THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED - RITCHIE VALENS - and LINK TO RITCHIE VALENS OFFICIAL

FROM OUR ARCHIVES OCTOBER 6, 2007  THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!

RITCHIE VALENS died in that plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.

Alan Freed, a pioneer in Rock and Roll, who held big stage shows in New York City where many of my peers performed, got ahold of Richie Valens and asked him to appear. Ritchie was just a kid with a chaperone, but we all wanted to meet him and considered him part of our Rock and Roll family. I was there when Ritchie performed in New York, and he was a total pro at 17. Everyone wanted to meet him. We didn't care that he was Mexican-American, not at all. Among us he was one of the firsts who came out of California - Los Angeles - The San Fernando Valley - a place that would become more important to many of us as the years went on! We might have been more curious about him on that basis! We were a lot of Southern boys there in the Big Apple!

Ritchie had the hit "Donna,"a soft ballad, in 1958, and there's been a movie made about his life, "La Bamba."

NEW LINK RITCHIE VALENS OFFICIAL


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NEW VIDEO!
 

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED - BUDDY KNOX AND BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS AND ME (part one)

FROM OUR ARCHIVES OCTOBER 6, 2007  THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!

Many of you have heard the song called "American Pie," also known as The Day The Music Died song, performed and written by singer-songwriter Don Mclean. The lyrics which are a bit of a puzzle to the uninitiated are meant to honor three early Rock n' Rollers whose influence was profound, and who were killed in a small plane crash over Mason City, Iowa.

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Knox and I were traveling on tour. After a late night we got up and went to breakfast. I ran to get the newspaper and was shocked to see the headline. Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson also known as JP), and Ritchie Valens had been killed in a plane crash. The three men had been trying to make time on their own road tour. Buddy Knox ran for the men's room and threw up his breakfast.

Buddy Knox and Buddy Holly had been good friends in New York and the had Texas roots and musical influences in common. Buddy Knox had sent the song "That'll Be The Day" over to Buddy Holly rather than record it himself, and was happy when Buddy Holly had a hit with it.

I'd met Buddy Knox and some of the other Crickets in New York City. I thought of Buddy Holly as a zany guy. On this tour he had left the Crickets behind.

Friends, there's no way we can honor all three Rock n Rollers on just one blog entry, so we're going to post separately, one for Buddy Holly, one for JP, and one for Ritchie. Stick with us! We're having a great time posting our blog, we're excited about it, and we know those of you who aren't familiar with my era are getting a real lesson - we hope a fun one - out of it.



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BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS - BIG BOPPER - RITCHIE VALENS AND DION AND THE BELMONTS

At the time that I was signed by United Artists, I became friends with a group of guys who liked to hang out in diners and plan their musical careers.  The group included Dion as well as Buddy Knox and Bobby Darin.

RITCHIE VALENS : SMITHSONIAN HONORED HIM WITH AN EXHIBIT : NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE HONORED

RITCHIE VALENS OFFICIAL SITE link here!  (The family is involved in this site and has an interesting news portion!)

Smithsonian Exhibit for Ritchie Valens


"The National Museum of The American Indian presented "Up Where We Belong" an Exhibit of Native Americans who have contributed to American Music, This exhibit sponsored by the Smithsonian in New York City, presented a wonderful tribute. Congratulations to all the inductees. Connie and Irma Ritchie's sisters attended along with Irma's husband Randy.

On loan to the Museum are Ritchie's Gold Records, Donna and La Bamba, there is also a nice poster on dispaly with Ritchie's photo and information on his achievements. The Museum also opened an inter-active video area where visitors can view footage on all the indectees. For Ritchie there is short documentary with Ritchie's siblings speaking about Ritchie's music and archival photos..

Ritchie's mother would have been proud that her Indian Heritage has been honored through her son and his music."

