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What day did the music die?

For Don Maclean, it was Feb. 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens died in a plane crash.

For me, it was Sept. 3, 1973, when Jim Croce died, in a plane crash as well.

What day did the music die for you?

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Permalink Reply by 5816nick on January 19, 2020 at 1:39pm

I Too am a massive Buddy Holly Fan - But was a glint in the Milkmans Eye back then - when he was tragically Killed - without doubt for me October 02 2017 R.I.P Thomas Earl Petty

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on January 19, 2020 at 4:57pm

I typically do not get emotionally wrapped up in celebrity deaths, but Petty's passing hit me really hard and to this day feels like a punch in the gut. It was a major soundtrack of my life. I'd seen him in concert numerous times. So tragic.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on January 20, 2020 at 8:21am

me too. October 2nd, 2017 very bad day. I went to 2 concerts every tour as a back stage guest of one of the heartbreakers for 15 years. Saw them 100 times before that. We saw them all after the last show at the bowl and they were beat up. My buddy looked as old as I had ever him and he said he was done. They were all injured and in bad shape after that long tour. My friend couldn't sing because his back was trashed and they needed back up singers. He could barely stand after the show.

Tom didn't come out after that last show which was disappointing but now we know why.

These days I listen to them everyday and pretty much nothing else. Saying they were the soundtrack of my life is an understatement. I credit this song with what little success I've had in the last 20 years. I was just a young kid trying to find my way and somehow built strength and momentum with this song. I listen to it most days as a motivation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv4-m-cIZf4

Amazing that I got to meet them in the last 15 years before Tom's death. There will NEVER be another that has so many songs in their songbook that are just plain HITS. Even the songs you never hear are hits. Truly an amazing guy and band and when he died the concert tours were over for me. I'm getting old and don't hear well, but I will never stop cranking this as loud as I possibly can in every situation. No one could hold their jock straps. The day the music died indeed.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shepherd on January 19, 2020 at 2:19pm

Fortunately, the music has not died for me. All of the members of Van Halen are still alive, and hopefully doing well. Keep fighting, Eddie. Modern medicine works miracles these days.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 19, 2020 at 6:12pm

Thankfully, Eddie's been riding the med-tech wave for years.

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Permalink Reply by Classic Rock on January 19, 2020 at 4:59pm

December 8, 1980 - John Lennon

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Permalink Reply by Martin Peters on January 19, 2020 at 5:19pm

The notion that the airplane that crashed with Buddy Holly on board was named "American Pie" is an urban legend started after the release of Don McLean's song. At least that is how Snopes: Fact Checks calls it...

"The airplane, chartered through Dwyer’s Flying Service in Clear Lake, Iowa, had no name. Its only designation was its wing registration number, N3794N. How the rumor that its name was American Pie (thus providing Don McLean the title for his song) started circulating is unknown, but it is undeniably false. As Don McLean himself said in 1999: “The growing urban legend that ‘American Pie’ was the name of Buddy Holly’s plane the night it crashed, killing him, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, is equally untrue. I created the term.”

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 19, 2020 at 5:35pm

Ooopps...I'll change that!

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shepherd on January 19, 2020 at 5:42pm

Do you have an answer to the original question posted?

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Permalink Reply by Martin Peters on January 19, 2020 at 8:04pm

The most painful for me were Pete Ham of Badfinger and John Lennon. But technically it may have been the day MTV hit the airwaves eventually clearing the way for substance to be replaced by show.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on January 20, 2020 at 4:08pm

Bitterly ironic the first video played was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. It truly ushered in a dark age in the music industry. One can't help but wonder if we would have ever heard of Bob Dylan or countless others if they had come up after MTV was introduced.