The final episode of this four part series takes a look at some of the conspiracy theories surrounding the fatal plane crash (one that led to the exhumation of The Big Bopper), how rock & roll was saved, and the legacy that raves on.

Partial list of sources:

"The Day The Music Died: The Story of Don McLean's American Pie: American Pie Documentary

VH1's Behind The Music: The Day The Music Died

The Day The Music Died by Larry Lehmer

https://ronfranscell.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/BOPPER_EXHUMED_3-11-2007.pdf

https://www.agweb.com/news/business/farmland/american-pie-reborn-how-iowa-farmer-saved-buddy-holly

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/22/don-mclean-american-pie-its-meaning-family-deaths-tragedy-60s#:~:text=McLean%20wrote%20it%20half%20a%20century%20ago%2C,for%20all%20what%20the%20lyrics%20actually%20mean.

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Music: Saint Kilda Wedding by Harpo Marks

8 and a half hours. For 8 and a half hours, the bodies of four young men lay in a rural field in Iowa, half frozen with snow drifting around them. When these men were discovered, the word would spread far and wide but not take the time to notify loved ones first. How did the families of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, JP Richardson, and Roger Peterson find out about their deaths? And who would ultimately be blamed?

Sources:

Without Walls: Buddy Holly Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJXAErV6X-U

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/buddy-hollys-glasses-lost-since-his-death-in-1959-are-found-in-mason-city-iowahttps://www.405magazine.com/tommy-allsup-fate-and-a-flipped-coin/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIxwW3NbAx4

The Day The Music Died by Larry Lehmer
https://www.ritchievalens.com/ritchie-valens-donna.html#:~:text=Donna%20was%20a%20great%20comfort,Ritchie%20Valens

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-17/eddie-cochran-dies-and-gene-vincent-is-injured-in-a-uk-car-accident

VH1 Behind the Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twz_W-pfusc&t=35s

https://ifr-magazine.com/technique/the-day-the-music-died/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-widows-pique/

https://www.americanbluesscene.com/2025/01/%C2%A2%C3%B7remembering-the-day-the-music-died-the-1959-winter-dance-party-part-two/#:~:text=When%20Buddy%20found%20out%20he,man%2C%20that%27s%20more%20important.%E2%80%9D

https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/buddy-holly-plane-crash-weather
Scott Perdue Flywire-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX555dxBQz0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Vee

Waylon: The Autobiography by Waylon Jennings

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Music: Saint Kilda Wedding by Harpo Marks

A three part series about Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JP Richardson, the Big Bopper. This episode discusses the horrendous conditions the musicians traveled in and under as part of the Winter Dance Party tour, the concert on Feb. 2, 1959 at the Surf Ballroom, and the fateful flight that took their lives along with the life of pilot Roger Peterson.

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Music: Saint Kilda Wedding by Harpo Marks