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
Don McLean the albums "You've Got to Share", "Don McLean Sings Marty Robbins" and "The Western Album" for his own Don McLean Music label. "Addicted to Black" was released in May 2009. McLean's other well-known songs include the following. The "American Pie" album features a version of Psalm 137, entitled "Babylon". The song is based on a canon by Philip Hayes and was arranged by McLean and Lee Hays (of The Weavers). "Babylon" was performed in the "Mad Men" episode of the same name despite the fact that the song would not be released until 10 years after the time in which