Feb. 3, 1959 has been dubbed The Day The Music Died ever since Don McLean released the insipid American Pie in the fall of 1971. The song references the plane crash which killed, among others, popular rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson. Holly’s wife, Maria Elena, suffered a miscarriage from traumatic shock after being told of her husband’s death.
The crash could have claimed the life of Waylon Jennings, who was in Holly’s band at the time — but he gave up his seat to The Big Bopper, who was suffering with a cold. Valens got his seat after “winning” a coin toss with Holly’s lead guitarist Tommy Allsup. Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts would have been on the plane if he could have afforded it.
Both Dion and Waylon have penned songs about their brushes with death. There are many songs which reference the event — the first of several times famous rock stars died in plane crashes. It’s pretty macabre, but I thought I’d go through as many as I could find in my own record collection — following a recent acquisition of the debut album by rock-jazz fusion group Chase.
Chase | Aug. 9, 1974
Struggling to recapture the interest and sales of their 1971 debut album, the band Chase were working on a fourth album. Taking a break from recording, they had a gig at the Jackson County Fair in Minnesota. En route to the event, leader Bill Chase, 39, was killed when their chartered twin-engine Piper Twin Comanche crashed while landing in Jackson. Also killed, along with the pilot and a woman, were Chase keyboardist Wally Yohn, drummer Walter Clark and guitarist John Emma.
The Bar-Kays & Otis Redding | Dec. 10, 1967
Rising star Otis Redding was touring with Stax session group The Bar-Kays as his backing band. Redding had just finished a call hom to his wife and kids. They were en route to a show in Madison, Wisconsin. The day before, they appeared on the Cleveland TV show Upbeat and played three gigs in two nights at a club called Leo’s Casino.
Redding, 26, and four members of The Bar-Kays (guitarist Jimmie King, organist Ronnie Caldwell, saxophonist Phalon Jones and drummer Carl Cunningham) died, along with 17 year-old Bar-Kays roadie Matthew Kelly, when the Beechcraft Model 18 they were on crashed into Lake Monona for reasons unknown. Trumpeter Ben Cauley was the only survivor of the crash, while bassist James Alexander was on another plane. The two men successfully rebuilt the group.
Jim Croce | Sept. 20, 1973
Touring singer-songwriter Jim Croce, 30, and five others were killed when their chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed into a tree during takeoff in Natchitoches, Louisiana. It happened an hour after he played Northwestern State University’s Prather Coliseum — and the day before his hit single I Got A Name was released. His next gig would have been at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.
Pilot Robert N. Elliott was also killed, as was Croce’s guitarist and backing vocalist Maury Muehleisen, comedian George Stevens, manager and booking agent Kenneth D. Cortese and road manager Dennis Rast. The 57-year-old Elliott was blamed for the crash, resulting from disorientation and limited visibility due to foggy conditions.
Lynyrd Skynyrd | Oct. 20, 1977
Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd had also just finished a show at Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina. The group boarded a chartered Convair CV-240 en route to Baton Rouge for another concert at Louisiana State University the next night. The band were promoting their new album, Street Survivors, which had come out three days earlier.
The plane ran out of fuel and the pilots attempted an emergency landing. They crashed into thick forest northeast of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Lead vocalist and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines were killed instantly, along with Gaines’ sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot John Gray. Everyone else suffered serious injuries.
The band reunited in 1987 with Johnny Van Zant (Ronnie’s younger brother) on lead vocals and former Skynyrd guitarist Ed King returning. King had left the band two years before the crash.
Reba McEntire’s band | March 16, 1991
She’s not rock ’n’ roll, but I’ll include it anyway. Country star Reba McEntire was on tour with her band and entourage. The road band required two planes, while McEntire, her husband, their stylist and manager flew in a third. McEntire’s husband got a call from the pilot of the second plane telling him that the first had crashed. It turns out the wing of the British Aerospace BAe 125 clipped the side of Otay Mountain just east of the airport in San Diego, killing everyone on board — including eight members of her band.
McEntire dedicated her next album, that fall, to their memory. Ten people were killed: Pilot Donald Holmes, co-pilot Chris Hollinger, and musicians Chris Austin, Kirk Cappello, Joey Cigainero, Paula Kaye Evans, Jim Hammon, Terry Jackson, Anthony Saputo and Michael Thomas.
Aaliyah | Aug. 25, 2001
R&B singer and actress Aaliyah Dana Haughton, 22, and eight others on board were killed when the overloaded twin-engine Cessna 402 crashed and caught fire shortly after takeoff from the Marsh Airport in the Bahamas. They had just finished shooting a video for her song Rock The Boat and were en route to Florida. They weren’t scheduled to leave until the next day on the same larger plane they arrived on. But, having finished work early, the entourage were keen to get back to the States. They opted for the Cessna 402 instead of waiting for the Cessna 404.
The pilot, Luis Morales, reportedly warned them the plane had too many passengers and equipment to fly safely. Investigation revealed the plane had one too many passengers and was 700 lbs overweight. Additionally, the pilot lacked proper qualifications to fly it. He, Aaliyah, hair stylists Eric Forman and Anthony Dodd, security guard Scott Gallin, family friend Keith Wallace, make-up stylist Christopher Maldonado and Blackground Records employees Douglas Kratz and Gina Smith were all killed in the crash. The video they shot in the Bahamas was released on Oct. 9, 2001.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
