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February 3, 1959

Buddy Holly - born Sep 7, 1936 - Lubbock, TX
Charles Hardin Holley (later changed to Holly)
1986 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1997 Grammy Lifetime Music Award
1999 Grammy Song Award - Peggy Sue (Coral 1957)
1998 Crickets-That'll Be The Day (Brunswick 1957)

Ritchie Valens - born May 13, 1941 - Pacoima, CA
Richard Steven Valenzuela
2000 Grammy Song Award - La Bamba (Del-Fi 1958)
2001 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Big Bopper - born Oct 24, 1930 - Sabine Pass, TX
Jiles Perry Richardson

The 1959 Winter Dance Party Tour also included Dion & The Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, Waylon Jennings, Carl Bunch, and Tommy Allsup.  The February cold weather and trouble with the heat on the tour bus led Holly to charter a small four passenger plane from Dwyer's Flying Service out of Mason City, Iowa.  Holly age 22, Valens age 17, and Richardson age 28, died early on the morning of Feb. 3, 1959 when the plane crashed upon takeoff into a snowy Iowa cornfield.  Also killed in the crash was the Iowa Pilot, Roger Petersen age 21.  The story is that Waylon Jennings was scheduled to be on the plane, but Waylon gave up his seat to The Big Bopper.
Replacements, Bobby Vee, Jimmy Clanton, and Frankie Avalon filled in to complete the rest of the tour.

This Commemorative Show at the Surf is generally a sell-out, so plan ahead if you're going to attend.  The Surf Ballroom was built in 1933, destroyed by fire in 1947, and reopened across the street to the present site in 1948.  It's one of the last of the BIG Ballrooms still in use.  The Winter Dance Party in this small Iowa town is a great party celebrating good old Rock-n-Roll from the early days and you won't be disappointed if you attend.
Featured artists in the past have been: The Drifters, Del Shannon, Rick Nelson, Carl Perkins, Bobby Vee, Gary Lewis, The Crickets, Freddy Cannon, Little Anthony, Johnny Tillotson, DJ Fontana, Don McLean, Bo Diddley, Frankie Ford, The Shirelles, Wolfman Jack, and Paul Burlison.  Also appearing have been Maria Elena Santiago Holly (Buddy's widow), the original Donna (Donna Fox), and the original Peggy Sue (Peggy Sue Gerron), made popular in song.  Peggy Sue still lives in Lubbock, TX in 2005 and remains active in honoring Buddy Holly.  A special event Ham Radio Station, W5B, operated in February 2004 & February 2005 from Lubbock.  Peggy Sue is K5PSG and was involved in the operation of this commemorative station.  It is very likely the station will continue to operate each year during February.
The popular International stage musical, "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story", was performed once as a special event during the 1990's at the Surf.

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