On February 3, 1959, the plane on which Holly was flying, crashed outside Macon City, [[Iowa]]. Killed were Holly and two other rock and roll singers, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Don McLean, a friend of both the Big Bopper and Holly, wrote the song ''American Pie'' to commemorate their death. The song refers to February 3 as "[[The Day the Music Died|the day the music died]]."<ref>[http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/pie.html Bob Dearborn's original analysis of Don McLean's song ''American Pie'']</ref><ref>[http://understandingamericanpie.com/ Understanding ''American Pie'']</ref> | On February 3, 1959, the plane on which Holly was flying, crashed outside Macon City, [[Iowa]]. Killed were Holly and two other rock and roll singers, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Don McLean, a friend of both the Big Bopper and Holly, wrote the song ''American Pie'' to commemorate their death. The song refers to February 3 as "[[The Day the Music Died|the day the music died]]."<ref>[http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/pie.html Bob Dearborn's original analysis of Don McLean's song ''American Pie'']</ref><ref>[http://understandingamericanpie.com/ Understanding ''American Pie'']</ref> |