Rock music roll. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become a preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an
Ritchie Valens (album) Ritchie Valens (album) Ritchie Valens is the first album by Ritchie Valens, posthumously released by Del-Fi Records in March 1959, one month after his death in a plane crash. It is his only studio album entirely composed of master tracks recorded at Gold Star Studios. The album peaked at #23 on the "Billboard" album chart. The original pressings are black and sea green with circles around the outer edge. The print font for the track listings on these labels is the same font used on the back of the album cover. Later pressings feature black labels with gold and sea