RITCHIE VALENS IN CONCERT AT PACOIMA JR. HIGH : SLEEPWALK

THE GRAMMY MUSEUM GIFT STORE : BEACH BOYS - DICK DALE - PHIL SPECTOR - RONETTES - RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS - RITCHIE VALENS

WOW!  Christine here.  You know how I looove the Grammy Museum!  I usually post after a visit there. 

Here are some great CDs and one pressed vinyl album that you can buy at the GRAMMY MUSEUM shop.  We're pretty sure that you can go to the shop to shop without paying to tour the museum if you just want to shop and make a visit another time and there are always greeters at the door so ask!

 
BEACH BOYS PET SOUNDS
Includes A 180 gram VINYL RECORD LIMITED EDITION from the Capitol Records Vault!

THE VERY BEST OF DICK DALE  (Surf Music!)

PHIL SPECTOR - WALL OF SOUND - 1961-1966 includes
DARLENE LOVE
THE RONETTES
THE CRYSTALS
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS

THE COMPLETE RITCHIE VALENS includes unfinished songs and live at Pacoima High School - 35 songs!

If you're interested in reading past posts here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC about any of these artists, please use the Google Search feature to bring them up! 

GRAMMY MUSEUM : THE BEACH BOYS and WHITNEY HOUSTON EXHIBITS

GRAMMY MUSEUM - BEACH BOYS EXHIBIT

Christine here! 

Last weekend I went to the GRAMMY MUSEUM, one of my favorite places in Los Angeles.  I wanted to see the Beach Boy's exhibit, celebrating their 50 years in the business and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.  The exhibit was one long wall and featured a number of guitar reproductions and copies rather than originals, which I understood but felt disappointed by.  Turns out my visit was about the time the Beach Boys were breaking up - again!

AISHA HARRIS of SLATE  "This is only the latest incident in years of public disagreements (and lawsuits) between cousins Love and Wilson over, among other things, writing credits and publishing rights. When the band reunited for the first time in years at the Grammys this past February, the buzz for fans was built around anticipation for a tour that would see all the surviving members on stage again. But even back in June, with the shows in full swing, trouble was brewing: Love had added some South American dates for the fall that would not include the other guys. “That’s news to me,” Wilson told Rolling Stone at the time."

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE AT SLATE

One of the most fabulous things about the GRAMMY MUSEUM is the interactive computer screens which allow you to locate music in history, by genre, and by artist, AND ALL THAT SOUND SAMPLING.  It's truly an exciting educational experience.

Of great interest to me also is the costuming that various artists wore.  Really, anyone studying fashion in the area should visit the museum every few months.  The last time I visited the museum I got chills when I saw the simple red jacket that Ritchie Valens wore in his publicity photos,  and costumes worn on stage by Michael Jackson and Neil Diamond have been featured in the past.  
This time it was the WHITNEY HOUSTON exhibit that caught my attention.  Now I have to admit I'm not a Whitney Houston fan, but then I'm not that much into the "power singers."  As I looked at her costumes and read about her career, which I knew near nothing about, I learned that no one had won more Grammy's than Whitney. 

As a woman I looked at the costumes and realized that she was about my size but I couldn't help but try on the fact that she had achieved more than the vast majority of us, and yet she had lost it all.  I listened as other museum goers discussed what really was the problem with Whitney.  Was it her husband?  Drugs?  Drugs and her husband? Or maybe simply FAME?  It brought tears to my eyes to think of it.

The museum also has a WOODY GUTHRIE EXHIBIT going on right now, and let me tell you, if you happen to be reading this and are in Los Angeles, you can take METRO there and not worry about parking or parking fees around the Staples Center area.

RITCHIE VALENS : WE BELONG TOGETHER : 1956

RITCH VALENS : ORIGINAL STUDIO SESSIONS RECORDING LA BAMBA

RITCHIE VALENS AT PACOIMA HIGHSCHOOL : HIS SCHOOL

Nothing like going back to your high school to play for the kids. (I played at my high school in Murphy, North Carolina.)

