The three musicians boarded the red and white single-engine Beech Bonanzaaround 12:30 AM on February 3. Holly's guitarist, Tommy Allsup, agreed to flip a coin with Ritchie Valens for the remaining seat Valens won. Buddy Holly's bass player, Waylon Jennings, was scheduled to fly on the plane, but gave his seat up to the Big Bopper, who was suffering from influenza. The musicians packed up their instruments and finalized the flight arrangements. A snowstorm was inbound, and the pilot was fatigued from a 17-hour workday, but agreed to fly the trip. With the airplane, Holly could arrive early, do everyone's laundry and get some rest.Ģ1-year old pilot Roger Peterson had agreed to take the singers to Fargo, North Dakota, where the airport serves the cities of Moorhead and Fargo. They were tired, they had not been paid yet and all of their clothes were dirty. The musicians had been traveling by bus for over a week, and it had already broken down once. On the eleventh night of the tour, Holly chartered an airplane to fly them to the next show in Moorhead, Minnesota. With the success of "Chantilly Lace", Richardson took time off from KTRM radio and joined Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Dion and the Belmonts for a "Winter Dance Party" tour. Richardson is credited with coining the term music video in 1959, and recorded an early example himself.
From a remote set-up in the lobby of the Jefferson Theatre in downtown Beaumont, Richardson performed for a total of five days, two hours and eight minutes, playing 1,821 records and taking showers during five-minute newscasts. In May 1957, he broke the record for continuous on-the-air broadcasting by eight minutes. Richardson soon became the station's program director. Richardson had seen the college students doing a dance called The Bop, and he decided to call himself "The Big Bopper". One of the station's sponsors wanted Richardson for a new time slot and suggested an idea for a show. He spent the rest of his two years service as a radar instructor at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas.įollowing his discharge as a corporal in March 1957, Richardson returned to KTRM radio, where he held down the "Dishwashers' Serenade" shift from 11 AM to 12:30 PM, Monday through Friday. In March 1955, he was drafted into the United States Army and did his basic training at Fort Ord, California. Earlier that year Richardson had been promoted to Supervisor of Announcers at KTRM. In December 1953, their daughter, Debra Joy, was born. Richardson married Adrianne Joy Fryou on April 18, 1952. He was hired by the station full-time in 1949 and quit college. They backed the Everly Brothers and toured with Waylon Jennings, and they became well-respected session players who worked with Bobby Vee, Eddie Cochran and Johnny Burnette.He worked part time at Beaumont, Texas radio station KTRM (now KZZB). They toured and recorded together for decades, including recording the first version of "I Fought The Law," a Sonny Curtis tune that was a hit later for The Bobby Fuller Four. The catastrophic deaths inspired Don McLean’s 1972 hit "American Pie."Īfter Holly’s death, The Crickets continued as a band.
Richardson, also known as the Big Bopper.
Tragedy struck in February 1959 when Holly was killed at age 22 in a plane crash along with fellow musicians Ritchie Valens and J.P. Mauldin, Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison, during the BBC television show "Off The Record."Īs they skyrocketed to fame, the band stayed behind in Texas, while Holly moved to New York in 1958. Buddy Holly and The Crickets, from left, Joe B.
0 kommentar(er)
