" I was about as cold as I’ve ever been. The Midwest
was in the midst of a bitter snow storm in February of 1959. The wind was punishing, trees were freezing up and snapping, and the little yellow school bus I was riding in with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper had been breaking down. After our “Winter Dance Party" appearance in Duluth, Minnesota,
Frankie Sardo did not disappear the day of the crash (February 3, 1959) although he never landed on the Top 100. After several short-lived record deals, it is said he retired to Sicily.
Frankie Sardo, Buddy Holly and Dion, 1959- Surf Photo
It's been nearly half a century since the world lost Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a plane crash, but the memory and the music live on. The Surf Ballroom is the last place where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, Frankie Sardo and Dion & the Belmonts performed on February 2, 1959, during their Winter Dance Party Tour. Three perished in a plane crash at a nearby field, that infamous day the music died. Each year, the Surf remembers that fateful night, with an annual weekend 'Fifties Festival.'
Buddy had had enough. He talked to the club manager into chartering a plane to fly the headliners to our next show in Fargo, North Dakota and tried to recruit us to get on board. The more people on the plane, he told us, the lower the cost per person.The Big Bopper agreed, as did Ritchie, who had a bad case of the flu. When Buddy came to me, I thought about the $36.00 price. My parents paid $36.00 a month for rent back in the Bronx. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the same amount on a 45 -minute plane ride; so I told them no.
The next day, I stood in the lobby of the hotel in Moorhead, Minnesota. There was a television on the wall announcing that the plane carrying Buddy, Ritchie and the Big Bopper had gone down in the storm. There were no survivors. From that moment on, I knew God had a plan for me."
Fred Dion Carlo The Big Bopper Buddy Holly Ritchie Valens Frankie Sardo
our bus broke down again.
Dion & the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo continued to the end of the tour. Bobby Vee & the Shadows performed on the February 3rd date. Jimmy Clanton, Fabian, Frankie Avalon and the Crickets also finished the tour with Ron Smith singing lead.
Dion & the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo continued to the end of the tour. Bobby Vee & the Shadows performed on the February 3rd date.
Bobby Vee (Velline), then aged 15, and a hastily-assembled band of Fargo, North Dakota schoolboys were given the unenviable job of filling in for Holly and his band at the next engagement.
Clear Lake, Iowa, February 3, 2009: Thousands of people have come from nearly all 50 states and more than half a dozen foreign countries to attend a six-day 50th anniversary festival honoring rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. " Big Bopper" Richardson, who died in a plane crash in 1959.
The show included the Crickets, Bobby Vee, Wanda Jackson, Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and Graham Nash.
"I'm closing that loop from when I was crying over Buddy's death to playing on stage at the Surf Ballroom," Nash said. "It's an insane loop for me."
Holly and the Crickets toured England in 1958, leaving a mark on that nation's rock scene. It's said the Beatles took their name as an honor to the Crickets. Graham says his 60s Brit-Band "The Hollies" was an homage to Buddy.
"It was the biggest rock 'n' roll show that had ever come through the Fargo/Moorhead area," recalled Bob Velline, better known as rock 'n' roll legend Bobby Vee, of nearby St. Joseph.
Bobby Vee says, "It was an evening that changed my life."
Vee and his bandmates in The Shadows had tickets to the show. But within a matter of hours, they went from being in the crowd to playing on stage after the tour's three rising stars died in an airplane crash on the way to the venue. "It was a tragic thing that happened, but sometimes good things can come from tragedy."
A VIDEO INTERVIEWAt the Surf Ballroom, musician Tommy Allsup tells of the coin flip with Ritchie Valens that spared his life . . .
the "day the music died."
The crash site has become a lucritive, if not macabre, tourist attraction to operators in Iowa.
