Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets the position of lead singer with the group in 1961. He would remain through early 1965. Tommy Allsup, the guitarist who had toured with Holly during the fateful Winter Dance Party frequently played with the band. Singing star and Liberty records artist Bobby Vee had a number of connections with Holly and the Crickets. After Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in the tragic February 1959 plane crash, Fargo, North Dakota teenager Bobby Vee was among several local young musicians recruited to join the rest of the Winter Dance Party tour, beginning with the next scheduled
The Big Bopper of the upcoming musical acts in both the print and television versions of Stephen King's short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" about a town inhabited by late musical legends. Buddy Holly is subsequently featured in the story. The Canadian television comedy show "SCTV" featured a character named "Sue Bopper-Simpson", a fictional daughter of the Big Bopper, played by Catherine O'Hara. The character was a part-time real estate agent who appeared in a musical titled "I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It on Right, and No Guy's Gonna Tell Me That It Ain't". Shortly after the