NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — This weekend marked 60 years since “The Day the Music Died.”
On Feb. 3, 1959, three legendary musicians — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper" Richardson — played a show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Then, hours later, the three died in a plane crash.
The tragedy shocked the world and though it has been 60 years since, the three are still memorized and each has left a lasting impact on the industry.
“The thing that I think makes it difficult to realize it was 60 years, is the constant reminder of the impact that that plane crash had on popular music,” said Bob Hale. “I don't think any of us were aware of how huge an event that plane crash was.”
Hale should know— he was in the room for Holly, Valens and Richardson’s last performance. In fact, he was the young disc jockey that hosted the show.
“I was high on adrenaline because of the impact that this dance was having, not only on the area but on our radio station and me personally,” Hale said.
That night, Hale was making his debut from small-town radio broadcaster to disc jockey, and he says it was anything but a routine event.
He recalls how the Surf Ballroom had been filled with teenagers and their parents eager to see the three musicians and how the performers tried to accommodate everyone they could to sign autographs.
They performed the show as part of the Winter Dance Party tour, which was on day 11, and were scheduled to appear in Moorhead, Minn. the following night.
But, Holly had refused to take a tour bus and insisted on flying from location to location— and after the show ended in Iowa, the three musicians boarded their next flight.
Minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed, killing all three, and pilot Roger Peterson.
Hale remembered seeing the alert come through on a wire service, just hours after the show, but didn’t immediately make the connection.
“I put the bulletin on the air and about two minutes later, I got a call from the manager of the Surf Ballroom, Carol Anderson, he had been called by the local and state police to come out he said to identify the bodies,” Hale said.
He still remembers Anderson telling him: “Buddy, Ritchie, Bopper are all dead.”
“I was a young disc jockey now being confronted with the possibility of an incredibly huge national story. So, I just said ‘take a deep breath and remember one thing you learned in college: get the facts,’” Hale noted.
He went on to have a long and distinguished career in radio and television. Though, it was that tragedy that started it all.
Additionally, Holly, Valens and Richardson’s careers didn’t end with them.
In fact, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger are among the dozens of artists who say they were inspired by one of the three who passed that day.
The crash also inspired Don McLean's hit song, “American Pie,” which would go on to dub Feb. 3, 1959 as “The Day the Music Died.”