Dates
And Recording Information
The
Day The Music Died -1959
Researched and Compiled by
Terry R. Shaw
Copyright © 2000 by Terry R. Shaw
Pages constructed and maintained
by Peter Moorcroft
1/1-20/59 LOVE IS STRANGE (Ethel Smith/Mickey Baker/Robinson) In late 1968, Norman Petty overdubbed his new analogue synthesizer with a string effect using other studio musicians on Buddy's demo. Released on 3/17/69-S, 1/69-A. Undubbed version was bootlegged. Buddy's recording is listed as being recorded on 1/22/59 on the "Apartment Demos" release.
SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller) In late '65, Norman Petty had the Fireballs overdub instruments on. One source says on 8/22/68 Jack Hansen overdubbed instruments using studio musicians on Buddy's demo. Released in 1/69-A. Buddy's recording is listed as being recorded on 12/3/58 and 1/21/59 on the "Apartment Demos" release.
SLIPPIN’ AND SLIDIN’ ((Richard Penniman/Edwin J. Bocage/Albert Collins/Floyd Smith) On 11/14/62 Jack Hansen overdubbed instruments using studio musicians on Buddy's demo. He did another overdub on 8/22/68. Norman Petty overdubbed the Fireballs in Clovis, New Mexico in 1962. Released on 3/15/65-S, 2/63-A. Takes 1 (incomplete) and 2 (incomplete) of a slow version and Take 1 of a fast version and another take were all eventually released and bootlegged. Buddy's recording is listed as being recorded on 1/11/59 and on 1/20/59 on the "Apartment Demos" release.
DROWN IN MY OWN TEARS (Henry Glover) Only
a fragment of this Ray Charles song exists.
DEAREST (AKA "Ummm, Oh Yeah")(Ellas McDaniel/Prentice Polk/Mickey Baker) Norman Petty had the Fireballs overdub instruments on Buddy's demo on 11/11/63. Jack Hansen then did it on 8/22/68. Released on 12/13/63-S, 5/64-A. An incomplete take, a false start and a second version or take were eventually released. An undubbed version and Takes 1 and 2 were bootlegged. Buddy's recording is listed as being recorded on 1/22/59 on the "Apartment Demos" release.
WAIT ‘TIL THE SUN SHINES NELLIE (Andrew
Sterling/Harry Von Tilzer) Overdubbed by Jack Hansen on 11/14/62. Petty overdubbed
the Fireballs in Clovis, New Mexico in 1962. Released on 8/20/62-S, 2/63-A.
LEAVE MY WOMAN ALONE (AKA
"Buddy’s Guitar" and "Untitled Instrumental") (Ray Charles) This
instrumental version of a Ray Charles song is included on a Buddy Holly bootleg
with the above group of songs. Whether or not it came from the same session,
I don’t know. In late 1968, Norman Petty overdubbed his new analogue synthesizer
with a string effect using other studio musicians on Buddy's demo. Released
on 3/17/69-S, 1/69-A. Undubbed version was bootlegged.
These are all demo songs Buddy recorded in his New York apartment 4H at the
Brevoort, 11 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York. All of them were bootlegged in
6/95-A.
1/UNK/59 "REHEARSAL TAPES"
Buddy, Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup and Carl Bunch rehearsed songs in Buddy's
Greenwich Village, New York City apartment. According to Maria Elena, Buddy
taped some songs. It is unknown if the tapes exist or were actually recorded.
Tues. 1/20/59 UNRECORDED: Management problems
following his marriage to Maria Elena Santiago lead to a split with the Crickets.
This resulted in royalty disputes and a hectic tour of the Mid-west (with a
new backing group comprised of Waylon Jennings on bass, Tommy Allsup on lead
guitar and Carl Bunch on drums) to ease resulting cashflow problems. Buddy and
his band leave New York City by train (not bus as portrayed in the movie) for
Chicago. In Chicago they meet up with other artists and set out by bus for Wisconsin.
