The Solitaires the Paramount along with Frankie Avalon, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper. They never got to meet Holly or the Big Bopper, as both were killed in a plane crash that February. The group disbanded temporarily in 1961 when Milton Love joined the army for two years. Although they were popular in New York and several of their singles had been regional hits, they had not had a national chart hit. This was likely due to poor distribution by Old Town. Their signature song, "Walking Along", was a local chart hit in the New York area in 1957. When a
Ritchie Valens In Concert at Pacoima Jr. High was taped using a small portable tape recorder. After Valens' untimely death on February 3, 1959, numerous Ritchie Valens Fan Clubs were formed all over the nation. By late 1960, with no further records released since the "Ritchie" album a year before, his manager Robert Keane received letters en masse from fan club members who were hoping there were more of Valens' songs to be released. Keane responded by obtaining the tape of four songs from the Pacoima Junior High show and pressing it to record. To fill the "live" side of the album, an early demo of "Come On,