Fifty years ago today three musicians climbed onto a plane and if you know the song 'American Pie', you know what happened next although the lyrics don't mention underpants which is the reason why music died that day.
While on the Winter Dance Party Tour, the organisers added a last minute date on February 2 and Buddy Holly moaned that he had been wearing the same outfit for days and had run out of clean underpants so Holly suggested he and his band charter a plane to get to the next city early to find a laundrette.
In an early Final Destination type moment, Buddy's bassist kindly gave his seat to the Big Bopper Richardson as he had a cold and Ritchie Valens won a coin toss with Buddy's guitarist and took his seat.
Due to a combination of adverse weather conditions and an inexperienced pilot, fate stuck it's oar in and within minutes of taking off the scene was set for driving your Chevy to the levee to join them good ole boys drinking whisky and rye singing this'll be the day that I die.
Being the most famous of the three, Buddy Holly is the one usually most remembered for dying that day and we will never know just how well he would be viewed today if he hadn't died so young but how different it would have been if only he had brought an extra pair of underpants with him on that tour.
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