Various Artists Bundle - The Great Tragedy - Winter Dance Party 1959 - No. 1 & 2 (2-CD)

CD1 - 1-CD with 24-page booklet, 40 single tracks. including six 'Radio Broadcasts', total playing time 78:32 minutes.

- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash.

- February 3, 1959 will always be remembered as 'the day the music died'.

- Tribute CD featuring the most important tracks of these rock 'n' roll stars.

- Plus recordings of artists participating in the 'Winter Dance Party' Dion & The Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, Debbie Stevens and Waylon Jennings.

- Plus tribute songs, an interview with Buddy Holly and the 'breaking news' about the sudden death of the 'Three Stars'

- Remastered and with liner notes by music expert Bill Dahl.

February 3, 1959 will always be remembered as 'the day the music died'. On that day, a small plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper crashed into a frozen field in a snowstorm south of Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all three rock and roll stars and their pilot Roger Peterson. Bear Family's posthumous 60th anniversary tribute CD brings together some of their greatest recordings on this unique compilation, along with key recordings by tour participants - Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, Waylon Jennings and Debbie Stevens, whose 'If You Can't Rock Me' is a now highly sought-after rockabilly classic on original single.

Our second release commemorating the tragic plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper on February 3, 1959.

The second leg of the 'Winter Dance Party' tour is documented for the first time with this CD album.

The promoters allowed the tour to continue seamlessly! Dion & The Belmonts, Frankie Sardo and the Crickets (Buddy Holly's band) from the original tour remained on board.

Replacements for the fatally injured were quickly found: Frankie Avalon, Jimmy Clanton, Fabian, Bobby Vee and his Shadows, and Bill Parsons filled the gaps.

The new tour members were successful young teen idols, hardly your typical shart rock 'n' rollers.

Two more songs dedicated to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper round out this CD. 

 

The fateful 'Winter Dance Party' tour that tragically claimed the lives of the immortal Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper on February 3, 1959 has since been extensively documented, and the recently released CD 'The Great Tragedy - Winter Dance Party 1959' (Bear Family BCD17585) competently covers that part of the story. But what happened next?

The tour went on for a week and a half without even a day off, despite this tragedy. New musicians and stars were quickly signed on, and that first fateful night marked the beginning of the career of teenager Robert Velline (better known as Bobby Vee) and his band The Shadows.

This album picks up where our first CD left off, focusing on the survivors (Dion and The Belmonts, The Crickets and Frankie Sardo) and the replacement stars (Frankie Avalon, Jimmy Clanton, Fabian, Vee and Bill Parsons), as well as two more tribute songs to the triumvirate that perished.