Many thanks to Roddy for letting us know ! And thanks to Lothar as well !
Because of the 60th anniversary of the tragic plane crash on
3.2.1959 Bear Family publishes the following CDs:
" T H E G R E A T T R A G E D Y "
Various Artists: The Great Tragedy - Winter Dance Party 1959 (CD)
1-CD with 24-page booklet, 40 tracks, including six radio broadcasts.
Total playing time 78:32 mins.
• Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash.
• February 3, 1959 will always be remembered as ‘the day the music died.’
• Tribute CD with key titles from these rock ‘n’ roll stars.
• Plus sides by the surviving artists incl. Dion & The Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, Waylon Jennings, et al.
• Plus tribute songs and radio broadcasts.
• Newly mastered with liner notes from music expert, Bill Dahl.
February 3, 1959 will always be remembered as ‘the day the music died.’ On that frigid occasion, a small plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper crashed in a frozen Iowa field, killing all touring three rock and roll luminaries and their pilot.
Bear Family’s posthumous tribute disc to the tragedy brings together some of their greatest recordings on this one-of-a-kind collection, along with key sides from the surviving participants of the tour—Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo, Waylon Jennings, even Debbie Stevens, whose cover of If You Can’t Rock Me is an unheralded classic.
There are also a series of tribute songs to the fallen triumvirate by Eddie Cochran, Ray Campi, Benny Barnes, and Hershel Almond, as well as excerpts from period radio broadcasts relaying the devastating news.
Rock and roll would never be the same—it had forever lost its innocence—but the seminal music that Buddy, Ritchie, and the Bopper gave us will never grow old.
1-CD Digipak (6-plated) with 40-page booklet, 36 tracks.
Playing time approx. 73 mns.
• February 3 commemorates the anniversary of the death of Ritchie Valens.
• In retrospect, the young rocker had only eight months to record his entire work.
• We pay tribute to this great musician by including him in our ‘Rocks!’ CD-series.
• Included are his three hit records as well as a plethora of other great gems.
• Newly mastered; extensive liner notes by expert writer, Bill Dahl.
Eight months is a tremendously slim timespan to build a legacy. Yet that’s all the time Ritchie Valens had to create his classic recordings, which remain revered around the world. Valens made his first sides for Del-Fi label producer Bob Keane in May of 1958, and on February 3, 1959, he was killed in the tragic plane crash that also took the lives of Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper.
In that all-too-brief period, Ritchie scored three indelible hits—his debut single Come On, Let’s Go and a blockbuster double-sided single pairing Donna and La Bamba.
The teenager certainly knew how to rock, and his Bear Family disc does precisely that as Valens storms through his aforementioned hits and a plethora of other spicy gems:
Hurry Up, Ooh! My Head, Rockin’ All Night, Dooby Dooby Wah,
various alternate takes, and plenty more.
As a special bonus, we’ve included both sides of Donna Ludwig’s rare tribute single to her departed boyfriend, touchingly closing the CD.
