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 Memorial Album Ritchie Valens Memorial Album Ritchie Valens Memorial Album is the first greatest hits compilation by Ritchie Valens, featuring his first three charted hits plus tracks from the previous three albums. The original album was issued with a black album cover and the same photo of Valens from his second album "Ritchie". A few months later, the album was retitled "Ritchie Valens, His Greatest Hits" and repackaged with a white album cover and a photo of Ritchie taken from his Del-Fi EP "Ritchie Valens Sings" (DFEP-1111). Both issues include the same back cover and album contents. All tracks composed by Ritchie