{"id":201899,"date":"2025-06-21T06:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T06:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/201899\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T06:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T06:53:14","slug":"the-bizarre-first-tribute-to-the-day-the-music-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/201899\/","title":{"rendered":"The bizarre first tribute to ‘The Day the Music Died’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'Three<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Album Cover)<\/p>\n

Sat 21 June 2025 0:00, UK <\/p>\n

Has \u2018the music\u2019 ever really died? Well, I\u2019m writing for a music publication, and you\u2019re reading it, so I\u2019d fucking well hope it\u2019s alive and kicking. <\/p>\n

Yes, there have been crimes committed against music that make you lose all hope for its future, and if you want to get pedantic, then yes, April 21st, 2011, was the exact date when Leeds-based post-Britpop<\/a> band The Music called it quits. Other than that, music was in good health last time I checked, and I think it\u2019s got a few years left as things stand.<\/p>\n

However, if we\u2019re talking about the historic event that purports to be \u201cthe day the music died\u201d, then we\u2019re talking about the death of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly<\/a> and The Big Bopper in a plane crash on February 3rd, 1959. Undoubtedly, it\u2019s regarded as one of the greatest tragedies in the history of rock and roll, and indeed the entertainment industry, and to lose three famous figures in one incident was something that shook fans around the world.<\/p>\n

Tributes poured in for all of these fallen icons, and still to this day, the event is referred to by its ominous nickname despite there having been no instant cessation to musical activity in its aftermath. If anything, more music was born after this fateful incident, and the lives of these three musicians have been honoured in the form of many a song, either recounting the harrowing events that unfolded or simply praising the works that they offered during their short time on earth.<\/p>\n

Of course, the most famous example of this is Don McLean\u2019s \u2018American Pie\u2019<\/a>, an eight-minute epic that not only directly references \u201cthe day the music died\u201d, but ties in many other culturally significant moments from the history of rock and roll. However, it was far from the first tribute to Valens, Holly and The Big Bopper to exist, having been released in 1971, and there was one in particular that gained plenty of attention mere months after their passing.<\/p>\n

In April of 1959, Tommy Dee wrote and recorded \u2018Three Stars\u2019 with singer Carol Kay, and while the song received little attention at the time, it would be covered by Indiana country artist Ruby Wright, becoming a minor hit in the UK. The song is unusual in its tone, coming across as overly sentimental and trite in its tribute, despite its good intentions, and features horrendously overwrought spoken word verses from radio DJ Dick Pike, who extols the virtues of each of the victims who have now become the titular \u2018Three Stars\u2019.<\/p>\n

Despite reaching the top 20, the BBC didn\u2019t take a shining to the song at all, and didn\u2019t like the fact that there was such a morbid subject matter not-so-subtly hidden in the midst of all of the saccharine sentimentality, and chose to ban the song from being played on their airwaves after calling it a \u201cnauseating piece of material\u201d. It may not be in poor taste, but it left executives with a sense of unease and was therefore denied further exposure.<\/p>\n

For an even spookier coincidence, fellow rock and roll icon Eddie Cochran would cover the song later the same year, and less than a year later would die in a car accident aged only 21. His version of the song wasn\u2019t released until 1966, but you can audibly hear him weeping openly during the take, as if an already grief-filled song didn\u2019t need an extra layer of eeriness.<\/p>\n

If you ask me, the song is a bizarre meeting of Vera Lynn\u2019s \u2018We\u2019ll Meet Again\u2019 for its generally sappy overtones, The Shangri-Las\u2019 \u2018Leader of the Pack\u2019 for its pop-song-cum-tragedy delivery, and \u2018Back Home\u2019 as sung by the 1970 England World Cup squad for its simplistic football terrace-esque melody line, and none of these are a compliment. However, what can\u2019t be denied is that it remains the first tribute to \u201cthe day the music died\u201d, and aside from its musical transgressions, the decision to remove it from the radio was something that wouldn\u2019t fly, even with today\u2019s supposedly rash approach to \u2018cancel culture\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n

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Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Album Cover) Sat 21 June 2025 0:00, UK Has \u2018the music\u2019 ever really died?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[81483,77,269,81484,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-201899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-buddy-holly","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-the-day-the-music-died","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114720040977094274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}