A long, long time ago...

And in the streets the children screamed
the lovers cried and the poets dreamed,
but not a word was spoken,
the church bells all were broken.

--Don McLean, American Pie

It's a good thing I mentioned the whole Fake Holidays thing in yesterday's post, because today is one of the most important. Today is The Day the Music Died. Fifty years ago today, a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

As the son of Buddy Holly's biggest fan, I've known his music and heard the stories about the plane crash my whole life. As a kid, I constantly made fun of Buddy Holly, mostly as an easy way to irritate my Dad, but my appreciation of his music (not to mention his influence on others' music) has steadily increased with age. He was 22 years old and at the very beginning of his career when he died, and could easily have been performing today.

Anyway, you can celebrate this fake holiday the way my Dad usually does: listen to the Oldies station all day, then call in the late afternoon and complain that they haven't mentioned Buddy Holly. Or, if you prefer something a little more low-key, try some of these:

Buddy Holly performing "Peggy Sue" live on TV, circa 1958. (If you only watch one thing in this post, I suggest it be the old lady who introduces Buddy as a "Rock and Roll specialist")


Ritchie Valens was even younger than Buddy (only 17!), but still had 3-4 decent sized hits. This is him performing "Ooh, My Head" in some terrible-looking 1950s movie. Plus a highly entertaining cameo by Chuck Berry!

Ritchie Valens MTV Music

Last but not least (well, OK, I guess he is sort of least), here's the Big Bopper on American Bandstand performing what just might be the worst lip-synch of all time:


Finally, because I can't think of a clever way to work it in elsewhere, here's one of my personal favorite tributes to Buddy Holly:

Weezer |MTV Music