Rockabilly 1959. Then in April 1960, while touring with Gene Vincent in the UK, their taxi crashed into a concrete lamp post, killing Eddie at the young age of 21. The grim coincidence in this all was that his posthumous UK number-one hit was called "Three Steps to Heaven". Rockabilly music enjoyed great popularity in the United States during 1956 and 1957, but radio play declined after 1960. Factors contributing to this decline are usually cited as the 1959 death of Buddy Holly in an airplane crash (along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper), the induction of Elvis Presley into
Ritchie Valens Memorial Album Valens; except where indicated 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