed to make the expected radio contact. When countless further attempts to establish communication were unsuccessful, a search party headed out in another airplane. Within minutes the wreckage was spotted, less than six miles northwest of the airport. The plane had nosedived the ground at high speed and cartwheeled across a frozen field. All passengers died at the scene instantly.
The crash investigation that followed revealed a cruel catalogue of errors. The pilot, having already flown 17 hours that day, wasn’t familiar with the format of the plane’s instruments. This probably led him to misread the altitude indicator, so he inadvertently brought the plane down instead of up. Meanwhile, severe weather warnings had not been passed on to him, which may have stopped him taking off.
Reports of the accident flooded the morning news on the TV and radio as the world woke up to the awful news of the deaths. None the wiser to what had happened, Buddy’s mother in Lubbock screamed and collapsed to the floor as she heard about what happened on the radio. Meanwhile, over in New York, Buddy’s pregnant wife, Maria, learned of her husband’s death on the television. A widow after only six months of marriage she suffered a miscarriage shortly after. After this case, American policy would be changed so the authorities could not disclose the names of victims until after their families had been informed.
Incredibly, the Winter Dance Party Tour did not stop and the band continued performing for two more weeks with Waylon Jennings taking Buddy’s place and other teen sensations, including Frankie Avalon, flown out to join them.
Buddy’s body was shipped back home to his family who, being Baptists, refused to play any of his music that they so disapproved of at his funeral.
Nevertheless, that wasn’t the end of his wonderful work as the countless demos and uncompleted recordings he left behind would make dozens of posthumous releases, while his songs would also live on in all the musicians who followed in his footsteps.
Look out for Yours Retro 16 (on sale Feb 28) which looks at the musical legacy of Buddy Holly