The Day The Music Was Re-Born: 17 tracks in Memory of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper

List of the Day

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Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper—though always lumped together because of the cruel hand they were dealt one winter night in 1959—were really a varied bunch of musicians, all with different sounds and all at different stages in their respective careers. But the three were tied together by the bonds of rock ’n’ roll, still in its nascent stage, still magical and—mostly—unjaded.

Don McLean dubbed their tragedy “the day the music died” in his legendary tribute song “American Pie,” and he was right, in a way. For rock ’n’ roll, that crash was—on a smaller scale—like the Kennedy Assasination was to the American public in 1963; a bonafide thief of innocence, an unwelcome wakeup call foreshadowing the dark days of struggle that lay ahead.

Today, on the 50th anniversary of that plane crash (which took place Feb. 3, 1959 in a field just outside Clearlake, Iowa), rather than dwell on the “death” of the music, I figured it was more appropriate to revel in the lives of these talented musicians—especially the 22-year-old Holly and 17-year-old Valens—who never had a chance to fully mature, but, in their short time with us, still left behind more than most people do in an entire life.

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Click here for That'll Be the Day (the Music Died): 50 Years Later, for artist commentary on Holly, Valens and Richardson from Paul Westerberg, Black Lips, Robyn Hithcock, John Doe, The Avett Brothers and many more.

Click here for a review of two Holly reissues, Memorial Collection and Down the Line: Rarities.

1. “Rave On” - Buddy Holly

A rock ’n’ roll song that’s not about unrequited love is a nice change of pace, and the quivering joy in Holly’s voice—not to mention the bubbly surf-summoning Stratocaster chugging—comes through like giddy rays of sunshine praying the clouds won’t materialize any time soon.

2. “Donna” - Ritchie Valens

A gorgeous ballad written for the temporarily estranged love of young Ritchie’s life, Donna Ludwig. Valens really taps into the deepest vein of melancholy and heartbreak here—even more impressive when you consider he was around 16 when he cut this track.

3. “Chantilly Lace” - The Big Bopper

The Big Bopper’s biggest hit, “Chantilly Lace” is a novelty tune that mostly features the Bopper (aka Texas-born deejay and musician JP Richardson) goofing off, improvising one half of a phone conversation and dropping shameless innuendos that were somehow cool to drop in front of an audience of 13-year-old girls in the late ’50s (perhaps their parents were just psyched Jerry Lee Lewis wasn’t prowling around). It was a catchy little tune, though, and it features Bopper’s signature line, “Hellooooo, Baby!”