RITCHIE VALENS : LATINO ROCK AND ROLL PIONEER

LINK ABOVE TO THE OFFICIAL RITCHIE VALENS SITE! (There is a Donna photogallery!)

WE CELEBRATE EARLY ROCK AND ROLL PIONEERS : BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS, J.P. RICHARDSON

Tomorrow, the 3rd, is the day some call "THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED" because its the anniversary of the plane crash that killed three early rock' n rollers who were on tour together. I met Buddy Holly in New York and I was on tour with Buddy Knox when the plane crashed. I also got to record with a couple of the Crickets left behind backing me.

So I was there and shocked like everyone else in my early rock 'n roll generation. Of course the music didn't really die. So many others carried on the music.

For the last couple years here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC, we've tried to post some videos that we think are special as our celebration and we always link to sites that can give you more information, as a kind of tribute to these musicians, these singer-songwriters.

We're going to post over a three day period, starting tomorrow, on Buddy, Ritchie, and J.P Richardson.

Wes

THREE STARS sung by TOMMY DEE : THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED : A TRIBUTE VIDEO PUT UP ON THE NET BY A RITCHIE VALENS FAN!

Tribute to Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and J.P Richardson (the Big Bopper) and Roger Peterson (The Plane's Pilot!) includes radio broadcast announcing the tragic crash. Featuring Tommy Dee performing the song "3 Stars."

We're linking to the video posting website on Myspace called GOTTALOVERITCHIE! This fan site is approved by Ritchie's brother in Pacoima, California, up the road from us. I met Ritchie in New York back stage of a big Alan Freed Rock n Roll show!

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED CELEBRATION

In celebration of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper, we'd like you to use the Google Search feature on this blog to check out are posts from 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. Just enter the name of the artist and up comes some classic WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC posts!

BUDDY HOLLY THE BIG BOPPER RITCHIE VALENS POSTER FOR THE LAST PERFORMANCE

SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED - Part of WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC HISTORY! Use the Google Search This Blog Feature!

(293) HOLLYWOOD RECORDING STUDIO : DEL-FI LABEL BOB KEANE

Del-Fi was a small label owned by BOB KEANE, who passed away December 1, 2009.

He was the man who signed Ritchie Valens and if you've seen the bio-pic about Ritchie called La Bamba, you know that his records were recorded simply, without a lot of equipment. Yet, as you can hear on the Youtube video below, very simply, the no frills appoach showed just how good Ritchie was.



Bob went on to also produce the successful surf band, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, who we blogged a bit about last summer when we were talking about the surf music sound, and even a young Frank Zappa.

We're linking to an article from LA Observed about Bob... He also wrote a memoir...

1959 PLANE CRASH YOUTUBE VIDEO

Buddy Knox and I were on tour when the news reached us.

RITCHIE VALENS LIVE SINGING DONNA

I met Ritchie in New York backstage of one of Alan Freed's Rock and Roll concerts.



Christine here: Check out my blog about the Grammy Museum and Ritchie!

LINK ABOVE to the official RITCHIE VALENS SITE!

(292) FEBRUARY 3 1959 BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS, and the BIG BOPPER

Today is the 51st anniversary of the plane crash that killed three of the biggest rock n rollers in their time...

We've blogged about these men before (and you may want to use the Google search feature to scan this blog for previous posts.)

This year we decided to post some videos throughout the day to celebrate their talent and contribution to music ...

A CELEBRATION of THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

In honor of the Big Bopper - J.P. Richardson, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens, we're posting videos on our YouTube station (to the left in the sidebar) as well as a great number of posts on February 3, 2010.

You can also use the Google search feature to read past posts on these artists!

We want to thank the YOUTUBE CONTRIBUTORS who make such historical music/video posts possible!

As we see it the MUSIC of the 1950's never really died. Not with artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones covering tunes!