American rock Building Sound and the polished production values of soul, have been seen as influencing the Merseybeat sound, particularly the early work of The Beatles, and through them and others the form of later rock music. Some historians of music have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, particularly the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector. 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 Big Bopper (1955-2010). His son Jay Perry Richardson (1959-2013) was born two months later in April 1959. Richardson had been building a recording studio in his home in Beaumont, Texas and was planning to invest in a radio station. He had written 20 new songs that he planned to record himself or with other artists. His son also followed a musical career and was known professionally as "The Big Bopper, Jr.", performing around the world. He toured on the "Winter Dance Party" tour with Buddy Holly impersonator John Mueller on some of the same stages where his father had performed. In January