Photos of Buddy at each stop in the tour can be seen at www.angelfire.com/mn/pdp/index.html
Fri. 1/23/59 UNRECORDED: Buddy and the
"Winter Dance Party" tour perform in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Devine's Million Dollar
Ballroom as the famous last tour begins. Buddy has as his backup band Tommy
Allsup on lead guitar, Waylon Jennings on bass and Carl Bunch on drums. Also
on the tour were Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, Dion, and Frankie Sardo. Buddy's
band backed up all the acts. They didn't have a full orchestra with strings
and horns as portrayed in the movie, "The Buddy Holly Story". Maria said that Buddy called her before the show and told her "I'm going on stage now and I'm leaving the phone off the hook. I want you to hear something." Then he went onstage and sang "True Love Ways", which was their song. I think she's remembering the movie version of Buddy's Surf Ballroom performance. Buddy certainly wouldn't have opened with that song and he wouldn't have kept Maria on line for his entire performance. Buddy began his set with Billy Grammer's "Gotta Travel On". During the performance,
with the amps turned all the way up to combat the cheering crowd, Buddy turned
four times and yelled something to Waylon, who couldn't hear him. Finally he
walked back to Waylon and said, "Turn that goddamn bass down!" After the show, Tommy,Waylon and the Bopper went out to get a beer but Buddy didn't join them. According to
Carl Bunch, the following songs were performed on "most of our sets":
| GOTTA TRAVEL
ON |
|
|
| THAT'LL BE THE DAY |
|
Another source adds these songs:
|
| EVERYDAY |
|
WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN' GOIN' ON
|
| MAYBE BABY |
|
BE BOP A LULA
|
| IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE |
|
|
| TRUE LOVE WAYS |
|
|
| HEARTBEAT |
|
|
| PEGGY SUE |
|
|
| OH, BOY! |
|
|
| BROWN-EYED HANDSOME MAN |
|
|
| IT'S SO EASY |
|
|
| NOT FADE AWAY (Encore) |
|
|
| BO DIDDLEY (Encore) |
|
|
| RAVE ON (Encore) |
|
|
Sat. 1/24/59 UNRECORDED:
Buddy and the "Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the Eagles Club in
Kenosha, Wisconsin. Frankie, the Big Bopper and Buddy had their picture taken
with Jim Lounsberry and Ed Auxner, local DJs. Jim was a Chicago TV personality who had a how called "Bandstand Matinee". Ritchie Valens and the Bopper appeared on the afternoon show, lip synching their records.
Sun. 1/25/59 UNRECORDED: Buddy and the
"Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the Kato Ballroom in Mankato, Minnesota. Prior to the performance, the tour group get rooms at the downtown Burton Hotel. Minneapolis radion station WDGY D.J. Bill Diehl emcees the show. Buddy telephones Maria and tells her he's been talking with Ritchie Valens about
producing him and that he'd like to try some Spanish songs himself with English
lyrics. Ritchie also talked to Maria. Drummer Carl Bunch met a waitress in a cafe in the afternoon and invited her to come to the show. She does and after the dance invites Carl and some of the Belmonts to a late night birthday party for her girlfriend.
Mon. 1/26/59 "MESSAGE
TO RITCHIE'S MOM" Ritchie Valens had a small portable reel-to-reel
tape recorder along on the trip and on the way to Eau Claire, Wisconsin he starts
to record a message to send home to his mother, Concepcion "Connie" Valenzuela.
He started going from seat to seat, asking everyone to say something to his
mother. They all did, including Buddy. It's unknown if the tape exists or if
it went down in the plane crash with Ritchie.
Mon. 1/26/59 UNRECORDED: Buddy and the
"Winter Dance Party" tour perform at Fournier's Ballroom in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Tonight Buddy performs seven songs: "Gotta Travel On", "Peggy Sue", "That'll
Be The Day", "Heartbeat", "Be Bop a Lulu", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", and
"It Doesn't Matter Anymore". Drummer Carl Bunch leaves his gray and black stage
clothes somewhere, meaning that for the rest of the tour the band has only one
outfit.
Waylon Jennings, Buddy and Tommy Allsup at the Fiesta
Tues. 1/27/59 UNRECORDED: Buddy and the
"Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the Fiesta Ballroom in Montevideo, Minnesota.
Buddy and Waylon Jennings do "Salty Dog Blues" together on stage. Ritchie Valens and one of the other guitarists meet and talk to two teenage girls during the breaks. They are Becky Baker of nearby Granite Falls and her friend Sandy. The four go bowling at the alley next door and then have a sandwich. Buddy and the tour stay overnight at the Hotel Hunt in Montevideo, Minnesota.
Wed. 1/28/59 UNRECORDED: Buddy and the
"Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the Prom Ballroom in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Buddy, Ritchie and the Bopper backstage in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Thurs.1/29/59 UNRECORDED:
Buddy and the "Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the Capitol Ballroom in Davenport,
Iowa.
