Tag Archives: ritchie-valens

Sixty-six years ago today, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died when their plane crashed following a show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. It’s a seminal moment in Boomer mythology that Don McLean coined “The Day the Music Died” in his 1971 hit “American Pie,” …

Ritchie Valens was just 17 years old when he changed the course of pop music in the late 1950s. As the first Mexican-American hitmaker in the U.S., he laid the groundwork for Chicano rock and beyond, with an enduring legacy that continues to inspire generation after generation— from legends like …