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| VisionTV remembers "the day the music died" |
| Posted
on Saturday, January 24, 2009 - 11:23 PM |
Network pays 50th anniversary tribute to Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Feb. 4 & 5.
On the night of Feb. 3, 1959, a four-seat chartered plane left an Iowa airfield bound for Fargo, North Dakota. It crashed a few minutes after takeoff, killing the pilot and all three passengers. Among the dead was Lubbock, Texas native Charles Hardin Holley, better known to the world as Buddy Holly. He was 22 years old.
The crash, which also claimed the lives of performers Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (a.k.a. The Big Bopper), marked the abrupt end to a meteoric career. In a few short years, this preternaturally gifted singer-songwriter produced a series of innovative, indelible recordings that changed the history of popular music. Buddy Holly's hits - among them "Peggy Sue," "Maybe Baby," "Oh Boy!" and "That'll Be the Day" - became rock 'n' roll standards, influencing the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
In 1971, folk singer Don McLean immortalized Holly's sudden death in the song "American Pie," calling it "the day the music died." In February, VisionTV commemorates the 50th anniversary of the tragedy - and celebrates the legacy of a musical great - with a series of special presentations.
Feature Film - The Buddy Holly Story
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT
Gary Busey earned an Academy Award nomination for his electric performance in this 1978 biopic. The film charts Buddy Holly's swift rise to the top, and deals head-on with the racial politics of the music industry - most memorably during a recreation of Holly's famous performance at the all-black Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Busey and his co-stars Don Stroud and Charles Martin Smith (as Holly's sidemen, the Crickets) performed all the music themselves. Joe Renzetti's song score won an Oscar. Steve Rash directed.
** VISIONTV PREMIERE **
Documentary - Buddy Holly and the Music of the Crickets
Wednesday, Feb. 4, Midnight ET / 9 p.m. PT
In October 1955, Buddy Holly's trio opened in Lubbock, Texas for Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and His Comets, catching the attention of a Nashville talent scout. By January, Holly had a record deal and had begun his swift rise to stardom. A prolific and inventive artist, he went on to create a series of landmark recordings that embodied perfectly the upbeat, open-hearted spirit of the young genre known as rock 'n' roll. This hour-long documentary combines archival performance footage and present-day interviews with Holly's friends and fellow performers to reveal how a gangly young Texan became an icon of rock's first generation.
Feature Film - La Bamba
Thursday, Feb. 5, 9 p.m. and Midnight ET / 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. PT
Lou Diamond Phillips (Numb3rs) stars in this big-screen biography of Mexican-American music legend Ritchie Valens, who died in the same plane crash that claimed Buddy Holly. Born into a family of migrant workers, Valens pursued relentlessly his dreams of stardom, rocketing to the top of the charts on the strength of his hit "La Bamba," only to perish while still in his teens. Esai Morales co-stars as Ritchie's resentful half brother. With Rosanna DeSoto, Elizabeth Pena and Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), as well as musicians Marshall Crenshaw (as Buddy Holly) and Brian Setzer (as Eddie Cochran). Valens' songs were re-created for the soundtrack by Latino rockers Los Lobos. Carlos Santana collaborated on the score. Luis Valdez wrote and directed.
Documentary - Buddy Holly and the Music of the Crickets
Friday, Feb. 6, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
See Wednesday, Feb. 4 at Midnight ET.
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