Bobby Vee "The Day the Music Died," three of the four headline acts in the lineup of the traveling Winter Dance Party—Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper—were killed in the crash of a V-tailed 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza airplane, along with the 21-year-old pilot, Roger Peterson. (Dion DiMucci, the fourth headliner, had opted not to travel on the plane.) It crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, en route to the next show on the tour itinerary, in Moorhead, Minnesota. Velline, then 15 years old, and a hastily assembled band of Fargo schoolboys (including his older brother Bill) calling themselves the Shadows volunteered
Rock and Roll Heaven number four. The lyrics involving Jim Croce and Bobby Darin replaced Climax's lyrics for Buddy Holly ("Peggy Sue") and Ritchie Valens ("Donna"), both of whom died in a plane crash that had already been commemorated by another hit song, Don McLean's "American Pie." Also, in 1981, when the Righteous Brothers appeared for a one song reunion on "American Bandstand", they performed "Rock and Roll Heaven", and made it longer including new lyrics as tributes to Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Keith Moon. It was rewritten with new lyrics in 1991 to mourn the passing of Elvis Presley (Love Me Tender),