Frankie Sardo Frankie Sardo Frank Sardo Avianca (September 16, 1936 – February 26, 2014), who performed as Frankie Sardo, was an American rock and roll singer, actor and film producer. He was a member of the ill-fated Winter Dance Party in 1959 after which Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson lost their lives in a plane crash the morning after a show in Clear Lake, Iowa. He was born Frank Marco Sardo on September 16, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York, into an Italian-American family. His father, Marco Sardo Sr. was a bricklayer and his mother Anita (Avianca) Sardo,
American Pie (song) of the crash that killed Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, that writing the first verse of the song exorcised his long-running grief over Holly's death and that he considers the song to be "a big song ... that summed up the world known as America". McLean dedicated the "American Pie" album to Holly. It was also speculated that the song contains numerous references to post-World War II American events (such as the murders of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner), and elements of culture, including 1960s culture (e.g. sock hops, cruising, Bob Dylan, The