Fri. 1/30/59 UNRECORDED: Buddy and the
"Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the Laramar Ballroom in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The poster for the dance states "Dancing for teen-agers only" and "Balcony reserved for adult spectators".
Buddy, backstage and onstage at the Laramar, Fort Dodge
On the way, the bus heater completely goes out. Buddy and Dion huddle under
a blanket. They make a stop in Tipton, Iowa for repairs. Many musicians start
talking about chartering a plane.
Sat. 1/31/59 UNRECORDED: Buddy and the
"Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the National Guard Armory in Duluth, Minnesota.
Just as they pull into town, the bus breaks down.
Attending the dance is a young
Robert Zimmerman, who will change his name to Bob Dylan. Jimmy Bowen, who also
recorded at Petty's studio, attended. He was playing clubs in the Midwest. Ritchie
brings up chartering a plane again, but a replacement bus is found. Its heater
also goes out.
Sun. 2/1/59 UNRECORDED: The tour is supposed to stop at the Cinderella Ballroom in Appleton, Wisconsin for an afternoon matinee, but it is cancelled after the bus breaks down on Highway 51 near Pine Lake about fifteen miles south of Hurley, Wisconsin. The bus had just left Hurley, which is one mile or so west of Ironwood, Michigan. A sheriff’s deputy takes Carl Bunch, suffering from frostbite, to the Grandview Hospital in Ironwood. The bus is towed to a garage in Ironwood and, trying to get to their evening performance in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the tour boards a train. When they perform at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Ritchie plays drums for Buddy, Buddy plays for Dion, and Dion plays for Ritchie. After the show, Buddy phones his mother. The repaired bus arrives to take the group to Clear Lake, Iowa. In a clip on website http://www.vastvideo.com/i/2.1/navigate.asp?cid=171 Tommy Allsup talks about the cold touring, the frostbite, the plane charter and why his wallet was found at the crash site.
UNRECORDED:
Mon. 2/2/59
UNRECORDED: Buddy and the "Winter Dance Party" tour perform at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. The admission price is upped to $1.25 from its normal $.75. They arrive at the ballroom at 7:30pm and have to perform at 8:00pm. Buddy calls Maria and Ritchie also calls home. Buddy makes arrangements to charter a small plane after the dance to take him and his band to Fargo so they can rest and do their laundry. In the show, Frankie Sardo opens with "Fake Out" and is followed by the "Big Bopper" who does "Chantilly Lace". Then Ritchie Valens comes on and does "Come On Let's Go", "Donna" and "To Know Him Is To Love Him". He closes the first act with "La Bamba". At this point, according to Mason City radio station KRIB DJ Bob Hale, the following happens backstage during intermission. Ritchie begs Tommy Allsup to give up his plane seat. After arguing to no avail, he says, "I'll tell you what. Let's flip for it." Tommy agrees. Neither has a coin in their stage clothes pockets, so Bob Hale says, "I have a quarter, Ritchie. You call it." Ritchie says, "Heads." Hale flips and it is heads. He says, "OK, Ritchie. You're flying." Years later Allsup opens a bar calling it the "Heads Up Saloon" in honor of his lucky coin toss. Dion opens the second show or "act". He does "Teenager In Love" among other songs. Buddy goes on the stage and does "Gotta Travel On", "Peggy Sue", "That'll Be The Day", "Rave On", "Heartbeat" and "Everyday". (Not necessarily in that order.) The other numbers are not known. At the end of the show, Buddy calls Ritchie and the "Bopper" back on stage to sing "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" together with him. Ritchie closes the show with a repeat of "La Bamba". It is midnight and the dance is over.
Tues. 2/3/59 UNRECORDED: After the dance, bassist Waylon Jennings gives his airplane seat to J.P. Richardson, who had the flu. When Buddy finds out, he walks up to Waylon and says, "I hope your old bus freezes up again." Jennings jokes, "And I hope your old plane crashes!" This would haunt Waylon up to his death on 2/13/02. He said in an interview, "Now you talk about trying to straighten something out in your own mind. But you know, hell, we both laughed and everything about it." The plane takes off in clear skies and bitter cold from Mason City, Iowa. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson and the pilot, Roger Peterson, are killed when their small Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashes into a field outside of Clear Lake, Iowa. This day becomes known as "The Day The Music Died" because of Don McLean’s "American Pie" record years later. A false claim has circulated that the airplane was called "The American Pie". This is totally false as pointed out on website.
