The Day the Music Died

*I so wish I had time (and grey matter) to figure out how to put music onto my blog, but whatever brain I had was absorbed by my children in utero. I hope there will be some left for future kids.*

The wreckage of a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza was scattered across a small area of snow-covered cornfield outside of Clear Lake, Iowa. Three passengers — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. “The Big Bopper” — were ejected from the plane and died on impact, as did the pilot, 21-year-old Roger Peterson.

That happened on Feb. 3, 1959, exactly 50 years ago this Tuesday.

It was the most infamous plane crash in rock and roll history, aided somewhat in that distinction by Don McLean’s wistful ballad, “American Pie,” in which he referred to the event as “the day the music died.”