Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, Dion & The Belmonts - Riverside Ballroom, Green Bay, WI, Feb 1959

It was 64 years ago in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, three performers, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, joined their pilot Roger Peterson for what was supposed to be a flight to their next tour stop. But the passengers and their pilot never made it to their destination. Instead the four were involved in a deadly crash that took the lives of all aboard. This tragedy has been remembered as “The Day the Music Died.” Here's a rare poster from one of their last gigs just a few days before their untimely death in a plane crash, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, Dion & The Belmonts played on Sunday, February 1, 1959. Of these four headliners on the poster, Dion was the only survivor as (so it has been said) he was lucky enough to loose a coin toss with Richie Valens and gave up his seat on the plane. RIP to these three rising Stars of Early Rock 'n Roll…