September 7, 1936 - February 3, 1959
Buddy Holly was a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only 18 months before his death in a tragic plane crash on February 3, 1959 (The Day the Music Died), he left a legacy that
continues to influence popular music today.
Born Charles Hardin Holley, in Lubbock Texas, on Labor Day, 1936, he exhibited musical talent at an early age. His older brothers taught Buddy to play, enabling Buddy to win a talent show at age 5.
After seeing Elvis Presley in concert in 1955, Buddy began to incorporate a rockabilly style in his guitar playing. Later that year, he opened for Elvis at a Lubbock show. Buddy's performance that evening
caught the attention of a Nashville talent scout. He soon signed a contract Decca records, which misspelled his name as "Holly." He adopted the misspelled name and formed his own band, which would later become the Crickets.
The band consisted of Holly (lead guitar and vocalist), Niki Sullivan (guitar), Joe B. Mauldin (bass), and Jerry Allison (drums).
The Crickets performed "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 1, 1957.
Holly was offered a spot in the Winter Dance Party by the GAC agency, a three-week tour across the Midwest opening on January 23, 1959, with other notable performers such as Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He assembled a backing band consisting of Tommy Allsup (guitar), Waylon Jennings (bass) and Carl Bunch (drums) and billed as The Crickets.
Buddy is memorialized in the Don McLean Song, "American Pie," which refers to the plane crash as "The Day The Music Died."
He was among the very first group of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Day The Music Died
Johnny Ace
June 9, 1929 - December 25, 1954
Johnny Ace, a promising black R&B singer in the early 1950's, accidentally shot and killed himself while playing Russian
roulette backstage on Christmas day 1954. His last words, to Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, were "I'll show you that it won't shoot."
Ace's recordings continued to gain popularity after his death and he was immortalized in the song "The Late Great Johnny Ace"
by Paul Simon, from his Hearts And Bones album.
Plane Wreck at Los Gatos
January 28, 1948
A January 28, 1948 plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon (about 20 miles west of Coalinga, California) claimed the lives of 32 people,
including 4 Americans and 28 Mexican migrant farm workers who were being deported from California.
The crash inspired Woody Guthrie
to write a poem, lamenting that press coverage of the event did not give the Mexican victim's names, but instead referred to them only as "deportees."
In his poem, Guthrie assigned names to the dead: "Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita; adiós, mis amigos, Jesús y María."
Eventually, Guthrie's poem was set to music by a schoolteacher named Martin Hoffman. The song was recorded and popularized by folk singer Pete Seeger, but
was recorded by many musicians including the Kingston Trio, Judy Collins, The Byrds, Joan Baez, Dolly Parton and Hoyt Axton.
The Mexican victims of the accident were placed in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno, California. There were 27 men and one woman, with only 12 of the victims ever being identified.
Glenn Miller
March 1, 1904 - presumably December 15, 1944
Alton Glenn Miller, known for hits such as "String of Pearls", was an American jazz musician and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the genre's best-selling performers from 1939 to 1942 and fronted one of the most well-known
"Big Bands." During World War II, while traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France, his plane disappeared in bad weather. His body was never found.
It is now thought that Glenn Miller's plane was accidentally bombed by RAF bombers over The English Channel, after an abortive air raid on Germany and a dumping of the live bombs in a "safe" drop zone. The logbooks
of Royal Air Force pilot Fred Shaw record that a small mono-engined plane was seen to spiral out of control and crash into the water.
Blind Boy Fuller
July 10, 1907 - February 13, 1941
Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen) was a Piedmont blues guitarist and vocalist. He was associated with other popular blind blues artists including Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Willie McTell, Sonny Terry and Blind Blake.
He recorded with Floyd Council and Sonny Terry, among others.
In 1938 Fuller, who was described as having a fiery temper, was imprisoned for shooting his wife, wounding her in the leg. He was soon released, but later wrote a song - "Big House Bound"- about his time in jail.
Fuller's repertoire included a number of popular double entendre "hokum" songs such as "I Want Some Of Your Pie", "Truckin' My Blues Away" (the origin of the phrase "keep on truckin'"), and "Get Your Yas Yas Out" (the origin of a later Rolling Stones album title).
Fuller underwent a kidney operation in 1940, probably an outcome of excessive drinking, but continued to require medical treatment. He died either from a bladder infection, blood poisoning or pneumonia.
He was so popular that after his death, his protégé
Brownie McGhee recorded "The Death of Blind Boy Fuller" for the Okeh label, and then reluctantly began a short lived career as Blind Boy Fuller No. 2 so that Columbia Records could cash in on his popularity.
Robert Johnson
May 8, 1911 - August 16, 1938
Robert Johnson was an American blues singer and guitarist who widely influenced later generations of musicians.
Robert Johnson died near Greenwood Mississippi at age 27. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear, but the most popular story
is that Johnson was flirting with the wife of a juke joint owner at a country dance. Johnson apparently accepted an open bottle of whiskey that
had been laced with strychnine. Witnesses report Johnson began feeling ill and died three days later in a convulsive state of severe pain.
