Mason City, Iowa city of Mason City, it does serve other communities in the Mason City micropolitan statistical area. The Iowa Northern has facilities in Manly, Iowa. The city also has a municipal airport, Mason City Municipal Airport, (MCW) with commercial service by Air Choice One. It is the airport from which Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper took off on the night of February 2, 1959, after a concert at the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake, Iowa, only to crash their plane in a historic event later referred to as the Day the Music Died. Mason City, Iowa, and
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