GONN an airplane crash took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and their young pilot on February 3, 1959, "the Day the Music Died". Spurred by "Project GONN" of The PSPOT (an internet-based resource dedicated to the '60s music underground), a grassroots campaign led to the nomination of GONN in The Iowa Music Association Hall Of Fame And Museum. The band was inducted in a ceremony in 2004 and, as with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was celebrated with a live concert by the inductees. The IRRMA post on the induction of GONN describes the
Dion and the Belmonts February 3rd 1959, the plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, with Holly, Valens, The Big Bopper, and the pilot, Roger Peterson, all being killed. Bobby Vee, then an unknown artist, performed in Holly’s place at the very next concert. Later, Jimmy Clanton, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian were hired to finish the tour in place of the three deceased headliners. As of January 11, 2017 with the death of Holly's tour guitarist Tommy Allsup, Dion is the lone surviving member of the original Winter Dance Party lineup (The lone surviving Belmont, Angelo D'Aleo, was not on the tour as he was