Music history of the United States in the 1970s most successful singer-songwriter artists were Jackson Browne, Eric Carmen, Jim Croce, John Denver, Steve Goodman, Arlo Guthrie, Joel, Dave Mason, Don McLean, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Taylor and Neil Young. Some artists — including King, Kris Kristofferson and Gordon Lightfoot — had previously been primarily songwriters but began releasing albums and songs of their own. King's album "Tapestry" became one of the top-selling albums of the decade, and the song "It's Too Late" became one of the 1970s biggest songs. McLean's 1971 song "American Pie," inspired by the death of Buddy Holly, became one of popular music's most-recognized songs of
The Killer Rocks On Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper, who perished in a plane crash with Buddy Holly in 1959. Lewis had his doubts about recording the song but, as he explains in the "A Half Century of Hits" essay, his manager convinced him: “Sam Phillips’s brother, Jud, was managing me. He was well oiled on that session...I told him I didn’t even know 'Chantilly Lace.' He said, ‘Well, make it up.’ I did one take on it.” Producer Jerry Kennedy recalled of the sessions to Lewis biographer Nick Tosches, "He wanted everybody there. He didn't want anything overdubbed later. It was