Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper & Richie Valens - In his famous 1971 song "American Pie," Don McLean sings about "The Day the Music Died" - a snowy day in February 1959 when a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza B35 crashed near Clear Lake Iowa, killing three popular American rock and roll singers. Those singers, 22 year-old Charles 'Buddy' Holly, J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson (28) and 17 year-old Ritchie Valens were not initially supposed to be on that plane: The musicians' tour bus had a faulty heater so Holly chartered a plane to get he and his band to the next city. Richardson, who had the flu, asked then back-up singer (and future member of 'The Highwaymen') Waylon Jennings for his seat on the plane. Young Ritchie Valens, singer of the hit "La Bamba," had never flown before and tossed a coin with another of Holly's band mates for the final seat. Hours later, all men aboard that fateful flight would be dead, including the 21 year-old pilot, who was later determined to be partially at fault for the crash. Though many a music icon has been lost in small plane crashes (Patsy Cline, Otis Redding, John Denver) for many, this accident struck a particularly deep chord. As immortalized by McLean, "Something touched me deep inside the day the music died."