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The Day the Music Died : The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens
The Day the Music Died The Last Tour of Buddy Holly the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens Music / RockThe story behind the crash that cost America three of its best-loved performers.The night of February 3, 1959, the headliners of the "Winter Dance Party Tour" Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), and new Latino star Richie Valensboarded a small chartered aircraft. The tour had gone poorly with the performers enduring a str... more »ing of dates in small dancehalls in subzero weather, travelling primarily on a rickety bus that carried all of the equipment and backup players. A plane had been brought in to ease the burden on the tour's headliners, causing some animosity among the backup players who had to continue to endure the poor conditions on the bus. Little did they know that this flight would become one of the key dates in rock history, day the music died, as Don Maclean sang in American Pie. The deaths of Holly, Richardson, and Valens have spurred controversy among fans and historians alike, with conflicting theories about what happened in the days and hours before the crash. Now, drawing on over 20 years of interviews with fans, the surviving musicians, and the promoters and radio personalities who organized the tour, Larry Lehmer has recreated the final days of these rock legends, and unearthed startling new information about the crash and its aftermath. For all those interested in the history of rock, and in one of this century's greatest unsolved mysteries, this book offers fresh evidence and new insights into the tragic events.Larry Lehmer is the Assignment Editor at the Des Moines Register. He has spent over twenty years researching the facts behind the final tour and fatal airplane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens, and has published several articles on the crash in the Register and specialist Buddy Holly fan publications.« less