Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, presents its annual “Winter Dance Party” Feb. 3-5. The opening act features music legend Don McLean, who will be launching his “American Pie 50th Anniversary World Tour.”
The old music hall in Clear Lake will be rockin’ with memories.
Don McLean, now 76, said that 2022 is “the 50th anniversary of his ‘American Pie’ recording making it to No. 1 on the Billboard chart.” He said he’s “thrilled to perform with his band at the Surf,” because the event is way more than just a music concert. Here’s why:
McLean’s classic ballad “American Pie” memorializes the death of rock’n’roll singer Buddy Holly, who perished in a single-engine airplane crash early in the morning of Feb. 3, 1959, only minutes after takeoff from Clear Lake.
McLean’s song said that tragedy was “the day the music died.”
Buddy Holly, just 22, was
the headliner on the “1959 Winter Dance Party” tour. Artists were scheduled to
perform in 24 towns in 24 days – crisscrossing six upper Midwestern states in a
worn-out bus with a malfunctioning heater.
On a cold and blustery night on Feb. 2, 1959, the bus limped into Clear Lake, Iowa. The performers got off, thawed out and delivered one heck of a show that brought the house down.
Even before the final curtain, Holly had arranged to charter a small airplane to carry him and band members Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup on to the next venue in Moorhead, Minn.
The fare was fairly dear – $36 per passenger – but it sure beat the anguish of a grueling 365-mile bus trip in frigid weather.
The plot thickened. Jennings
was persuaded to give up his seat on the flight to Jiles Perry “The Big Bopper”
Richardson Jr., who complained of having flu-like symptoms. Young teen heart throb
Ritchie Valens begged for Allsup’s seat. Allsup agreed to let a coin toss
settle it. Valens won.
The 21-year-old pilot of the 1947 Beechcraft 35 Bonanza departed from the municipal airport about 12:55 a.m. with “light snow and winds from 20 to 30 mph.” The plane smashed into the ground within a matter of minutes. Authorities said that all aboard were killed instantly in Albert Juhl’s cornfield.
The music didn’t really die, and Buddy Holly’s greatness grows stronger every day, hey, hey.
Radio station KZEV in Clear Lake went on the air in 1978, and its main DJ was Darryl Hensley, dubbed “The Mad Hatter.” One day, Hensley told listeners: “Buddy Holly has just walked into the studio.”
Hensley pretended to have
a conversation with Buddy Holly, who suggested the idea of holding a memorial
concert at the Surf in 1979 on the 20th anniversary of his death. (Hensley said
Elvis Presley was in the studio, too, and Elvis uttered: “Yeah, man, we got to
do this for Buddy.”
The Mad Hatter
Hensley agreed to put the show together, but the original slate of entertainers for the first commemorative concert cancelled just six weeks prior to the show. In a near panic, Hensley turned to his radio DJ friend, Robert Weston Smith, and asked for help.
Smith contacted some folks and managed to book a few acts so the show could go on – Del Shannon, The Drifters, Jimmy Clanton, The Whitesidewalls and Niki Sullivan, who was the original guitar player with Buddy Holly’s band, the Crickets.
Who was this guy who came
to Mad Hatter’s rescue?
No comments:
Post a Comment