The plane, chartered through Dwyer’s Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa, was simply a small red and white single engine four-seater Beechcraft Bonanza with no additional name painted on it. Its wing had the registration number, N3794N on it They left the Mason City Municipal airport shortly after 1 a.m. From the Mason City paper is the following report: "The plane crashed about seven miles northwest of the airport. The trip to Fargo was expected to take about 3 1/2 hours. When no word of the plane's arrival was heard, Jerry Dwyer, owner of the flying service, set out to look for the party. He was delayed several hours because of early morning fog. Dwyer discovered the wreckage on the Albert Juhl farm at about 9:30 a.m. It was obvious that the pilot had been flying on a straight northwest line and was at a very low angle to the ground when he hit. The field slopes slightly toward the northwest. 
Color photo ©Kevin Terry used with kind permission. For more details email Kevin on ktkat at aol.com
The left wing of the plane seemingly struck the ground and plowed a furrow for about a dozen feet before it crumpled and the body of the plane hit. It dug a shallow depression in the stubble field and the wing fell off as the rest of the plane bounced. It struck the ground again about 50 feet farther northwest and then skidded on the ground about two city blocks until it piled up against a fence. The wreckage was a jumbled mass, which would not have been recognized as a plane. Along the skid path small bits of the plane and its contents were strewn. There was a man's shoe, a traveling bag and small pieces of the plane, including parts of the instrument panel. The bag was the largest piece except for the wing, the jumble against the fence and three bodies. One body was broken and entangled in the wreckage. Two bodies were lying about 12 feet south and southwest of the plane. Another body was lying about 40 feet northwest of the plane. No bodies were positively identified at the scene. Newsmen and others were barred from the scene until 11:30 a.m. After Dr. Ralph E. Smiley, acting coroner, arrived. Authorities do not yet know the cause of the accident. Some believe, however, that ice may have formed on the wings or windshield making a forced landing necessary. Dwyer said he didn't have the ‘faintest idea’ why the plane crashed. He said the craft was in good condition. He said Peterson was a competent pilot and weather conditions were favorable for flying. He estimated that the plane crashed only "a couple of minutes" after taking off. Dwyer said that Peterson did not file a flight plan. Dwyer became worried when Peterson failed to report back from Fargo and checked other airports in Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakota area. The bodies of Buddy and Ritchie were taken to the Hogan-McKee Funeral Home in Clear Lake. There they were embalmed by Marvin D. McKee. The Big Bopper and Peterson were taken to another funeral home in Clear Lake. Two investigators from the Civil Aeronautics Administration were sent from Des Moines to investigate the cause of the accident. The booking firm said when other artists heard of the deaths, they volunteered to keep the tour going. These included Bill Haley and his Comets, Bill Parsons, and Frankie Avalon - all rock 'n' roll favorites." The Crickets (Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Sonny Curtis and singer Earl Sinks) continued to record and tour. Jerry Naylor replaced Earl Sinks in 1961. Gordon Payne replaced Naylor in the 1980s.
UNK POSSIBLE RECORDINGS: Buddy reportedly
sat in on guitar and/or background vocals on a number of recordings by other
artists. A bootleg source lists several. I don't have confirmation but I list
them as possible "Buddy Holly Recordings". The artist is listed first, then
the songs:
SONNY CURTIS Because
You Love Me / I'll Miss My Heart Released
as having Buddy on guitar. Bootlegged in 6/95-A.
RICK TURNER Don't Do
Me This Way (Two versions)/ Patty Baby Bootlegged
in 6/95-A.
EDDIE REEVES AND THE NIGHTHAWKS
When Sin Stops Bootlegged in 6/95-A.
UNK ARTIST This Bottle
Click on the links below
INDEX
Copyright © 2000 Terry R. Shaw All rights reserved.
The information on these pages is presented for educational
and research purposes only. As it deals with a historical subject, specific
items of information are necessarily derived from many other sources. I have
attempted to give those sources the credit due them. However, the combination,
layout and presentation of the information is original, copyrighted and may
not be copied or reproduced in any form or medium without the express permission
of the author. Anyone who feels that any item in these pages may have inadvertently
breached their own copyright should advise the author at this e-mail address:
tshaw75@charter.net so that appropriate
remedial action can be taken.