On This Day in Music History:

February 3rd: On this day

1959, 22 year old Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie

Valens, aged 17, died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear

Lake, Iowa, the pilot of the single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza

plane was also killed. Holly hired the plane after heating

problems developed on his tourbus. All three were traveling to

Fargo, North Dakota, for the next show on their Winter Dance

Party Tour which Holly had set - covering 24 cities in three

weeks, to make money after the break-up of his band, The

Crickets, last year.